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Scarlet Oyster - Log Day 4 - more carnage!



Hi All,

Seems that problems come in threes and I think we have had our three now!

Awesome sailing yesterday, really flying with the kite up, topped out at 17.1kn, with many visits into the 16's, made 10kn av for the time it was up! As it was getting dark we were monitoring a line of squalls that were passing just to the N of us, behind appeared clear skies tempting us to hold on to the kite into the dark despite having a bit on with the driving. Would be a pity to have taken it down to find the wind at 20kn or less...

As the last of the cloud appeared to be passing it seemed to be dropping, all good it seemed... Anyway, minutes later the wind was back at 30k plus all seemed ok till a big wave coming from the N spun the boat out. With now well over 30 apparent, I was quite concerned about the rig with it's new 'composite' rigging, we as always are rigged for an envelope drop, so I made the call to release the guy to get the kite down rapidly. Unfortunately the poles closing speed with the forestay was a little too high, resulting in the pole shattering on impact. The pole then took out the spin wrap net and we ended up with kite, pole end and wrap net round the forestay several times.

After 2hrs clearing up we were good to get the headsail out again, and spent the rest of the night sailing a bit slow slightly the wrong way while we all chilled out a bit!

This morning we repaired the kite, which looks good, and fixed the wrap net. We have a plan for the pole involving pipe cots, and spare battens and a lot of screws, string and of course duck tape! Alex went up the rig and managed to sort out the mast head wind instruments, which got blown half off their mounts on the 1st night, and ended up hanging off the side of the rig, he has given a guarantee that they will remain in place for the rest of the trip! It is bl**dy nice to have working wind instruments again!

We have made the call to take it easy till we have lighter winds, good news is that we should be back at full strength soon and are still in contention. The boat is sailing well, we just need the right conditions to exploit that
with our new fast learning crew.

Our routing has us in lighter winds in a day or so, hopefully we will stay in touch with Quokka and Zen enough till then! Meanwhile it is nice sleeping knowing that we are in full control!

Food on board has been exceptional thanks mostly to Jenny, she has done very well cooking in a galley that is far from on an even keel! All onboard are well and getting used to life at sea. It is time to head south for the sun
and calmer seas methinks.

All for now

Ross




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