Wed 2nd November 09

Ca Canny
Wed 2 Dec 2009 13:51
Dear Blogg readers,
 
Disaster has struck.
Day 11 17.55N 43.42W Course 248 COG 7.6 Kn Wind True 19 Kn Apparentg 13 Kn
Swell of 1 meter, Sunny.
 
Last night after an uneventfull evening, everyone on their posts.
Paul, sitting in the driving seat, observing the calm ocean with light to moderate wind.
listening to some music. All other crew in their bunks.
Suddenly Paul notices the parasail folding down and its gone. Its 23.15 hours.
All hands on deck. What has happened. We had the parasail down the previous night to patch up small holes. We checked all points of wear. The metal clew rings where showing signs of wear causing light sharper than round edges but nothing to worry about.
 
The parasail is in the water on port side. We have no speed anymore, are bobbing about.
Jamie is  able to get hold of the sail and sheets (ropes) with the boat hook. We start slowly to pull everything on board. We have to wait for the rise and fall of the swell to choose the right moment to foot by foot haul everything is. All is retrieved. Our heart sinks, we realise it will fly no more.  The parasail halyard has ruptured. More than a meter from the attachement of the parasail. Unbelievable. We just remarked in the morning that there was virtually no wear on this halyard. The broken site was located in the mast.
Everyone is taken a back. Stunned.
There is nothing else but to put the genoa up.
 
The crew feel this is a disaster. Skipper tells us, a disaster for him is loss of life.
The sail is reparable albight ripped dramatically.
After a cup of tea, we go back to our bunks and get on with our watches.
 
This morning as we inspected the damage of the parasail and hoisting the mainsail. Skipper insists we all sing along to the Life of Brian classic: Always look on the bright side of life.
 
Only yesterday,John had e-mailed us the list of all multihulls with their location.
We plotted them on our chart. 4 boats where in front of us but they where all bigger and hence fater boats than us. So we had maintained our leading position in the catamaran fleet.
 
All this will now have changed but our priority is to arrive all 4 with the boat in one piece.
 
We are drying out the parasail to store it away.
Such a parasail is something incredible. Spinakers or goose winked sailing brings a lot of rocking from one side to the other. This because the wind has to spill out of it.
The parasail has taken the idea from manouvrable parachutes/parapentes.
It has a slit 3/4 up with a wing hanging in front of it. This means that the excess wind can escape through this area. The sail is very stable and so is the boat.
 
We've just eating pasta with mexican sauce. I had to finish it all of course and sit here now overfed. Jamie, asked when we where going to get some proper food.
Paul will make him some saucages with chips and beans. Bless him.
 
Boat: Ca Canny.
Where does it come from.
Canny in the dictionary: (can-y) Dialect, chiefly Scot. -adj. Cautious, careful, hesitant; unwilling to rush into things.
She is a Broadblue catamaran of 12.8 meters with a main sail surface of 65m2, Genoa 36m2. 2 Volvo engines of 60 HP. etc.
 
While we where putting up the mainsail, we saw a wale 30 feet from the boat. Only saw it a second time after which our searching was in vane.
 
So with this blogg, we hope that all anxiety and worries have been aleviated re the incident.
 
We'll attach a few photo's.
 
Till tomorrow
Marc