In with the new

Goodbye old main sail, hellooo NEW mainsail!.

by Jessica MacIntosh – Deckhand aboard Sea Dragon.

Sea Dragon has just been outfitted with a brand new main sail! – a day we have been looking forward to for a long time! Jake and Jackson from North Sails were here this week in Hawaii and we helped them put on the new sail, just in time for it to take us on our next journey to Vancouver with eXXpedition

Sea Dragon with eXXpediton guest crew

A lot goes into making a sail, getting it to the boat, on the boat, and up the mast. But first…I think we should pay a little tribute to our old friend – the ol’ main.

Ol’ main came on board (as ‘new main’, of course) in 2014 and has taken Sea Dragon over 60,000 miles including the first ever Exxpedition, across the Atlantic! I was part of ol’ main’s last journey, from Hawaii to Christmas Island, around the Phoenix Islands, then back to Hawaii. Ol’main had a few hard times heading south – we even had to use our bright orange tri’s’l partway from Canton to Christmas Island. But that wasn’t the end for ol’main. Ol’main took us kindly and swiftly back to Hawaii from Christmas Island. Ol’main even survived some rotten citrus baseball (knowing we had new main waiting for us in Hawaii, we decided to creatively dispose of our old fruit). Ol’main seemed to prevail until the very end. You could see the patches, and the zig zag outline of 5200 epoxy throughout the newer patches that needed that ‘extra hold’, and in some places you could see tiny pinprick holes – quite literally you could see through the cloth. But I liked ol’main. Ol’main is a true example of what sailors do: fix what you have until it can no longer be fixed. Many hands over the years and many miles sewed a stitch, made a patch, sweated a halyard, eased a sheet, or laid a flake. You’ve been good to us ol’main, and we’ve tried to be good to you. Now you shall rest. Rest easy ol’main!

Sea Dragon’s Skipper Eric, being cradled by ol’main

ol’main with best friend spinny

ol’main

The new mainsail was made at one of the North Sail lofts in Sri Lanka and made its way to Sea Dragon just in time for our departure. We are three days into our three week journey carrying the 10th eXXpedition mission, aboard Sea Dragon into the North Pacific gyre and onto Vancouver. So far we’ve been in 25-30 knots of wind, and had some squalls with gusts around 35 knots. We currently have two reefs in the main and are sailing as close to the wind as possible. New main is holding up beautifully!

new main

What a perfect first trip to break it in. This 10th eXXpedition is off to a fantastic start – great sailing, a tremendous group of women on board, and lots of anticipation for what we’ll find in the gyre. Lots more updates to come as we approach “plastic island”!

You can follow Sea Dragon’s passage via our blog updates, in real time here, to see where she is; via Pangaea’s instagram, facebook and twitter accounts and also through eXXpedition’s instagram, facebook and twitter accounts.

Enjoy as we bring you virtually along on this latest expedition