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Hot Stuff - day 15 - kitemares



So far in our blogs we have talked a lot about all the beautiful skies, stars, dolphins and flying fish, but yesterday was a different kind of day.

We had been flying our spinnaker for four days, had been getting it up with ease and were getting well practiced at helming with it up. However, just before happy hour yesterday I was in the galley when I heard that we had wrapped the spinnaker around the forestry and it was "ALL HANDS ON DECK". We had squirrels in the forepeak trying to pull it down and a team on the bow, and in the cockpit all working together to try and get it down, listening to the surprisingly calm instructions from our skipper Lizzy.

There was a lot of grunting and sweating, we were all working together but really not having any luck, no matter how many different things we tried. Our spinnaker was wrapped with the uphaul and the halyard all tied up around the forestry.

By this point Lizzy had put herself in the harness and bike helmet and said we would have to go up and cut it down. By "we", I mean she went up there armed with her safety knife, keeping our spirits up by shouting pirate slang like jack sparrow, as she hacked it down.

Lizzy managed to safely cut it down and we managed to save the bottom half, while sacrificing the top section to the Atlantic. We lowered her to the deck safely, no one was injured and we have decided that we prefer to pole out our head sail anyway!

Needless to say that lunch was a bit late, and we all wished even more so than usual that happy hour included nice cold drinks, not just the tuna sandwiches.

We are still in high spirits, having lots of laughs and making good speed. We are only about 1,200nm from St Lucia so not too long until a well deserved run punch, or two, or three!

Sending all our love to friends and family back at home,
From the crew of Hot Stuff xxx


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