On the ropes.....
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Wed 26 Jan 2011 04:47
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Wednesday 25th January 2129 Local Time 1329
UTC
06:25.41N 099:52.12E
Today we left the anchorage at Kuah town to run up
the windward side of Langkawi to an anchorage called "Hole in the wall". As the
name suggests you enter the anchorage through a very narrow gap between the
cliffs of two high limestone pinacles.
The waters around Langkawi are very shallow and it
is a little disconcerting to be blasting along at full tilt, hard on 15 - 20
knots of wind doing 8 - 9 knots with only two metres under the
keel.
The problem with the waters round this area is the
lack of clarity meaning you cannot see the bottom in almost any depth - so we
have to hope the charts are accurate.
Anyway there I was charging along as I said
at full tilt just saying to Trish how fantastic it was, after so long,
to be having such a wonderful sail in slight seas and only twenty to twenty five
miles to go, rather than the more normal many hundreds of miles! There I was
selling the mirage of hopping from anchorage to anchorage for a week re-charging
the batteries and picking off the jobs one at a time ..................
when
Bang! down came the jib. The head had burst out of
it and it of course made a wild beeline for the deck! This is our
smallest sail but it is a big sail, the luff must be 25metres or so. The
wind was blowing at 17 - 18 knots.
I just laughed, shook my head and furled what
was left on the forestay round the foil and turned on the engine to motor sail
to our anchorage. Trish said "what are you laughing at?" well I said
"what else can I do?"
The jobs are accruing faster than I can get them
done. I feel a little like a boxer pinned on the ropes just absorbing the blows
till the other fighter runs out of steam. Sooner or later there will be a lull
in the onslaught of issues and I will come off the ropes fighting!
No problem, we have another two sails and an engine
if need be so that will keep us going till we get to a sailmaker in
Thailand who can put a head fixing on the sail that won't let go in 17
knots....
At anchor we wrestled the rest of the sail off the
foil and folded up the jib, which to be fair has been a powerful driver and has
not given us too many problems before now.
None of this mattered as we were now ensconced in a
stunning anchorage surrounded by high limestone cliffs only 20 metres away.
Monkeys are dashing about their impish business and there are eagles everywhere
several plunging to the sea beside us on their fishing trips.
Tomorrow is another day... which no doubt will have
a couple of unplanned events too. That's fine I'll be up early and my guard is
up.
I'll post some photos
tomorrow.
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