Brad is a bit of a whiz with cruising chutes because he is a very serious racing sailor and Mike has worked with them before so has some experience. Carol however is a complete beginner.
For the rest of the Pacific crossing we will be deploying and recovering it with just the two of us so Carol decided to practice while we had extra pairs of hands on board.
The orange bag is manoeuvred onto the deck and clipped on.
The three corners are secured. One to a line on a pulley that will take it to the top of the mast, one to a shackle at the very front of the boat and one to a rope run to the back of the boat.
Mike pulls it to the top of the mast while Brad and Carol keep it gathered up. 
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Obviously what happens almost immediately is that the wind drops and it needs gathering in again as Mike lowers it. |
There is quite a lot of it. |
The trick is to shove it down a hatch and then sort it out and restuff the bag in the saloon. |
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and it’s gone. Ready for next time.
