Arkyla - D+2: Parasailor misery

They say fortune favours the brave; well it also s***s on the stupid! What a great ride we had been having…3rd in class, 26 in monos, and 33 overall - not bad for a ‘sturdy’ girl like Arkyla, and all mostly with thanks to the Parasailor.

Before sundown on night 2 we deliberated if we should pull it down, but decided that we knew we could handle the forecast gusts. By 2100 it was clear we were wrong and, fearing for the rig, reluctantly decided to make a night drop.

One small error led to one large disaster… the spinnaker halyard was accidentally let loose from the mast winch and down came the sail alongside the boat in the Atlantic.

I’ll cut a long story short here, but over an hour was spent recovering our nemesis on deck before being unceremoniously stuffed down the forward hatch into the crew quarters. The sail is half in and half out of the sock, and at least one tear noted in tge fabric… no more Parasailor until leg 2 from Mindelo.

So, having had our bottoms firmly spanked by Zeus, we continue on under jib and reefed main trying to catch the pack of which we were once leader. To quote Edmund Blackadder… “bugger"