Antigua!!!
Meryon.bridges
Wed 16 Dec 2009 14:19
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We've arrived. 19 days and 1 hour, quite a
quick passage, and we're immensely pleased to be here. Great
experience.
However all did not run as smoothly as previous
blogs suggested it would. Having crossed 99.8% of the Atlantic we had a
drama on the last night when a mere 40 miles from destination. At about
five o'clock in the morning the wind speed went from about 25 knots to 56 knots
in the course of 5 minutes, as an unseen squall bore down on us out of the
blackness of the night. That's Force 5 to Force 11! We were caught
with one person on watch - Peter M, and sails suitable for a moderate breeze,
mainsail out on one side, Genoa poled out on the other side. Suddenly all
was noise and confusion. Flossy lost control, Peter siezed the wheel as
John and Meryon groped for trousers below. With a huge bang the genoa
sheet parted (breaking strain about 5 tons) and suddenly the genoa was flogging
madly in the storm. Unbalanced by the removal of the pull of the genoa the
mainsail gybed, slammimg across from one side to the other. John and
Meryon got the genoa rolled up and Meryon then went forward to get in the
pole and sort the chaos on the foredeck. Meanwhile the boat gybed again
with a second resounding crash. The wind was beginning to ease and the
lashing rain thinned. We reduced the mainsail to a tiny triangle and set
part of the Staysail, by which time the wind was back to a moderate
breeze.
In the light of day we found that of the three
wires which secure the main sheet to the boom, two had parted in the course of
the gybes. Mercifully one had held, preventing the boom flying loose and
wrapping itself around the shrouds, doing serious damage. A jury was
rigged and we limped in Jolly Harbour on the west side of Antigua, tying up at
11.30 local time on 14 Dec.
Antigua is lovely, and the people are very friendly
and helpful. We've already got the sailmaker on the case, we've had an
electrician round to advise on a charging problem, now resolved, and the rigger
is coming tomorrow.
More in a day or so but the battery on my computer
is about to expire.
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