Indian Ocean - Day 9

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Wed 10 Oct 2012 13:24
18:10.7S 066:24.6E  1840 miles covered, 520 miles to go
 
Today the winds were light and so we decided to put up a spinnaker.  Our first choice was the new asymmetric spinnaker we got in Australia, but which fell into the ocean at the start of the passage.  Unfortunately when repairing the broken cable we found quite a lot of small holes in the sail which will require more repair tape than we have onboard, so that went back in the locker.
 
Out came the much patched up old asymmetric.  It went up cleanly but quite soon collapsed, at which point the snuffer snagged in the top of the sail and ripped some holes in it.  Unable to snuff the sail we had to just dump it unceremoniously on the foredeck with everybody grabbing a piece as it came down.  (We had a bit more of a plan than that, but things seldom go as planned with spinnakers.)  Anyway we managed to get it down without either sail or crew going overboard.  Then we all had some sweaty work lugging the sail back to the cockpit, taping it up, re-snuffing it, lugging it back to the foredeck and re launching it.  It is up now, and seems fairly stable, so hopefully it will fly OK overnight.
 
The only thing is we can't agree on the meaning of the new symbol on our sail.  I think it is a symbol of friendship.  Andrea thinks they look like grave markers.  You choose.