The oranges down here, naranja monte, are more yellow than orange. They have a light taste like watered down orange juice, but otherwise good and the three of them cost 8.08 mxn (.42¢).Another project tackled today was to add a second preventer so that I’ll have one dedicated to port and starboard. They can also be used with the whisker pole and so forth.

Finished preventers – these are the end where the 8-plait or three-strand rope attach to (and then run to blocks at the bow, and back to the cockpit). The aft ends are luggage tagged around the end of the boom and are only about 10-feet long (the boom is 11.5-feet, by the way). As 1/4″ Dyneema has a breaking strength of 8,400-pounds, you need to add a ‘fuse’ so that you don’t snap neither the boom or mast. Starboard is three-strand and Port is 8-plait rope – both of which are very shock absorbing. They are both run to Harken cam cleats with a safe working load of 500-pounds. I know from firsthand experience last Friday (Lat: N 31°52’13.0656″ Lon: W 116°48’00.7105″), the rope will pop out of the cam cleat in a worst-case scenario (e.g., when you get your ass handed to you surfing down the face of a 15-foot wave at over 6 knots) instead of breaking anything (like cam cleats, standing rigging, the boom or my head).

As a side note, I did download the entire series of…