Day 10
Kahia
Paul and Catherine Davis
Tue 20 Dec 2011 17:35
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16:36.91N 51:14.15W
604 Miles to go.
Yesterday evening Paul had to go up the mast to the
first spreaders to untangle the halyard from the starboard pole, which came
loose and when coming down found himself stuck on the safety
halyard. With nervous sweating, (yelling at Catherine "Let me down!
Let me down! She replying "I am, I am!) he managed with a lot of
adrenalin-fueled pulling to get down. Back on deck we found that
the halyard had wrapped itself around the radar reflector and mast-steps. We
will untangle that one in port and will need to run thin lines along the
mast-steps to stop this happening again.
How nice it was to finish the day at the cockpit table
with a small glass of wine and the delicious Dorado meal.
We had to motor last night for a little less than 8
hours as the next to nothing wind went all over the place. We were able to
get our batteries to 100% and at 2.30 am were doing deck work in the dark under
the multitude of stars, setting the sails for a broad reach.
This morning, when furling up the headsail, we found
that the halyard of the second sail dropped last night and its removable
forestay were wrapped around the the semi furled headsail, along with
the sheet jammed on the top of the pole.
It took a good hour with Paul at the bow and Catherine
in the cockpit furling the sail backwards and forwards to get everything
clear and set for stronger winds.
We are now sailing, comfortably at an average of 7 kts,
wind force 4-5 ENE and believe we will stay under the same tack all the
way to Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour, Antigua, where we plan to meet
up with other yachts we met in La Gomera, Canaries.
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