Interesting night
Associate3
Chris & Katie Russell
Sat 19 Aug 2017 08:45
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29:41.47N 13:02.60W
We has settled really well but the winds were
strenthening and we were experinceing regular gusts of 35 knots and were
reducing sail accordingly. Still under control (we like to think we were) and
surfing down the backs of the waves of the following sea making good progress
when......
The bluewater downwind sail that was rolled up in front
of genoa started to unravel itself from about 2/3rds of the way up - I suspect
that the greater wind gusts had got in behind the roll and a rip occurred
releasing the sail from its sheet bind. We had cable tied the roller reefing
mechanism so that held firm
All hands on deck!
The upshot was that we had to stop and take the flogging
sail down as quickly as possible before it shook itself - or the rig - to
pieces. We tried turning into wind under engine but by now the sail had escaped
too much and would not let the bow come around enough. We then decided to try to
pull it into the boat by winching the sheet down to the back whilst slowly
releasing the halyard. With herculean effort from Paul this started to bear
fruit and we managed to pin it down under some control. David and Paul then went
forwards to then retrieve the sail onto the deck whilst I control the halyard.
All this time we were lying ahull (side onto wind) and shipping lots of
water over the decks
Eventually (an hour?) the sail was put in its bag and
lashed to the decks and some 90 minutes after the incident occurred we gingerly
set a small hankerchief of the genoa and resumed our course
A cup of tea was enjoyed by the crew and we resumed our
watches - pleased that we had avoided a small disaster by excellent crew
work
Days run yesterday was 163 miles - well we had parked
for a while!
51 miles to go - eta beer 19:00
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