sideswiped by a squal
SPALAX
Marjan Golobic
Sat 5 Dec 2009 10:54
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Jean-Luc, our resident handyman, and I finally got
around to fixing the spinnaker pole. On the first day of the
regatta, we were flying a polled out genoa, but the pole kept slipping
astern along the sheet and banging against the stays.
We took it down but noticed that it was stuck at the mast end, so we
just tied the other end to the bow railing. The spring piston that
releases the end fitting of the pole from the mast eyelet was bent and
completely jammed. We kept banging away on the piston, moving it back and forth,
and finally getting it loose. Then we rigged up the pole with an
uphaul and a downhaul, ran the genoa sheet through the end
fitting and hoisted the genoa. But we mustn't forget the main
sail! So this was our butterfly configuration in a balmy 14-knot
breeze: fully unfurled poled-out genoa to port and a reefed and preventerised
main sail to starboard. Boat speed, you ask? Mere 8 knots max.
We kept this rig until late at night when we had a close call with a squal that
passed nearby, increasing our apparent to 24 knots and sprinkling us with a
few drops of rain. The main sail came down, but the genoa stayed up. Just
another perfect day in the trade-wind paradise (but no fish).
Should you wish to contact us, you can do so by
mailing SHORT MESSAGES ONLY WITHOUT ATTACHMENTS to spalax {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com.
Hope you are enjoying this voyage as much as we
are. I appologise for being so technical this time around. It won't happen
again.
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