Interesting night

Associate3
Chris & Katie Russell
Sat 19 Aug 2017 08:45
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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