29 January 2011
Pole up, pole down, pole in, pole out, main in, main out, mizzen to port, mizzen to starboard. Jibe ho, jibe ho! We were exhausted. This was far too much like hard work, not the way we like to do things on this ship. Besides it was interfering with our sleep patterns. I had to get David up twice last night to change everything over as the wind changed. I even had to keep putting my book down to tweak the autopilot! We had had enough of this loitering about the ocean. The time had come to shake off this lethargy. The time had come for action! We had had a week of very leisurely cruising. We had toyed with the idea on and off for days, always finding an excuse not to. Well, it was lunchtime, it was always someone's turn for a nap, the wind had just gone up a notch etc, etc. We always managed to talk ourselves out of it. Voyageur had to move up a gear and we could procrastinate no more. David was determined. The ballooner was going up. As soon as the morning roll call had been completed we galvanised ourselves into action. Being a little rusty, the procedure manual had to come out. We have flown this sail on only two occasions throughout the whole trip, once from St. Lucia to San Blas and from Galapagos to Marquesas. With just two of us it is a bit of a handful and has the potential to go badly wrong, the worst scenario being that I would have to put David up the mast right to the very top. So when I see him open up the bow locker, the butterflies start to take over and the 'rescue remedy' comes out of the medicine cabinet. Having no wind instruments adds to the degree of difficulty. We put Voyageur beam on to the wind so that the sail could travel easily up the slot but we were dismayed to find the wind had increased commensurately during our lengthy preparations. "It's too strong" I protested as it got stuck halfway up, wrapping itself around me and the forestay in equal measures. It threatened to take me over the rail. (I was firmly clipped on however and not going to part company with the boat or David for anything). But David would have none of it. It was going all the way to the top. I started to pray. He dived back and forward to the cockpit adjusting the autopilot a few more degrees into the wind. The sail released me from its powerful grip and up, up ,up up it went. The mouse engaged and with a giant tug the halyard was hauled back down to the deck. Now we both raced back to the cockpit to set Voyageur on her downwind course. Slowly, gradually the sail billowed out. We had done it. Now we could forget all about the sails, just one degree, plus or minus, to port and starboard every now and then. We can run like this for days on end. We went back to our books. Trouble is though at some point it has got to come down.....
We reached our halfway mark during the night of day seven. Off to our port we could see a light which we thought was Ariane. They had raced away from us two days earlier however it turned out to be Tucanon. They became our new neighbours for a day until the wind backed and they headed on a more westerly course finally losing their lights late into the night. We had our second serious squall since leaving St. Helena. With no wind speed information we have to be ever so careful to judge when to reef the sails. The beauty of the Amel system, is that unlike spinnakers, gennakers, parasailors and cruising chutes the twins headsails can be reefed together so in theory there should be no panic to get the thing down should the wind suddenly and dramatically increase. We have even flown these 'twins' in winds of force seven.
John on Tzigane sounded very upbeat chatting to David on the SSB this morning. They are getting used to hand steering and during night hours have sensibly opted to use the engine, steering to the compass rather than the sails. The moon has all but gone now and too dark to see the sails. They have also got the hang of goose winging so that is helping them to keep close to the rhumb line. Fuel might be an issue for them though but there are enough of us around. We are only 44nm ahead and have only had about two hours on the engine so far. Our five day tour with them is now booked and I should imagine it is just what they will be needing......
Susan Mackay