Day 12 - The saga continues
Bonkers
Donald Macdonald
Wed 1 Nov 2023 14:43
Fri, 3rd November. 15:54 GMT
110nm to go, which should see us in Las Palmos tomorrow afternoon. The wind is currently from 020 and our required heading is 200. Obviously not ideal as we are having to gybe our way down the track adding considerable distance through the water to be sailed.
Last night was a further disaster. We were running in 12-16 knots and quite large waves, with the full main and a polled out jib. As a cloud approached, the wind started to increase. I had just put the first reef into the main and was thinking of the second, when a wave caught out the autohelm and we unintentionaly gybed. The boom preventer that is supposed to stop the boom crashing over the boat broke, ripping the pulpit from the bow. The mainsheet then tied itself around the intrument box on the steering column. At this point while I was fighting with the mainsheet to clear it from the intrument pod, the autohelm regained control, returning us to the original heading resulting a further uncontrolled gybe which pulled the instrument pod from the pedestal and me being throwen over the cockpit. Donald fortunately fealing a little better at the time than appeared and helped me tidy up the mess. Since then we have been progressing much more cautiously with 2 or 3 reefs in the ma
in and
no jib.
Happy birthday Rosie.
John