We are now 48 hours at sea and I am finally beginning to realise that we
are actually sailing again since we broke our mast more than a month
ago. We are steaming along under yankee 3 and double reefed main just 80
miles South of Korea and 180 miles West of Japan. I realised we are
sailing again when I took the helm. 25 knots of wind just aft of the
beam, gusting to 30 occasionally. I hit a nice wave and off we went: 13
knots! That short moment made up for all the waiting and the hard work
put in in Qindao and for the cold and for all the engine action just
after our departure.
The new rig has caused us some headache and concern.As the weather was
not very helpfull when we set off the stretch in the stainless wires
that hold up the rig occurred much quicker than you'd normally expect.
we now have a small S in the top of the mast but after a couple of
rounds of tightening the rig the mast makes a much firmer impression.
Up to 25 knots apparent wind we are fine anything above that would
require us to minimise sail area (drop the yankee 3). Our brand new
staysail has been showing off on deck. It is too new to go up in 25
knots of breeze. We'll wait for that until later when things are
lighter. Spinakers are currently out of the question: all the splitpens
in the top of the mast need to be taped so they don't rip our kites.
unfortunately we have torn our main sail just above our first reef so
we are bound to sail with two reefs until weather conditions turn really
light and we can take the sail down on deck to evaluate and repair (?).
I just spend half the watch in the masty and on our boom hanging over
the water to sort out bits and pieces. Great fun except when I was
catapulted off the top of the mast as the boat got tipped by a wave.
Yihaaa! I felt like superman but without the cape. I was wearing red
bottoms and blue and red boots ;-) Anyway the new mast climbs like a
dream... Just wanted to say that I am so happy to be sailing again.
