Webster - Up the mast and under the boat - a day of outdoor activities

Wednesday 7th May 2014 Noon position 28 00'N 64 46' W Noon day run 135nm

Early this morning 0200 hrs we had a really peculiar and worrying noise coming from the sail drive so I was awoken from a deep sleep to ask my opinion, rightly so, but did not have an answer so we throttled back a bit and carried on.

At 0600 there was still little wind and the sea state was calm so it was time to try to get the spinnaker that remained half up and half down tied to the mast finally fully down. This meant someone going up the mast and Neal was keen but nowhere near as keen as Igor - he had even brought his own climbing chair and a hard hat for such eventualities and, being a keen climber, was in his element. So up he went and retrieved the spinnaker and halyard but not until he had taken a load of photos from up there - he is a keen photographer too, what with his mustard sandwiches and endless Slovenian jokes, there is no end to this man's talent.

Whist stopped it was unanimously decided by the crew that the Skipper should be the one to go over the side to take a look at the sail drive just in case there was something seriously wrong under there. Two minutes later I was ready to go and jumped in with wet suit, fins and goggles. The water is so clear you could see for miles under there, just as well as there are unfriendly critters in these parts. The problem was quite apparent as a big clump of weed attached to the leading edge causing the prop to cavitate, the noise we were hearing. A quick visit to the prop soon sorted that and we were soon away again. Just to celebrate, Neal made a full English breakfast, sausage and all. He was duly rewarded whilst having a 'splash and dash' shower with Dave throwing a bucket of sea water over him through the heads window. What followed next stays on tour!

We were trying to head. east over our rhumb line as the wind expected to fill in from the north veering north east later but our course was more north than east By 1300 the wind had returned and at last made some easting under sail. We were now on port tack and Neal and I went t investigate the source of the leak that I was putting down to the sail drive having exhausted other options. Neal immediately spotted that a Y joint in the forward heads was pouring water in. This had been checked before but only on port tack was the outlet under water. Turned off sea cock and problem solved for the present pending a simple fix in port.

The wind dropped off again towards evening which allowed us at last to have a more civilized dinner together without plates sliding all over the place - we even had a glass of red wine as it was such a lovely evening to go with the rissoto I had rustled up.

As soon as it became dark the wind picked up again and came in with a punch. The expected shift to the north east appeared to have arrived so we tacked and immediately put a reef in both the main and the jib followed swiftly with reef two and a further roll in the jib as the wind hit 30 knots. The waves are horrible right on the nose so we are banging and crashing a lot which just goes straight through you as the boat vibrates. Looks like it s going to be a long night.

We have been having a limeric contest today. My effort, there were few others repeatable, was:
Aboard Webster was Igor from Slovenia
For whom cooking held quite some mysteria
For him mustard was not hot
So he used quite a lot
And made us all fall about with hysteria.


Oh well early days. Will be back tomorrow if the boat hasn't shaken itself to bits by then!

Charlie