Day 7
Gins.pt
Sun 29 Nov 2009 18:21
Saturday started with the usual morning inspection
of the running and standing gear on the yacht. The wind was quite strong - 5 to
6 Bf - and we were still flying spinnaker. It looked stretched but
still safe. Then suddenly the aft block, which lead the spinnaker sheet to the
winch, broke. The sheet flew ahead, the spinnaker was caught by the
second inner sheet which had the function of holding the spinnaker clew
down . The instantenious pull was too much for the material and spinnaker tore
horizontaly about one meter from the clew and then along the bottom edge. It
cannot be repaired with the means we have on the boat. Stupidly, I did not take
our electric sewing machine for sails , which could easily handle the
repair. The good thing was that we could take the sail down without
further damages and pack it.
From now on we shall rely on our standard sails,
main, genua and the jib. This means at least 1 knot less speed
and daily about 30 miles less or prolongation of
the estimated time of arrival for about 2 days.The wind is constantly blowing in
the direction we want to sail ( from ENE ). For some hours after the
disaster we were sailing only with genua to stabilize the adrenalin levels of
the crew members. Fortunately, we have enough supplies and excellent cooks.
In the afternoon we continued fishing and lost 2
more lures as the fish biting it were a size too
big and soon swam away decorated with our
colorful squid lure. But we are very optimistic to fill our fridge with mahimahi
in the next days, may be already on
Sunday...
We eat only twice a day since the crew
( gentlemen in mature age) decided to use the same hole on their belts on
arrival. Breakfast is usually around 10 am and a late lunch at 5 pm. In between crew uses the sweets/nuts drawer or visits the fruit basket. Recently they discovered the supply
of Lasko ( Slovene beer ) and look for excuses to
reduce the weight of the boat.
Today we had beans soup with vegetables, beef
and some spicy Spanish sausages, created by chef Matjaz.
At the sunset we hoisted the main sail and
shortened genua at wind speeds 5-6. During the night the wind force was changing
as well as the direction and kept the watches busy. The moral on boat is
back to the level. And tomorrow is Sunday...
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