Noon Position: 25 28.0 S 166 05.0 E
Course: South west, Speed: 4 knots
Wind: North wast, F5 strong breeze
Weather: Overcast, warm
Day's run: 122 miles

|I can see this damaged headsail is going to cause me a little grief before we make landfall. There is a little block (a pulley for my land lubber friends) at the clew of the sail which is for tensioning the leech line. Why it is there is a bit of a mystery to me as one really needs no mechanical purchase in order to tension the leech. It is what undoubtedly caused the damage to the sail in the first place, catching on the shrouds and ripping its cover off. And now that it no longer has a cover it is threatening to catch on anything in its way and tear the leech line right of the leech. If I get the chance in a light spell I shall drop the sail and remove the block. And when I get back to land I will contact North Sails and tell them what a silly idea I think this leech line block is.

There are some complex frontal systems we are getting caught up in at the moment which is keeping me on my toes – and wet. At the moment we are under a double reefed main and a staysail. It is not really quite windy enough to justify the staysail but I have furled the jib so as not to cause any more wear and tear on it so that hopefully I will still have something of a headsail left to get us around in the lighter stuff.  And we are still making god a comfortable four knots into a lumpy sea so figure we will stick with what is working for now.

I have run out of coffee. What a careless oversight. Bother!

All is well.