Moonstruck - Sail Repairs

November 29th 2009
Distance traveled: 1,238 Nautical Miles (at noon UTC)
Distance to go: 1,766 Nautical Miles (est.)
Position: 19.59N 31.57W

It is unbelieveable how quickly the sails start to deteriorate in the trade winds. Our Jib has a sunbrella (canvas) cover stitched to its borders which protects the sail from UV deterioration while the sail is furled (rolled up on the headstay). During the night the stitching for this cover started to give way and as the cover came free of the sail it started to flog which would quickly damage the sail itself if not attended to. So we hove to and pulled the Jib down. This took all four of us. Sam and I on the foredeck and Joan and Lauren steering and helping to haul the unruly sail back into the cockpit for examination and repair. All in about 20knots of wind. A few hours later we had sewn up the damaged portions of the cover, but in examining the sail it was quickly apparent that the remaining original stitches were wearing very thin and would not last much longer - particularly if the sail is allowed to flog at all. We put the jib back up. This time Lauren joined Sam and I on the foredeck and she hauled the jib back up. We then poled it out to give it more stability. The main is still looking good except for the aforementioned damage to the leech/leechline.

With the Genoa back up we were back to a brisk 7.5 knots + again and could put our minds to trying to regain some of the large amount of time we have lost.
Alan's Log.

Very difficult night, sleep came in ten minute intervals, as large waves rolled the boat. In the morning not only did we take down the massive jib and haul it into the cockpit, repaired it and put it back up, but we also dragged the stay-sail off the fore deck and into the cockpit and set the whisker pole to pole-out the jib. During all this activity the auto-pilot stopped for no apparent reason, which caused us to heel very steeply, catching Alan and Sam off guard. They both fell and hit their heads, Alan has a goose-egg over his left eye and a bruised thigh and Sam has a scape over his left eye. We are so thankful and lucky they were not seriously hurt. Our eighth day at sea, and not even half way there yet. I know I'm sounding like a whiner, but this not a pleasure cruise.
Joan's Log.