Jadamama - Day 6 blog - Check for chafe !

From our staggered watches we went to bed and slept on the problem. How to fix our beautiful big blue butterfly? This monster trade wind sail, commissioned especially for the ARC, had been doing its job perfectly, filling for one and a half days and drawing us along at an average speed of 7/8 knots. Then at 22.00hrs we discovered it had started to tear from the foot three meters up along the centre line. All hands needed on deck to furl it. It required massive energy of our skipper and crew, sitting on the trampoline, legs akimbo, pulling in unison to haul all 200sq metres down, bag it and stow it back in the cockpit. The Donovan brothers, Olympic gold medalist rowers, each pulling like a dog, couldn’t have done it quicker.

A Saturday morning full Irish breakfast with recycled toasted croissants went some way to cheering us up. We discussed the endless permutations of if and how to repair it. We would need to unfurl the sail, lay it out from the stern, through the cockpit, into the saloon and down either side into the cabins to get at it. And then we would need flat calm to re hoist it if it hasn’t already smothered us.

A game of scrabble is ongoing to challenge and amuse us. One member of our crew has set himself the task of using only nautical vocabulary. His words so far are helming, hound and moused! Great words but not sure I believe him on the latter one! To mouse?

Maryrose