What a day, we woke up after 3x3x3 shifts last night which in essence gives an amazing 6 hours rest, unless you are me and drew the middle shift from 12-3am, anyway we are working to UTC on the boat which means actually it was still dark. So I woke to breakfast with the boat and a plan had been hatched to fix the code 0 to the mast with a prussik loop using the bosun chair. Now a this is easier said than done, making sure that that we are safe especially as we are officially 1000 miles from land, we double checked our plan and made sure that our roles were clear. There is a huge risk to go up masts at sea, with all sorts of potentials to go wrong. So with a plan set Holger set about climbing the mast with the aid of an electric winch. The ground school had been practiced and rehearsed significantly with the muttering of “a double f*#king eight knot” which actually translated was a double figure 8 knot. This Is just how things sound on the boat, a bit like when Holger was diving in the 3 metre swell trying to thread the rudder to the pin, like a mad man from he deep ocean , sounds of “blurble blurble” could be interpreted to mean that we have success.
As Holger ascends the mast the ground crew gathers with anticipation of the previous 24 hours, the “black hosed” man starts to look look small, the wind was light and the conditions were good. It appears for once that fate and fortune smiled on us, because the test went seamlessly and it appears that the rational was good. There was much to be celebrated as we spent the next few hours setting the system to its new position, sheets being attached new positions for the e dress line, new temporary outside halyards running down the mast.
With the grand hoisting of the code 0 into its new position we were all elated, this however was short lived as we noticed that there were two tears in one of the code 0 panels. So our code 0 moment was short lived as a squall moved through our position leaving a wet deck and more of a delay to get thing finished
Down came the code 0, out came the spinnaker tape and patch repair have been added.up went the code 0 on an extended pole along with the poled out Genoa. All of this was fantastic however we don’t have any wind to use it I have no idea what to do about this.
The whole morning has proved to be a great photo opportunity and each one will tell a unique time on our adventures