CALISO Thurs 29th Nov
CALISO
Mark
Thu 29 Nov 2007 12:27
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HOT OFF THE PRESS: TWIZZLE RIG FAILS
AGAIN!!
Had a lovely afternoon yesterday. Boys were
really busy and got the twizzle rig up and running - looked beautiful with its
blue and white stripes and we even heard other boats nearby talking about us on
VHF. fame at last. speed picked up and we were flying along at up to
7knots and all were happy and mark then uttered the immortal words "this will
now take us all the way to st. lucia"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i made a very
healthy bean and fresh salad stuff salad at lunch and we put the table up and it
was all very civilized with a glass of wine and/or beer. see attached
pic. the afternoon was spent trying to improve our fishing skills.
finally becky decided it ws time for her lure - charlie - to have a go.
she had saved some bacon bits from breakfast, actually wrapped them up in
kitchen roll and then gone to sleep after feeling a bit sick after the cooked
breakfast yesterday with the bacon bits still in her hand! when she woke
up about 5 hours later the bacon was well and truly cured and ready to be fish
food. she then did reiki on charlie and he was thrown in. 10 mins
later he got an absolute whopper - a monster - but as the story goes - it got
away. we will try again today, becky is convinced charlie's got what it
takes.
we all ate different leftovers for tea and again
had a glass of wine or two, lovely peaceful evening, watched the sun set,
perfect. Then.,.,... the wind got up and mark decided to furl the
twizzle rig in slightly. it was now pitch black and then it all went
haywire. the twizzle rig was flapping all over the place and whatever we
tried wouldn't furl in. all hands on deck. lisa in her sleeping
stuff - i wont describe exactly what she was wearing in case any pervs are
reading this, but she did look very cute. quickly put her life vest on as
did all others. dave and mark went on deck, harnessed on of course with
torches - lisa and becky were helming but basically we had no control over the
boat as the engine couldn't go on because of dangling ropes and the twizzle rig
was just all over the place. we then dropped the twizzle halyard - amidst
the chaos of ropes and jackets thrown on top, bob ended up rope burning three
fingers, i got away with just a bit and the twizzle rig ended up in the
sea. but luckily we were not on the m56 and there was no one near us so a
bit of drifting didn't matter. the boys got the sail back up from the
water and dropped it into the forward shower hatch and then started collecting
all the ropes and ensuring none more were in the sea before we finally got the
main back up and the foresail as previous. this all took the best part of
an hour and then the off shifters were sent below and mark and i started our
shift - everyone was hot and sweaty. bob's blisters have thankfully not
burst and if he's careful should hopefully dry out in a few days. so
basically the twizzle rig's name is mud!! the boys are however still
trying to think of new ways to go and i actually for once managed to make a half
way sensible nautical suggestion of furling the twizzle rig with the foresale
furler - mark said we could do that top and bottom and it might work - i'm sure
we will be experimenting more.
today is another gorgeous day. mark forgot to
mention yesterday that he and becky had seen about 20 dolphins on their
12-4am shift but since then nothing. the phosphorescence (spelling??) was
lovely last night as the moon didn't come up until about 11am and when it is
dark you can see thousands of sparking diamonds in the wake - plancton i
believe. the stars were also totally amazing last night and we even had a
look thru the binoculars and saw thousands and thousands more. then the
moon came out and most disappeared. well quite an eventful 24 hours for
us. becky has just made a delicious fruit salad with loads of papaya and
mango and the boys have just caught the first fish - dorada maybe - but a decent
size - will send photo tomorrow - sat phone is really slow with photos attached.
more tomorrow.
ps - anyone replying to e-mails - please delete
what we have written when you reply as otherwise it takes up much more
time!! thanks
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