Half way there
Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Mon 12 Mar 2012 23:46
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9:13.1S 115:58.5W 1700 miles
covered
Yesterday evening we passed the half-way
mark. We now have "only" 1360 miles to go to reach our first port of call
in Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. The milestone was celebrated with Pina
Coladas, white chilli and chocolate cake and cream.
In the afternoon Andrea had spotted that the ring
at the tack of the asymmetric spinnaker was chafing through (remember that the
ring has been loaded for a few days by the equivalent of being towed by a small
car) and so we took down the asymmetric for repair and put up the Parasailor in
its place. Taking a spinnaker down in 22 knot winds is always quite
challenging and unfortunately this time it reinflated before it was fully
snuffed. Estella did not let go fast enough and got a rope burn on her
fingers (the danger of fingerless gloves). Her fingers were quickly
iced and gelled and they are much better today.
The Parasailor did its job overnight but it
is slightly slower than the asymmetric and, while we are only casually
racing, the yacht 2 Moons is only 20 miles ahead of us and we will be third past
the post if we can overtake them. So this morning I was sewing tape
through the ring on the sail to shore up the tear. We did not
have the right width of tape and so we sacrificed a spare safety line to
use for the repair. Sewing the tape into position was a real pain because
it had to be attached to fourteen layers of finely woven nylon, which
cost several needles and blisters.
Now the asymmetric is back up and flying.
Here is the new yellow tape in position. It is holding up well so
far.
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