That She Blows! (17th January 2016)
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sat 23 Jan 2016 05:50
Motoring at night is not conducive to good sleep - particularly if you are in the rear cabin where it is extremely noisy being right next to the engine. Steve is in the rear cabin and responded by trying to sleep in a saloon berth but without a lee cloth. Having fallen out of the berth onto the floor a few times he elected to cosy up with the cruising chute as a pillow and sleep on the floor in a more controlled manner! Its pretty noisy in the saloon also where Annie was finding it difficult to sleep - even in the leward berth which is the most comfortable place to be. Yours truly sleeps in the for’d cabin where it is usually noisy due to the boat slapping on the waves and where the motion can be tricky with both rolling and pitching. I have acclimatised to this and can sleep pretty well there - and where the engine noise is much less! So, yesterday morning the two mattelos were not at their best.
Sunrise seems to herald the onset of more breeze and yesterday was no exception. Furthermore the breeze “felt” more permanent than previous fickle efforts. In response we decided to try the cruising chute on it own to see if it sets better downwind without the blanketing effect of the mainsail. As we were lowering the mainsail I noticed that the outer layer of the mainsail halyard was bunching up and preventing the halyard from running smoothly through the various sheaves and blocks. It had parted below the point at which the line (rope) part of the halyard is joined to the wire upper part, leaving the core of the line still attached to the wire but looking rather thin and exposed! Before leaving Dartmouth we had the (unusual) foresight to replace the topping lift (line from the top of the mast to hold up the back of the boom when not sailing) with a stronger line that could double up as a halyard or backstay (wire from the top of the mast to the back of the boat) if required. So, we took off the old halyard from the mainsail, attached the new, ran the tail of the new halyard back to the cockpit and job done! True but I have glossed over all the time it took to replace the shackle we dropped overboard, untangle each line from every fitting it had wrapped itself around on the mast, uncrossed the two lines at the top of the mast, tie the old halyard so that the exposed core was not in the sheave at the top of the mast and so that the wire part would not frapp against the mast………… There is a primary, infallible law on a boat that if there is the slightest opportunity for a line to twist, tangle or otherwise get wrapped around something it shouldn’t then it will do so, without fail. Every single operation involving the use of lines has to be carried out with this forethought.
Now, one consequence of changing the halyard was that Annie was steering the boat (the auto helm now has the endearing quality of switching out of helming mode without notice, sending the boat into a spin) and Steve was perched up at boom level while I searched out the replacement shackle. From this higher vantage point came a loud cry that I took to mean that something else had broken or fallen overboard. It actually meant that something pretty enormous was swimming towards the boat i.e. much larger than the dolphins we are used to. In fact it was two Northern Minke Whales (as we subsequently determined from their size and distinctive makings) that stayed with us for the best part of an hour. Any concerns about the auto helm were brushed aside as Annie dived below for a camera and Steve’s attention was now more on whale spotting than replacing the shackle. Seeing such large, mysterious and supremely adapted creatures in their natural environment is magical. To continue to hunt them is beneath human dignity.
So, halyard changed, mainsail dropped, whales moved on, we hoisted the cruising chute and it worked a treat! The trade wind seems to have returned, mostly at about 10kts but occasionally 15 and this is forecast to continue for the next week.
Afternoon entertainment was provided by the spray hood around the front of the cockpit. The stitching attaching the plastic window to the canvas on the starboard side was coming away, leaving a gap right above the chart plotter. Efforts by Annie to sew things back together in situ were slow so we removed the spray hood and the job was completed an hour or so later in the cabin. Removing the spray hood showed that most of the stitching is in poor condition and as we replaced it the stitching came away in exactly the same place on the port side.
Today we have successfully flown the cruising chute and genoa at the same time. It took a while to get the set up right but once in place we were able to sit back and admire our handiwork - without noticing the vicious squall coming up from behind. We had just decided to snuff the chute when we were hit by strong wind and had the nearest we have ever come to a full broach. Normally you would shelter the chute behind the mainsail to depower it but without the mainsail we had to go dead downwind and use the genoa for a bit of wind blanketing. I thought the chute might shred at one point but eventually the snuffer came down (snuffer being the external sock around the sail that is raised to open the sail when launching and vice versa). So here we are bimbling along under just the genoa. The moment we brought down the chute the wind eased, the sun came out and here we are drinking tea and wondering which combination of sails to use next.
By the way, we have not had an update on the position of Ocean Reunion today. If anyone fancies going onto the Talisker Ocean Challenge web site and looking this up for us it would be appreciated!