It couldn't last
Neroli
Charles Tongue
Thu 4 Dec 2008 16:23
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17:23.42N
36:45.17W
It couldn't
last.............
When we signed
off yesterday we were hissing along with our spinnaker up, making good speed in
the right direction. We changed down to our tradewind rig in the early hours and
then, with an electric storm flashing away to the north of us, the wind backed
and we reduced sail to the genoa alone. Poor Lou was winded when a flying fish
hit her in the chest. We have had several on the deck and they make a terrible
smell but this is the first time any of us have been hit by one!
At 0700, local
time, this morning Graham had just taken over the watch from Lou when the
wind suddenly backed through 120 degrees increased dramatically and a torrential
downpour began. It was soon all hands on deck as we took in our last remaining
sail and were still doing over 8 knots downwind and in a SE direction. All would
have been fine had it not been that our light weather genoa (MPG) was
furled (and secured with a sail tie) from our bowsprit. The wind was so strong
that it opened the furling above and below the sail tie and flogged itself
almost fully open, placing an enormous strain on the rig. By the the wind had
peaked at 52 knots (Force 10), the seas built incredibly quickly but the surface
was flattened smooth by the torrential rain despite the streaks of spume blowing
across the wave caps. It was clearly unsafe to work on the foredeck in such
conditions, let alone try to tame a sail not far short of the size of a tennis
court and we debated the options open to us . We even considered undoing the
halyard, allowing it to run through the sheave at the top of the mast and then
cut the whole sail and halyard free. After about an hour however the wind began
to abate and once down to about Force 6 Graham and Henry managed to
put two lines around the furling gear at the tack of the sail;
one to stop it flying away from us and the second, attached to a winch in the
cockpit to pull the sail inboard. As Lou lowered the halyard Charlie
winched the sail in and held Neroli dead downwind and Henry and Graham used
all their strength to manhandle the sail onto the deck. This enabled Graham to
undo the shackle at the tack and bundle the sail down below. Amazingly.
having flogged itself hard for an hour we think the sail is not seriously
damaged.
This has
taught us some lessons and made all of us realise that nothing can be taken for
granted out here. Later on we heard that one of the old Challenger Yachts
(Steel - 70ft) had experienced similar conditions but 60 mph winds. The incident
left us without a stitch of dry clothing and exhausted. Neroli is also
pretty wet from sails, crew and the incredible tropical rainfall but we will
resolve all of that pretty quickly. The crew all felt better after a hot
coffee laced with whisky! The weather is still pretty grim with low scudding
cloud. rain showers and big seas but the wind strength is manageable and we
are making good progress again. Our track on the chartplotter shows that we made
a 10 mile detour to the SE before we were able to get back on
course.
In all this
excitement we hardly took note of the fact that we managed our best days run
(153 miles), crossed the halfway point to St Lucia and put back the ships clocks
another hour so we are two hours behind you in the UK.
Amazingly,
thanks to the wonders of modern science Charlie and Henry were able to speak on
the sat - phone to Francoise and Lauren back in Salisbury about important
matters.
Anyway we are
all fine but ready for more settled weather and some
sunshine.
Thursday
04.12.08 16.00
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