What a busy day!
Halcyon
Rob Withers
Mon 21 Nov 2011 07:59
sloppy sea. Most of the crew are asleep, with James on deck.
Yesterday, however, was a very exciting day.
Alistair got his plane on time and was delivered from the airport at
very great speed by taxi. His day had started in York at 3:00am so he
had time for a cup of tea amidst the hubbub before we set off.
The start and the build up to it were great fun. All boats got there
on own personal send-off from Don Pedro - the man in charge of the fuel
pontoon (and much else).Very loud music of eclectic taste and then
'Goodbyyyeee Halciiiiiiiooooon, thank you for your coming!' as we
passed. It was bit calmer out of the marina with space to get sorted
out. The committee boat for the ARC start is gunboat from the Spanish
Navy. Our start was the third, final and largest of the starts at
1:00pm with 160 or so boats trying to cross at the same time. We hung
well back and reached over the line in clear air about 30secs after the
start.
It was a lovely broad reach for the first few miles, so we put up the
large cruising chute. Beautiful sailing conditions and were creaming
along keeping up with some much bigger boats. After about 10 miles,
you need to keep a careful lookout, since the wind accelerates from
10-15knots to double that as it gets diverted around the island. We
were looking out for this when cruising chute became caught around the
forestay, rapidly entangling itself several times at the top and
bottom. For about an hour we tried various tactics to free it - nearly
succeeding on 1 occasion, but nothing could get it to fly free. all
this time the wind was increasing as we approached the acceleration
zone. Several rips had developed in the sail as we worked on it.
Reluctantly, we decided the only way get it down was to go up and cut
it. Alastair climbed the mast in the pitching sea - we were doing 6-7
knots under main alone - and hacked away at the top of the sail. he
top few feet were free, but the real knots were 10 feet down from the
top. Clipping on to the inner forestay, we was lowered down until he
could cut and pull the sail free. Eventually he separated the head of
the sail and the base of the sail from leaving just the knotted mass
around the genoa and inner forestay. As he was lowered, he pulled it
down with him. When he reached the deck he was promptly sick. The
damge as a shredded chute but no major iinjuries.
After this excitement we set up the twinpoled headsails and had a
lovely night's sail. Alistair was allowed a night off and has slept 12
hours solid.