We found this guy stowed away under the aft cabin hatch cover. He's been hiding there for perhaps a decade, maybe two. He looks like a retired Stunt Copter pilot. I guess he wants to see the world. He has the Team Red colors; we've taken him into the crew as our new mascot, "Lefty".

Meanwhile, someone picked up a copy of Brion Toss' The Rigger's Apprentice. I'm trying to be better about lashing things and less casual about using random knots.

Our spare Bruce-like anchor "The Claw", had been secured using a random wrapping of small stuff. A kind of epic fail because it's hard to untwist that mess from around the anchor.

With proper Swedish Furling, it's much nicer. It's not much more difficult to tie and it's much, much more fun to untie.

Undo the clove hitch at the bottom, give a yank or two, and the furling drops off nicely, freeing "The Claw" to do its dirty work.

It will take some more practice to get the furling evenly spaced and slack-free. That would mean using the anchor. Which would mean anchoring out, away from the dock.

I think a furling technique like this can be used to secure the dinghy ("Scout") on the foredeck. Right now, we have two big automotive-style tie-down cargo straps. The ratchets are finger-pinchers.