Escapado - 27th November

Today we made our first trip up the mast at sea to retrieve the pole up and spinnaker halyard which popped early in the morning. Tom was hoisted up the forestay with 16 knots of wind and the full crew on deck to make sure he was safe, be reassured that the procedure went very smoothly with Tom only completing a couple of pirouettes. While we prepared pesto pasta and GB (garlic bread - named by Eddie) we were joined by a beautiful pod of dolphins fully leaping out the sea at sunset. All was too good to be true... successful spinnaker hoist, dolphins, good wind, pasta in the pan... 15 minuets later, half way through a bowl of steaming pasta while Charlie and Alister were controlling the power behind the big blue kite. The wind began to pick up. “Spinnaker drop” screamed our skipper Sophie, pasta bowls were flung aside as we jumped to our positions. Myself, Jake, Tom and Donato moved swiftly forward to the foredeck to attempt the drop. I have never felt such power as all four of us heaved on the guy, the wind caught the kite, without a second warning we couldn’t release the sheet, the lighter of us gained air as we were picked up of the port side, saved by Jake we tried again successfully grabbing the clue this time we pulled the kite in throwing our body weight at the live animal to stop the wind catching it. As we headed back to the cockpit our first ration of Haribo was opened. I’d say they were very well deserved and needed after the adrenaline rush!