That Tears It!

Southern Princess
John & Irene Hunt
Mon 24 Mar 2008 18:33
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