Day 2 - 18 03.35S 165 37.83W

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Fri 17 Sep 2010 00:51
Daily noon-to-noon run of 120 miles. So, slow progress over the last 24 hours, not due to the weather or sea state, but to stay with another yacht that has a problem. We left Palmerston shortly after the catamaran Troutbridge with the expectation that we would go our own way, but keep in radio contact if we could. Yesterday lunch time Pete on Troutbridge came on the radio to say that their outer forestay had detached its self from the top of the mast and the forestay, and the sail on it, were just being held up with sail halyard. That meant he could only use a smaller jib on the inner forestay and could not make much more than 4-5kts. So we are keeping them in sight the whole time just in case they need assistance. The main concern was the need to put more stays on to secure the mast and a spare spinnaker halyard has been used for that. This together with the inner forestay, which is still okay, should keep the mast up. The next concern was to somehow use a second spare halyard to help support the outer forestay in case the halyard already on the sail chafes through and breaks (when the forestay, foil and sail would all come down). Pete managed that this morning, so now it's a slow sail on towards Tonga.

The winds have come down in the last 24 hours to 12 to 18kts and the swell has reduced to about 7 to 12ft, although we get the occasional big one quite a bit bigger and we do roll when they come through. So it's good sailing and so far the weather has been good too. Keeping at this speed the passage will take a day or two longer - not a problem if the conditions stay good.

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