Pierre says “What a time to be alive”

We have been sailing with the spinnaker all day at a steady, if not racy, 4-5kts directly for Horta, some 450 miles away. At around 5 HBT (Heldeleine Boat Time) the wind decided to quickly shift and wrapped the spinnaker around the headstay. Tom and I raced to the bow, Pierre controlled the lines in the cockpit and Max steered the boat. We were able to free the sail but it had tacked itself to the other side and screwed up all the sheets etc. We attempted to pull the sleeve (like a sock pulled down to control the giant sail) down but it caught and would not move. Of course the wind which had been docile all day decided the gust as Tom and I tried not to do a Peter Pan act on the foredeck. Pierre released halyard and we got the sail down. The sheave (a pulley) at the top of the spinnaker sleeve had broken. We were able to rebuild the sheave and put Humpty Dumpty back together again, raise the spinnaker, pull up the sleeve and set the sail. It was a great team effort and certainly adds to the adventure. But…that’s enough for today, thank you very much. Also today, Pierre, our IT Genius, created an excel spreadsheet so that we can keep track of the engine and generator hours, consumption and generate usage data. This will help us forecast future rates of use and put our minds at rest that we are not running out of diesel. This has been on our minds as the wind disappears and we started bobbing in the ocean. Tom has cooked a spaghetti dinner and it’s time to go. Regards to you all. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.


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