I am beginning to see the some light. A padeye would be a fitting mounted on the side of the mast I think, and I and pretty sure I do not have such a piece of hardware.. (we could add it). This why I was thinking of going temporarily under the mast)
Also, we do have 3 sheaves, and the one to starboard is in use for the old reefing
line. The port sheave is empty.
So, the middle sheave which has a
line coming out of it at the mast, the one I do not see an exit
line for on the aft end of the boom, might be the outhaul.
Pulling on that outhaul should tighten the tension of the foot of the sail? If that is so, I am not sure when I put tension on it what it is affecting somewhere to add the tension. I think the tack on the boom is fixed (maybe not), so is it llikely moving something else at the end of the boom??
(I googled "mainsail outhaul" to see if I could get a quick explanation, but no luck).
Hope I am not too far off course!
Thanks again, Saltypat