Atlantic Crossing - Sail Fixing
Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Fri 7 Jan 2011 12:13
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07:01.11, 14:19.27N 46:49.40W
We did a record 185 miles in 24 hours yesterday,
since there has been good winds we have been ensuring to keep the boat down to
hull speed and not go faster than this over past few days so had 2 reefs in each
sail - and still did 185 miles. Go Stargazer.
We had some fun yestereday with the mainsail, at
the very top of the sail it is attached by some metal sliders that hook into the
mast, then below this it has plastic sliders at regular intervals to hold it
onto the mast. Sitting gazing up yesterday noticed that the metal sliders
at the very top were no longer attached to the sail, we had seen that the
webbing holding them on was showing a bit of wear in the Verde Islands and we
shored it up with some cord as well - but it had all gone through. It is a
17 year old sail - we weren't going to use our new one for this bit of the
trip. Wondered if we would be able to get the sliders back down the mast
without having to go up and get them - really didn't want to go up the mast in
23 knot winds and choppy seas out here it wouldn't be any fun. Luckily
they slid down as we took the sail down and Adam was able to use a couple of
stainless shackles to attach the sail top back onto them so we managed to sort
it in about 20 mins.
We were quite lucky though as the plastic sliders
below these ones arn't really up to the job of holding the sail with the metail
sliders gone - if we hadn't noticed then we could have heard pop. . . pop.
. . . . pop. . . . . pop. . . pop as they broke one at a time - then we would
have 12 metres of mainsail flapping about to try and deal with. It would
be pretty difficult trying to change main sails out here so hoping the sail
lasts.
After 3 days of really pretty choppy and steep seas
(and hence our obsession with waves) the sea did calm down yesterday afternoon
to a more gentle rolling sea. Stargazer does ride the seas very well and
when you look at the waves it is amazing how smooth a ride we get - but it is
still nice to have a slightly calmer sea as previously every so often a wave
would come from a completely different angle and hit the side of the boat -
waking up anyone who was sleeping, and sometimes chucking water into the
cockpit. We have both had really good sleeps last night with the only wave
noises being swoosh, swoosh, swoosh which is much more civilised. In fact
- both of us managed to turn the alarm off and go back to sleep when we were
supposed to get up for watch so both of us had to be collected by the other one
and told to get up.
Dawn came this morning with gloomy skies and
squalls visible to the south of us - we just got caught by one of these, it was
quite mild so only 25 knot winds for 5 mins or so but Adam is soaked by the
sudden downpour (I hid inside!) at least it has washed the decks and spray cover
down as the downwind deck that doesn't get splashed was covered in dust still
from Cape Verde, Adam didn't need a wash but he got one anyway.
Only one ship seen in the last 2 days and no yachts
heard, but we did pass the half way mark the other day.
Hurray. |