Our Second Atlantic Crossing – Day 12

DIST SAILED: 1742 nm
DIST TO GO: 518 nm

The last day has, like many before, been a bit hectic. We have been making around eight knots with nothing but a reefed mainsail up. That is a tremendous speed! You can only imagine how strongly the wind must be blowing. Most of the hectic stuff during the last day happened while Peter and Sebastian where on watch between seven in the evening and one in the morning.
First, the mainsail had to be re-reefed, because the previous reefing was unsatisfactory. In order to do this one has to go by motor against the wind. When it is blowing around 25 knots, the difference of facing upwinds and downwind is huge. Any sailor can comfirm this. Additionally, we were moving against waves the size of houses. All in all a bit of a scary experience, but a relatively straight-forward and normal thing to do.
Second, one of the fastening points of the mainsail came loose. The mainsail runs on a rail up along the mast and is attached by small cars. One of these cars coming loose is not a very alarming situation in itself, but it needs to be fixed. Luckily, it was one of the lower ones. Peter resolutely climbed the mast with some wrenches and solved the problem. An interesting experience in the middle of the night, in 25 knots of wind and with waves the size of houses.
Thirdly, our “kick” gave out on us (we call it a kick in Norwegian, and I assume that the name is the same in English, but I am not sure. I am not talking of a Norwegian “sparkstøtte”). A kick, in our case, is a hydraulic arm fastened between the lower point of the mast and the boom. Its function is to keep the boom down as a sail filled with wind will try to pull the boom upwards. We have jury-rigged ourselves a new kick out of some straps and the gennaker sheet. For the time being this seems to be working well, but we are hoping to make proper repairs when we reach the Azores.
Apart from the above-mentioned incidents, all is well abord!
Postitive Spirit.