What a day! We became surrounded by black clouds and the radar confirmed that it was impossible to avoid a soaking at best so we dropped the twin Yankees in plenty of time and set a reefed main and waited. The deluge was of absolutely biblical proportions and we could only put the washboards in,... Continue Reading →
Squally squally night
Today we mourn the departure of a trusty friend, taken in its prime, lost overboard after years of loyal service. No one saw the departure but a suicidal leap into the deep is the only explanation for the missing winch handle. It leaves behind a twin sister in the cockpit and a smaller brother at... Continue Reading →
Kit failure at the ‘pointy end’
Although the rest of the crew enjoy the moon for their watches, it is long gone by my watch so I could not spot the problem until the first light of dawn. The first ‘giveaway’ was a slack luff on the starboard Yankee then I could see that the bow sprit was canted at an... Continue Reading →
Jaws!
Deciding (probably wrongly as the wind strength panned out) to stick with our sailplan and have a safe day tracking downwind, I was fearing that I would not have much to report but how wrong could I be. Mid-afternoon, Bob called to say that the Watt & Sea (hydrogenerator) downhaul had slipped and it had... Continue Reading →
Blow the wind Southerly
We are now a Southerly yacht both by make and position. We have maintained our twin jib sailplan and tracked dead downwind which has taken us well south of the rhumb line to become one of the most southerly of all the yachts. The wind is gusting top end strength for the Parasailor and we... Continue Reading →