Stays

Hamsi
John Anderson
Mon 4 Jul 2016 12:51
We’ve had an eventful 24 hrs, encountered more problems with the stays, and with luck are now on top of the situation.
 
We were sailing in fairly strong wind and heavy seas yesterday when another of the mast stays (forward starboard lower) started to suffer strand separation. The conditions were too severe for either to go up the mast and put a patch on the situation. We hove to with the wind on the opposite side to the damaged stays, and planned to rig a backup for the newly damaged stay when conditions improved. Before they did the stay fractured through and dropped on deck.
 
We spent the night hove to with the wind on the opposite side of the boat waiting for an improvement in conditions and discussing ways to cobble together replacement stays out of rope.
 
This morning at dawn conditions had improved markedly. We worked for three hours from then with me up the mast. Having tried a couple of unsuccessful ways of gaining attachment to the mast, we stumbled upon a workable solution. We now have a more comprehensively solid backup rigged for the damaged starboard aft lower stay and a full replacement tensioned up in rope for the starboard forward lower stay.
 
Yesterday we had to keep the wind on the side of the boat where the stays were strong only, which was causing the gulf stream to draw us out into the Atlantic where we did not want to be. We hope that with the work on the stays that we’ve competed we will now be able to sail with the wind on either side of the boat and thus go where we want to go.
 
We’re not yet sure whether we will divert to Halifax, Nova Scotia or continue to try and reach our original destination of Newport, Rhode Island, since it will be wind and conditions which dictate the optimal way ahead.
 
Hamsi
 
42:08.21N 57:24.69W