Easter
Monday
10:17S 133:10W
This is a rally NOT a race! I keep telling my self
this however when
Storyteller gets ahead it seems to concentrate the mind a
little. A week ago
Storyteller took off on a different tack and for a period
flew it's A Sail.
A stands for asymmetrical and they are also know as a MPS
(Multi purpose
sail) or a Gennacker (being a cross between a genoa and a
spinnaker). In
other words they are a light weight sail made from spinnaker
type material
and instead of being flown from a pole, they are tacked down
to the yacht
right forward. Anyway they ended up crossing in front of us and
then I made
a tactical blue and they ended up even further ahead. Listening
to
discussion on the radio net we I formed the opinion that they had not
continued to use the A sail and so decided that we would when the positions
and time was right. Friday we flew it all day and we figured that in the 12
hours we had it up we halved their lead. Saturday it was up again all day on
a very favourable leg and so we caught up.
Easter Sunday was going to
be a real blaster. We crossed tacks early
in the morning, we were
heading north on a starboard tack while Storyteller
was on the port tack
heading more towards our destination. Now the plan was
that we would go few
miles further north, gybe, and then get the A sail
working again, and really
put in long day and end up 12 to 18 miles in front
as we were prepared to
sacrifice a little northerly position for a good big
lead. All went
according to plan, until we pulled to clew out of the A sail
as we were
hoisting it and that put paid to those plans. We spent all
yesterday sailing
parallel to them about 8 to 10 miles away.
This is a RALLY NOT A RACE!
Today we have been sailing in company with
Storyteller, Just Do It & Gray Lady as we all start to bunch up as we
approach Hiva Oa.
Cheers
JH
