Rolling along to the north
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 4 May 2009 02:10
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33:26.534S 175:29.733E
We left yesterday (Sunday 5/3) as planned with the
ICA Tonga rally and had what can only be described as an inauspicious
start. We forgot to put the bow thruster pin (holds the bow
thruster up) back in place after leaving the dock, and when Don
happened to check on things up forward, he discovered a collection of sea
water in one of the bilges. Oops. Good thing he found the leak when
he did. A fix was put in place and we are now a non-leaking
boat.
After that, the winds turned light and went
behind us, so we decided it would be a good idea to put up the downwind
rig. This is the rig that involves two poles and two head sails (genoa and
ballooner) and is fairly complex to deploy. After 40 minutes or so, we got
everything in place. This was when Don realized he had forgotten one very
important step - that being the one that allows us to bring the halyard down
without having to pull the sails down. Double oops. We decided
the only good way to deal with the situation was to turn into the wind and bring
both giant head sails (and the errant halyard) down onto the deck.
Our other option was to send Don up the main mast to retrieve the
errant head sail halyard. Given that we were in 12 foot swells left over
from the big wind the day before and rolling side-to-side pretty severely, we
decided the first option was the way to go. We knew this would be a feat
in itself given the rolly conditions and the size of the sails. Our worst
fear was that one or both sails would go overboard, and hauling a giant, wet
sail back onto the boat was not something we were looking forward to
doing. We turned the boat into the wind and dropped both sails.
After what seemed like an hour of flapping sails (really less than 5 minutes),
we had the sails safely on the deck. After Don set up the halyard
properly, we turned back downwind and put the sails up again. The whole
sails up, down and up again process took us close to two hours and in the end we
discovered the wind had died and shifted direction so it no longer made sense to
have the downwind rig up. After several giant sighs on both our
parts, we partially dismantled the downwind rig and turned on the motor.
Meanwhile, the rest of the rally fleet kept going and those that could see us
over the course of those two hours were probably wondering what the
heck we were doing. It's times like these that we wonder why it is that we
like sailing so much.
The wind was light last night and we were able to
sail, just. This morning the conditions were perfect for the downwind rig,
so up it went again. This time with no calamities. We are now
rolling along in the moderate swell at 6 knots. Heading north. We
are hoping for warmer weather soon. This business of wearing socks, long
pants and sweatshirts is really for the birds.
More tomorrow.
Anne
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