For the time being we have gone back to work. Mango is still based in Spain and cruising to the Balearics so each year is pretty much a repeat of the previous ones so we are not actively maintaining the blog.
This year we learnt the hard way that you need to filter fuel even if it comes from a reputable source (we found rust in our tanks from fuel we got from a marina) and if you are not using a boat regularly you need to empty all your petrol tanks before leaving and clean the tanks as deposits build up.
2017 seems to be a repeat of 2016 for regular Tramontanas and gales from the East.
The upside of being in Spain is that it is warm, being rained on is not a hardship and the seafood is unbelievably fresh after the poor stuff one sees on UK fish counters.
The upside we have found of having Mango is that she is so light she will sail in winds when everyone else is motoring so we can go for a day sail. We put a new main on last year and found that we had more weather helm, put on a new jib this year and the sails are now perfectly balanced so it is probably worth replacing sails as a set if you can.
We have decided to go back to wire shrouds as we have found that the Spectra shrouds are affected by tempreature to a degree that they need regular adjusting which is too much work for a short handed cruising boat unless one invests in some expensive dead eye arrangements.
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