Ian up mast at sea "36:07.60N 13:32.09W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Wed 29 Sep 2010 09:43
|
Alison & Frans nearly went swimming with
dolphins yesterday during the calm. That is, they went swimming and the
dolphins promptly swam off never to be seen again. Must have been the sight
of Frans in his bathing costume. Or perhaps Alison?
Lots of excitemeent today. Wind picked up yesterday
afternoon after six hours of calm. We put up the cruising chute (enormous sail
like a spinnaker but flown loose-footed, without a pole) and bowled along
famously all night. However we were tardy taking it down when the wind freshened
further in the early morning. By the time we did try to do so, at 0600hrs, it
had become a raging monster. Normally one uses a 'snuffer' which is a large
bucket attached to a hollow sausage-shaped bag, kept at the top of the mast. You
pull the bucket down over the sail, and it is 'snuffed' into its sausage.
Unfortunately ours was damaged in transport from Germany, and will be sent to us
in the Canaries. So we had to pull the sail down by hand. A nightmare,
involving wrestling with the beast on the foredeck in the dark,
occasionally drenched by (warmish) waves. We did eventually prevail, but not
without some damage. The sail was recovered intact, but Ian had to go up the
mast to replace a block (pulley); more repairs and parts will be required
once we're in harbour. but no serious damage.
Now we're back under main and genoa, heading
southwest and about 250 miles from Madeira with good winds forecast all the way.
ETA sometime on Friday. It's getting hot and we're planning to deploy our sun
awning for the first time to prevent the helmsman getting
sunstroke.
Jupiter was fantastic last night. Before the moon
came up it was so bright that it was casting a narrow beam of
reflected light on the sea's surface. Incredible to
see.
|