The Main Event
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 19 Sep 2011 17:15
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Monday 19th September 1608 UTC 1708
BST
16:33.257S 002:42.619W
Wind: ESE 20 knots, COG 310 Deg True, SOG 8.5
Knots
St Helena is now only 170 miles away. You will
notice that I have now crossed both the Greenwich Meridian and the longditude of
our Southampton Departure. If things go pear shaped I will be claining that as a
circumnavigation. I don't want to hear your arguments.
After yesterday's drama it was a poor night with
winds cycling between 20 and 30 knots, up and down all night. Sleep was hard to
come by. I was forced to sail in a very narrow slot deep downwind and as seas
built there was the ever present danger of a gybe. The winds eased a bit through
the day today to a more steady 20 knots but are showing signs of increasing
again as forecast tonight in that cyclic manner which they did last
night.
Not long after leaving South Africa I had hatched a
plan to sail right on by St Helena if all was well. I kept quiet about it
until I would see how the forecast held out and also to make sure nothing would
go wrong. However on the other hand I had been really looking forward
to visiting St Helena and seeing what shoreside adventures I
could get up to.
However for entirely different reasons than I was
hoping for I now firmly intend to sail on by, barring any disaters tonight or
tomorrow. Whatever I can get at St Helena I can probably get at Ascenion 700
miles and four or five days beyond St Helena. Brazil is 1800 miles down
wind from St Helena and Ascension as I have said is 700 miles NW of St
Helena and the Cape Verdes are 1,600 miles NNW of the Ascensions.
Had nothing gone wrong I would probably have
decided to sail on at least to Ascension anyway. From there I could assess which
way to go. Brazil has always been an option. However here is the reason why I
have now decided that I must "sail on".
Those of you who are long time followers of this
blog will recall almost two years ago I had the initial problems with my
electronic in mast furling controls. These electronic controls being something I
couldn't really fix in the event of failure were removed and electrical controls
fitted. When the electronic controls went so did the fail safe overload
control on the system and it was our intention to review and refit this on our
return to Europe. In fact the underspecified drive components in the mainsail
furling system failed also.
Normally while I have been at the controls I
have been able to nurse the two temporary repairs that have been done over the
past 18 months to the furling system until such time as it would be
re-engineered on our return to Europe. By then it would be thoroughly tried and
a first class long term well engineered solution would be installed together
with a new form of overload control. That's all very well but "Europe" is 5,000
miles away.
I can barely believe what I did yesterday. During
the emergency rescue of the genoa before the forecast strong winds kicked in (
which they certainly did ) I was resetting the main on the starboard side to
cover of the re-hoist of my genoa. When out against the spreaders the main is
set very flat by applying tension to the outhaul with the sail completely
unfurled (that avoids putting any torsional strain on the furling foil
which caused the two previous failures).
So ..... while back in the cockpit and focussing
totally on the genoa problem I had eased the mainsail out to the spreaders and
cleated off the preventer line forward. Then in the cockpit I reached down
to the winch switch to haul in the main sheet to tension the boom against the
preventer. For some unbelievable, unexplicable reason in my exhausted zombie
like fashion, I pressed the mainsail "furl in" button which, unprotected by an
overload, sheared the furling foil!
However I didn't know it then and only when doing
my evening deck check did I notice it. I was sick. That's why the blog is late
today, there has been a lot of thinking to do. The full main is up and up to
stay or down until a repair can be completed. What a bloody numpty! I just don't
believe there is any way I could get the mainsail back up alone. Certainly not
in the 20+ knots of wind we have here. So if I go into St Helena I will
obviously have to drop the main to anchor and would have to be certain of
getting a repair done. I think it probably could be done and I probably could
get someone to help there but the anchorage is barely tenable with this wind
strength and direction.
If I did go to anchor in St Helena and can't repair
it then I am stuck without a mainsail all the way back to probably the Canary
Islands. If I can stand these winds again tonight with full main up my hope is
that then as winds ease tomorrow night that I can carry the main at least to
Ascension and possibly through the calms and squalls of the horse latitudes
to Cape Verde............... and if I can get that far then the Canaries
are only 1,000 miles away albeit up wind..... One step at a time, but lets
see what the night brings. If anything goes badly wrong I can still head into St
Helena.
You see I told you that the wrestling match I had
trying to undo that knot at Capetown was only a test of my resilience and
determination.
The skies are still endlessly grey and so to some
extent is the mood....
However I have to say it is always uplifting to
receieve so many well wishing e-mails each day. Thanks a million. I thought one
from Singapore last night would outdo the one from Portland but no Portland
still has the record. I am however sailing closer to Portland and further away
from Australia.....
Oh yeah and one other thing - I am not going
through all this grief just for your free entertainment, sooo.. what I want
every single one of you to do - yes you too, you chancer - is share the joy and
e-mail this blog link to at least one friend www.blog.mailasail.com/rhiann.marie
you must have at least one, or ask them to follow the link on www.gaelforcemarine.co.uk . Please
do this and let's see if we can drive readership to the highest on Mailasail's
server. Last time I checked we were the second highest - not good enough - get
mailing.
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