What a difference a day makes
![](/static/images/logos/site-logo.png)
RAVEN - Atlantic Circuit 2021-22
Richard Foulkes
Fri 3 Jun 2022 10:00
47:27N 16:31W
We have had an “interesting” and challenging 36 hours onboard Raven, hence
the lack of a blog update yesterday.
After several days of strong winds and seas, we had thought that conditions
were starting to improve a bit on Wednesday evening and were looking forward to
more favourable winds for the subsequent few days.
The Gods had other ideas and late on Wednesday evening we suddenly lost our
forestay , which parted at the deck fitting in the bow, and the genoa headsail
which split into many pieces. During the course of trying to get that situation
under control we were unable to start the engine which has scarcely missed a
beat for the 9 months of the trip so far .
Fortunately at daylight yesterday we were able to clear the wreckage of the
forestay and genoa but we have not yet been able to fix the engine, which
appears to have a blocked fuel line probably caused by all the churning about in
recent days and weeks.
Sadly Marie Antoine, our self steering gear and 4th crew member, suffered a
broken “shoulder” at some stage before or during the incident so she is out of
action for a while and we will see if we can fix her.
We got moving again yesterday afternoon with a reduced sail plan, jury
forestay and storm jib, then dropped the sails overnight so we could all get our
first sleep in over 24 hours. We hoisted sails again earlier this morning
feeling more refreshed and are now able to point in roughly the right direction
but our reduced sail capacity means that our speed is slower........so our
arrival day, which was uncertain anyway, is certainly delayed by at least
a week.
We have adequate food and water onboard and are in regular contact with
Falmouth Coastguard who can give further support as necessary, so are doing OK
but apologies that Allan and Simon are not getting the sunshine cruise they were
expecting and for any problems caused by our later
arrival. |