10-Jan: It was a spectacular moonlit night running with the wind that steadily increased to 20+kts, giving us a smooth but somewhat rolly ride at 7-8 kts speed. Ellie and Glen play with the star gazing app, GoSkyWatch. Truthfully, Ellie doesn’t need it, as she knows all the stars and planets by herself! Then a play with the sextant, a Christmas pressy from Ellie, Alex & Jennie. But it’s a bit tricky seeing the horizon while taking a moonsight at night.
After breakfast our attention turns to the sails, furling away the main but leaving the boom pinned out with mainsheet and retainer. The genoa is then “poled-out” using the boom as a pole. Now we are classic downwind sailing with twin poled headsails. Not sure that it feels any more comfortable though, as we continue to roll 🙁
Today is much more cloudy. Early afternoon, as we end up between 2 rain cells, the wind shifts 20deg and the genoa collapses. As we furl it in we see that the block on the boom has broken and the genoa sheet worn through, probably just moments from parting! We need plan-B next time we use the boom as a pole for genoa. So for a few hours we only have poled staysail – not much sail area but we still maintain 6-7 knots in 20-25 knots wind.
Next drama is when Glen notices the lazy runner disappearing into the mast slot – yes, we’ve managed to furl the runner into the mast along with the mainsail. OMG, we pray it hasn’t jammed the mainsail in the mast!
For lunch Oana makes her steamed vegetables and smoked salmon dish, but discovers that our 3-pot tower steamer is a different animal in a rolling sea compared to cooking in a peaceful anchorage!
After post-lunch zzzzzs Glen is on deck pulling the jammed runner while Oana and Ellie gently unfurl the main. One of our biggest headache scenarios is getting the mainsail furling jammed – we are relieved when it unfurls and the runner pops itself back out of the slot! So it’s back to reefed mainsail and poled staysail for the night time sail. Let’s see what configuration we can come up with for tomorrow’s entertainment