And we're off!
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 24 Jan 2008 19:06
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13:48.929N 64.01.117W
The rally start got off without too much trouble
yesterday at 12:10pm. There was a ten minute delay because a couple of the
boats couldn't get out of the marina channel as there was another boat
aground in the channel, and therefore blocking the way out. Oops.
They got it sorted out and we were all off at 12:10. Just after the start,
however, about three boats had to turn around almost immediately, one
due autopilot problems, one lost their steering, and a third for an unknown
reason. We do know that the one that lost their steering completed their
repairs and is just a little behind the rest of us now - not sure about the
other two.
We had our own trouble not too far off shore.
The wind was (and still is) directly behind us, so we brought in or attempted to
bring in our main sail so that we could put up the downwind rig. The main
sail furls into the mast and yesterday for some reason, it decided to fold at
the top as it was furled, nearly causing a jam. We tried several things
and finally turned into the wind to shake the fold loose. It worked and we
furled the sail. This little episode caused us to turn north away from the
other sailboats and cost us some time.
Next, we brought out the downwind rig.
[Non-boater translation: our normal head sail, poled out to one side and
our new ballooner poled out to the other side. A ballooner is like a
spinnaker - nice and colorful, but a litter bit smaller.] We have not
sailed with the wind behind us for any length of time ever, so to begin with, we
were a little clumsy with the set-up. Once we got both sails up, the back
edge of the ballooner kept collapsing, causing a racket - not to mention that
this type of flapping is not good for the sail. Don tried several times to
grab the small line that runs down the back of the sail and tighten it.
But try grabbing a flapping sail as you are standing on the bow of the boat,
while the boat is bouncing up and down and rolling from side to side in a strong
wind and you will see why it's pretty much impossible to do. We had just
decided that the only thing left to do was to bring the ballooner down and
adjust the line on the back of sail while the sail sat on deck when the pole
holding the ballooner clew [back corner of sail] decided to come crashing
into the side of the boat. Don was down below at the time and I was in the
cockpit with my mouth open, only able to udder one word over and over (that
being 'f#%&!!'.
Apparently we had the line holding the pole up (topping lift) too loose, which
allowed the pole to swing back even though it was tied with three other lines
holding it forward, straight out and back. We lowered the pole and then
got it back in place. The life lines on the boat, which are sturdy
stainless steel, kept the pole from hitting anything else and they seemed to
have survived themselves. We got the ballooner back up and have been fine
ever since, speeding along at the high speed of 7-8 knots. The whole
episode took several hours and caused us to go off course for a while, so we are
little behind some of the other boats (but still ahead of others). The
worst part of it all was in the midst of the sail coming down and going up,
Don's prescription sunglasses went overboard. Another occasion for us both
to yell 'f#$%!!'. Oh well, could have been worse.
So we are off. Aside from the episode as
described above, all is well and we are on a fast pace to Panama.
More tomorrow.
Anne
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