Day Four - the wind returns.

Jacana
David Munro
Tue 13 Jan 2009 20:07
Last night the wind slowly built from a dead calm to a steady 15 knots from the North East. Just before sun-set we changed the headsail from the number one to the reefable number two, a task best done in daylight. The breeze built gradually to 25 knots on the nose, we had the option to head for Argentina or for North Africa - neither in the direction we wanted. We opted for the southerly route to make progress towards a depression building in the South West where the stronger winds were to be found. As we approached the cold front, it started to rain and the wind backed 90degreees into the west, we tacked at 2am  and managed a bearing 15 degrees below our Rhum Line. The night was wet and uncomfortable with every other wave breaking over the decks and washing back into the cockpit.
 
Order of merit.
 
David - the highest wave to break over the boat at lower spreader height.
Chris - The most frequent waver breaker over the boat
Paul -  The best timed wave break of the day, (Over Chris)
John -  Filled the cockpit to the highest level.
 
We made steady progress West North West in a very lumpy sea, the boat fell off of almost every wave. Mid morning Paul noticed water pouring into the boat through the mast step, for the 2nd time this race we bore off took the sails down and stopped racing. The system for supporting the mast through the deck had "become detatched" allowing the mast to move around in an alarming fashion.When the mast had been put back into the boat in Cape Town after being shipped, the riggers had made a very poor job of re-stepping, allowing the support collar to ride up the mast above deck level.
 
The ships carpenters were called for and after a couple of hours of wittling, a new system was devised to chock the mast in the boat. After cutting away the head lining around the interior of the mast, the hammers were out again beating wedges into place. Once the deck gland around the mast was back in place after 3 hours work, we hoisted sails and were racing once again. 
 
As the afternoon wore on, the wind came into the south allowing us the free the sails and calm the boat down. No sunset this evening just a grey sky, we have all been living in our wet weather gear for the last 24 hours, tomorrow looks the same.
 
Nature watch
 
Paul spooted the first flying fishes.
John &  Chris spotted a pair of Albatross following the boat for 20 mins this afternoon.

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