5 o'clock in the morninng, life was good, sun was shining, the SOG neared double numbers :-)
Bang - down went the gennakker. Chafing in the top - haul dumped in the middle of the mast - happy days.
So we had to deliberately sail into a more calm area ( thanks to Clearpoint weather always very accurate). Once in there our climber hero Tom had a couple of trips to the top - to grind some sharp edges and hoist a new haulyard for the gennakker.
After job well done (the gennaker haulyard was reinforced with some garden hose!) we celibrated with dinner and a beer - just to find that the wind was completely gone. And I mean completely - we were doing 0.5 knots BACKWARDS and not even a gennakker hoisted could back us around :-)
So time for swimming and generally enjoying the calom sea - around 4 in the morning we had the wind back (as Clearpoint exactly predicted).
So back in the race - with quite some miles to catch up.
All the best,
the crew @ Ahead