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...