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La Cigale - Day 11 - 29 November - Sailing close to the wind



Another flying fish landed in the middle of the deck last night while we were having supper. It was quite surreal. We reckon that ever since Harley kissed the mahi-mahi the other day, before releasing it back into the ocean, word has got out, and now they all want a piece of the action...

During dawn watch this morning, Francis helped the Skipper unfurl the gennaker and raise it up. Watching the pair of them on the bow, silhouetted against the rising sun, I enjoyed the sight of the seadog teaching his young pup new tricks - in this case a bowline knot.

A lazy day, things were going perhaps too smoothly, so late this afternoon, a sudden change in wind caused the gennaker to flap and knock the wind instruments, which stopped working immediately. We were still getting direction, but not wind speed, making the windhold setting on autopilot redundant. Not good news. There seemed to be some rotation at the top of the mast, which gave us the slim hope that lubricating it with some bike oil might fix it. Just as we were reconciling ourselves to a long night ahead and the prospect of scaling the mast in the morning, the Skipper turned the engine on and steered the boat full on into the wind, banking on a chance in a million, and it did the trick. Hurrah! The instruments are back working! For now...


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