….. TWANG … FLAP….. SPLOSH….
Not far from St Lucia now – soon we will be back to reality after being in a completely different world for the past 2 weeks. This has been a fast crossing with many weather systems to keep us on our toes.
So now we are preparing for landfall. Looking closely at the weather ahead we have started to formulate our sail plan for crossing the finish line – such as which sails do we want safely stowed to ensure a safe finish with maximum maneuverability whilst not compromising too much on speed.
Other preparations involved Clare going up the mast for the second time! This time it was for re-aligning a hailer-speaker that was pointing skyward. The reason this was necessary is that we have selected a couple of 'victory' songs to play over the loud-hailer for crossing the finish line and whilst making way through the cut into Rodney Bay Marina. A number of other yachts that we have been in contact with by VHF have done the same thing! So far our short list runs to Tom Jones' Sex Bomb, the 1812 Overture, Rule Britannia and Yellow Submarine.
….. something just went twang … flap….. splosh….
The lashing that attaches the top of the Genoa to the Halyard failed dropping the large sail over the side to port and trailing in the water. A very heavy sail we needed to get it back on board quickly. The Skipper took control in the cockpit trying to slow the boat down while the three of us battled with the sail in the rain! By lying down on the aft deck and waiting for the boat to heel over hard to port we managed to grab the head of the sail as it surfed down a large wave back towards the boat but the boat speed was still too high and the sail was pulled out of our hands back in to the water. So we left the sail dragging in the water and needed to take the ballooner down to reduce speed and - in the process the skipper brought the boat round to de-power the sail which had the unexpected effect of blowing the lower part of the sail back on to the boat. The crew's attention was once again diverted to the Genoa as we skipped across the deck. A combination of re-catching the Head of the sail and walking it up along the deck combined with hauling on the bit that had blown against the rail allowed us to pull the whole sail in over the guard rail – lashing it to the boat with any spare lengths of rope.
With this sail now safe we took down the Ballooner. Although the Ballooner had been protecting the Gennaker from too much wind, the apparent wind had dropped significantly so it was still the safest thing to take it down. Unfortunately – due to sods law – 10 mins after the Ballooner came down there was another twang… flap … splosh…. and the Gennaker Halyard had snapped dropping this sail to starboard. We couldn't believe it. A much larger sail (over 100 square meters of sail) now dragged along in the water. This time we were already up on deck attempting to stow our Genoa so our reaction time combined with the sail being a lot lighter allowed us to pull the sail back on deck quite quickly. 2 hours after the initial incident – and very soggy from the continuous rain – we had both fallen sails safely stowed in the forward locker. The Crew retired to the cabin to consume a large bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk Crunchie. – except Big Bad Jon who has reduced his Chocolate intake in lieu of Beer!
Sallyanne just ran the last Net Controller for Group D (Boat Numbers 21 – 78) since we should all arrive in St Lucia before the next Net at 1500hrs Wed 12 Dec 07. In case any group D yachts have a delay the Net Controller from Group C (Boats 79-139) - has kindly agreed to pick up any strays from Group D. Within a few days I imagine that Group B (Boats 140-199) will be doing the same thing for Group C, with Group A (Boats 200-264) picking up all the stragglers.
So now that we have slowed down due to the smaller sail configuration we should arrive during the night tonight – ETA 4am UTC – or Mid-night local time in St Lucia – so bars closed – Is there anybody out there willing to request that 'Bosuns Bar' remains open until after we have arrived?
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