Day 12 - Passage to St Helena;
Misterx
Mon 17 Mar 2025 21:06
17/03/25
8:30 pm
Day 11
Atlantic Ocean
DTD : 284 NM
Less than 300MN, and down it goes. The pace has picked up a bit but without being uncomfortable. The skies have cleared up but there are a lot of big clouds around, giving us a bit of a boost... under every clouds there is usually a bit more wind! Fortunately the wind is coming from the back so we can take these little bursts without having to reduce sail. Nearly, oh so nearly, trade winds conditions... but not quite. Hoping to find them fully formed on the other side of St Helena.
Ian is checking the rigging every day as per usual, up one side, down the other, finding a flying fish stranded on deck nearly every day. In doing so, he's notice a small tear in the genoa yesterday, not placed at a very good height, right at the top of the sail, we won't be able to fix it without taking the sail down. Shame... the dilemma is do we carry on using it as per usual or do we try to keep this tear small and not making it worse, by not unfurling the sail any further... but this would slow us down. We have another genoa but much lighter cloth and it probably would not be suitable in a blow... We only need this genoa to last another 3 days and then we'll be able to repair once at anchor! It will only be a temporary repair, we have a special sticky cloth, a bit like a sticking plaster that will do the job. Poor genoa, came with the boat when we bought it, it was not new then and it has definitely clocked some hours!!! Apart from when the wings came into action for long periods in our first Atlantic crossing and then the Pacific, this genoa has seen it all... it looks battered and baggy after these long years of service, but we have made sure that everywhere we went it was looked over and seams strengthened preventively so until now we have never had a problem. This time is more serious as it looks like the head of the sail could potential be ripped off... the cloth is obvious weaken, but difficult to judge how far the tear could go. Think we'll keep it furled even if it slows us down a bit!
Let's hope the wind is kind Nearly there!
M