Day 27 - Passage to the Caribbean
Misterx
Mon 28 Apr 2025 01:16
27/04/25
8:30 pm
Day 27
North Atlantic Ocean
DTD to Trinidad: 979 NM (91NM)
We watched the wind instrument all day, willing it to go down below the 15 knots... I know, extraordinary thing to do when wind over 15 knots is usually a suitable amount to make the boat go forward nicely... but we needed it to be below 15 knots so we could attempt to take down the old genoa and put the new genoa up. Although we weren't even sure how much below 15 would be enable us to do all of this safely.
Of course watching the wind meant that all day it was just on the cusp of feasible. It would get to 15, hover there for 5 or 10mn and then go back up with a gust of 19 or 20! Teasing us, tormenting us, all the while watching our boat speed go down. Should we have the main up, but then, we would rather swap the genoa without the main being in play, no sure why, maybe too many things to keep an eye on, to many things to go wrong... and given the way things have been going on so far, just playing it simple, so playing it safe.
Little by little the wind went down for longer periods, little by little the swell went down, till at 4pm this afternoon. As we were having tea at the end of my watch, before I went for a little lie down, the dial suddenly went down to 9knots, hovered there, up to 11, down to 9 again... the cups and the biscuits went back down in the galley, grabbed some sail ties, life jackets clipped on, Ian hurried to the foredeck as I was getting ready to pull the full genoa out, in order to be able to release the genoa halyard to drop it, hopefully on deck, with Ian pulling at the sheet so the sail wouldn't go into the sea.
Well what a sight... when fully opened, the full extend of the damage to the sail was plainly visible... the thing was hanging on by a few threads. A huge hole in the middle of it, the blue edges just showing where the white fabric should have been attached to. And as Ian struggled to keep it all out of the water, strands of cloth were streaming past the working jib... the thing was shredded to ribbons! Quickly, I let go of the halyard, the whole thing crumpled more or less on the foredeck, swamping Ian under a froth of white cloth. By the time I joined him on the foredeck, he had fought his way out from under it and was tackling the restraints at both end of the forestay to free up the sail. I started pulling at it, there was no way this thing was going to fold up neatly, we would have to stuff it into the sail bag and hope the whole of it would fit in and be contained. The pair of us pummelled it into the bag, pulling and pushing, gathering the shreds of cloth into the bag... we finally managed it and it did all fit in. Took it down to the forepeak, looking more like a sail locker now, joining the roughly folded wings on top of our bed!
Catching our breath, we looked at each other and decided to quit whilst we were ahead, the taking down of the shredded genoa had gone remarkably well, no shouting, no drama, it had all fitted in the bag... we counted that as a win, maybe we would not push our luck any further for today... And the wind was going back up now as it usually do at this time of the day. And tea was waiting for us, on the cold side of tepid but still drinkable. We'll try to put the other genoa on tomorrow... I can see another day of watching the wind instrument, willing the wind to go down below 10 knots!
Water in the bilges and Sargasso weed situation, no change... lots of bailing out and de-weeding...
Mileage to destination has gone below 1,000... we're nearly there!
M