Bora Bora to Raratonga

Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Thu 27 Aug 2009 18:36
18.55.54 S 156.14.44 W
 
Three nights into our passage to Raratonga. we were not expecting much wind so had a slow start. The second day the wind picked up a bit. At teatime we caught a big Ship Jack Tuna (we caught two one on each line at the same time, but the second one decided at the last minute not to come with us after all), so plenty of fish in the freezer again. Just after dark and all the supper tidied away we got hit by a squall, which is not unusual, but with this one the wind changed from 14 kts to 36 in seconds, not giving us enough time to reef the sails. The result was a very badly torn no 2 genoa, the bottom half ended up in the water and the top bit flogged itself to shreds on the top of the fore stay. Duncan managed to get it all back on board and down onto the deck. We motor sailed with the mail all night, into the waves and the wind, not much fun. The next afternoon when the wind was a bit less we managed to get the old no 2 up. We carried on motoring through the night, but put both sails out this morning and are now sailing again. Not very fast as we are still going into wind and waves and the wind has come down to 13. That means we will not arrive into Raratonga until some time Saturday all being well.
 
         
 
Duncan filleting the tuna with the new filleting knife                    The bits that are left of the top of the no 2 Genoa