10:11.26s 124:33.07w
Rogue
Alan and Noi not sure which is which
Thu 9 Apr 2009 22:24
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10:11.26s 124:33.07w
09/04/09 Day 16
Position at 13:00 GMT / UTC 136 miles completed since last posting 2323 miles completed in total 865 miles to go - Less than 900 that has got to call for a cold one. Wellll, a fairly busy 24 hours. The wind started a
bit yesterday morning so we turned off the engine and hoisted the spinnaker. All
went well until about 18:30 local time. I was below writing emails and
completing the daily SSB call to the other 3 boats in our private network. Noi
called me up to the cockpit because of a squall. I procrastinated slightly and
only went up 5 minutes later when she called me again.
As I arrived in the cockpit I could see black ominous looking clouds with rain curtains below them directly astern of us and about 5 miles away. I said to Noi are they coming this ….. And bang we were hit with about 35 knots or more from the starboard side. The sudden gust and the speed caused Rogue to broach heavily to the port and we heeled over to starboard with the toerail in the water. Noi had started the engine so I put it in full ahead to try and reduce the apparent wind speed a bit. By this time the heading had changed to port which put the spinnaker now over on the starboard side with the spinnaker pole hard against the forestay and jib. We let go the port sheet as fast as we could but it kept getting jammed on the winch barrel. By the time we got the sheet free and run off clear the spinnaker had taken 3 or 4 additional gusts and the spinnaker pole had snapped in the middle. With 3 ropes trailing astern and half the spinnaker pole hanging in the water with the engine on it was a miracle the prop didn’t get fouled. Anyway, with the help of a winch we managed to get the snuffer down over the sail and dropped the halyard. Once we were back in control a quick check of damage came up with; broken TV antenna on top of the mast, bull horn speaker broken on top of one of the spreaders, the end of the port sheet rope nearly worn through, several tears in the snuffing material, broken spinnaker pole (carbon and VERY expensive), several tears in the jib solar protection and a small tear in the sail itself. Several damaged ropes. I haven’t had a chance to check the spinnaker for damage but it seemed to be ok as it was coming down. It could have been a great deal worse. I did say days of boredom with a few hours of
excitement!!
We are now back to main sail and jib with a decent
wind and doing about 6.5 knts almost in the right
direction. |