19:13.035N 48:09.273W
Monday 30th November
What a day! The sun rose at about 5.30 am and Paul eagerly waited
for Paul B to get up for his watch at 7 so they could put the cruising chute
up. 7 am came and it was up instantly, they were flying it like a spinaker, as
they had done the other day.
First problem.....the bottom left corner had got caught around the anchor on
the way up and had torn slightly. It was decided this was fine as it was only
small and not in a high pressure spot so the pretty pink sail stayed up!
It was time for roll call at 10.00 am and as usual we all gathered to hear the
boats positions and to find out who was our next target to overtake. We were
struggling to hear any of the other boats as the frequency was too low so we
were a bit pre-occupied when Amy looked out the window and uttered the words
'Uh-oh'!!! The cruising chute was wrapping itself around the forestay. It was
going one direction at the top and the opposite direction at the
bottom...great!
We then spent the next 2 hours trying to untangle the mess! There were ropes
whipping everywhere, up in the air, around our feet. It really was very
dangerous! Thankfully after about an hour or more part of the sail was dragging
in the water which enabled us to get most of it on board and tied down. We then
somehow managed to pull the ropes which had knotted around the forestay down.
At one point it was looking as if Paul was going to have to go up the mast,
something he really didn't want to do. In amongst the commotion Amy fainted!
Thankfully she managed to get herself back to the cockpit before collapsing
otherwise we could have had a man overboard to deal with at the same time. Not
something we want to think about! We were all extremely relieved once the
"pretty pink sail" was down!
Lesson learnt...don't try and fly a cruising chute like a spinaker and leave it
unattended! A spinaker flies like a kite and needs someone constantly watching
it and tweaking it. This was where we went wrong, we took our eyes off it!
Next problem....when bringing the two head sails out after the commotion the
cutter was torn! It was pulled tight before enough of the sail was let out
causing it to rip. So by 12.30 on day 14 we'd ripped two sails and it was time
for a beer!
The rest of the day was quite peaceful with little else going on. For a change
I think we were all happy for a little peace and quiet!
The winds dropped and were averaging between 10 and 15 knots. It just wasn't
good enough and we were going far too slow. From roll call it appears that
everyone else seems to be in a similar position as a few boats had motored
through the night. We gave in and put our engine on in the afternoon but turned
it off again around 7.00 pm as the winds picked up slightly and we were
averaging between 6.5 and 7.5 knots.
Bye from the tired Jackamy crew x
