A stitch in time
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Thu 23 Dec 2010 19:16
16:42.31N 29:28.72W
Thursday 23rd December 2010
Distance run in 24 hours: 139
Total distance run: 268
Distance left: 1762
A good day's run to midday of 139 miles - a few
days like that and we will be there in no time.
Not many of those miles were added this morning
though as we started the day by attempting to put in place the poles that hold
out the headsails when we run downwind. The wind has been edging ever
closer to our stern, making it difficult to maintain a decent heading when
sailing on a broad reach., so by poling out the headsails we can run directly
downwind and stay on course.
Not an easy task, but we had the first
pole fitted and ready to be raised when Steve noticed some threads hanging
loose on the yankee, the smaller of the headsails. Closer inspection
revealed that the stitching holding on the sacrificial strip on the foot of
the sail had deteriorated and some of the fabric was hanging loose.
Then the fun began. We had to get the
yankee down and back to the cockpit, where we both spent the next four hours
stitching the sacrificial strip back into place. Then we had the extra
excitement of getting the yankee back up again, before setting up the whisker
pole. Fortunately the winds were light and the sea fairly calm, so
working on deck was not too difficult. (Yes, worry warts, we did wear our
lifejackets and harnesses and were safely clipped on all the time we were on
deck)
We eventually got the headsails poled out at
about 1600, almost a whole day's work. We're both very tired, but
satisfied with our handiwork. We had the sails checked over in Marmaris in
April, so were a bit cross to discover the degraded threads, but equally annoyed
at ourselves for not getting the yankee checked again in Lanzarote before
leaving as we had the genoa.
Both headsails poled out.
The whisker pole and the repaired sacrificial strip on the
foot of the yankee.
We are now sailing along nicely at about 5 knots in
fairly light winds.