14:40.13N 39:30.52W
0445, Saturday 25th November 2023.
Merde! Our medieval spinnaker (& that’s being polite about its age) is no more! Soon after midnight, with about 9kts of wind up our chuff, a loud pop from on high, followed by an awful tearing sound. Nick looked up to see our wonderful friend in pieces. It was doing so well at propelling us along in the light winds we’ve got, that we all feel a sense of loss! The call for “all hands on deck” was hailed and the crew donned their lifejackets to gawp at and haul down the sorry sight aloft. Not even Ed’s marvellous sewing skills, can put Humpty back together again!
The back story: in the build-up to the ARC+, we all decided that a spinnaker pole was needed and after a bit of hunting around we found a secondhand carbon one suitable for RB in Guernsey. We sailed over to collect and Nick had some end fittings adapted to make it fit RB.
The pole was initially envisaged for polling out the genoa, however DB, always the racer at heart, moved on to say, “well now we’ve got the spinnaker pole, we really should get a spinnaker as well”! Much rolling of eyes from the rest of the crew - that’s going to mean some sail handling and foredeck work on our crossing! After some searching, the ‘Battersea Home for Sails’ was found, where old, poorly and unloved sails go to either be euthanised or found a new homes for the rest of their mortal days. A quick hunt through their kennels and Patrick and Nick found our unruly pooch looking up with longing eyes. Heart strings were tugged and with DB bouncing around like a euphoric kid, a deal was struck! The pooch was a bit moth eaten in places, so the home’s vet was asked to patch it up - “she’ll be like a new pooch - honest”; so with a handsome donation to the home, our pooch was bundled into to boot to begin its new life on board RB. I think in an earlier blog, I mentioned that Nick gave her less than an hour of life and Mark about 15 minutes max. Well she did well: a great 24 hour run and several 12 hour spells hoisted aloft. We were always careful not to fly her in more than 15kts of wind due to her fragility, so it was sad to see her die in a 8 - 10kts of breeze. She tore in the top panel, which had been heavily patched by the said vet, so clearly a weak point. She probably carried us a good 300 to 400 N miles in total.
With the light wind forecasted to persist during the night and after trying a poled out genoa that flapped and crashed about in the rolly swell, we dropped the sails and turned on the engine until daybreak, when we’d assess what options we had. The batteries need a good charge anyway!
Other than that excitement, it was a fairly quiet day yesterday. We landed another Wahoo (5kg) which Nick is going to salt and dry - some fishy biltong to join the beef biltong he and Ed made earlier in the voyage! Let’s hope it doesn’t hang in the day heads to dry like the last beef sacrifice did! Rich went exploring the ships stores and baked up a surprise fruit cake and another loaf of soda bread. His first effort at cake making was deemed a success, as the crew ate 2/3rds of it within minutes of it being taken out of the oven.
We also had a hitchhiker join us for a few hours. An exhausted bird landed on the solar panels to take a breather. Some morsels of tuna were sent up but we’re not sure if the bird has eaten them. The bird seemed to settle down and tried to get into the furled mainsail, but went back to the solar panels, but with all the rolling, I can’t believe it can cling on for long. Let’s hope it’s grabbed its tuna snack and the rest with us enables it to get to where it needs to.
That’s all for now folks!
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