Pierre was on his 11-2 watch last night (having deep French thoughts, no doubt) when at midnight he saw the newly repaired spinnaker fluttering gracefully down into the pitch black sea. The head of the sail had chaffed through and parted at the top of the mast. Now only attached by the clew and tack the sail went under the boat and around the keel. Shouts below brought Tom on deck and he quickly was able to haul aboard the head of the sail and secure it. I had arrived at this point and together with Pierre we were able to get most of the sail aboard inch by inch. As the boat rotated, we freed the sail from the keel and hauled the rest aboard. Shit! My bowline knot was still attached to the head but about 8″ up the line it was chaffed through. The line must have jumped the sheave at the top of the mast and chewed itself apart with the rocking motion of the boat. We stuffed the remains of the sail into it’s bag and set the main and genoa and agreed to tackle the rest in the light of day. So, this morning we set the genoa on a pole and went wing and wing with the main to stabilize the boat. Then we removed the tangled spinnaker, straightened things out and reinstall the sleeve over the sail. We then took down the pole with the genoa and rolled in the main and rehoisted the spinnaker on a spare halyard and so it has been flying in all it’s glory today. Also we saw some freakin’ dolphins….again. —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS’s OCENS.Mail software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.