I had the 4am - 7am off watch. I was woken by Hans that the genoa had tore. Earlier in the night, everything had been so good. We had tacked North when we could clear Lanzarote and its small off lying islands to its North (the Minor Canaries) and had sailed North along its West coast. The conditions had not been very challenging; 23 knots of breeze and we sailed with full genoa and two battens reefed in the main. It didn't happen during sail handling. It just tore. Very soon it was in two pieces; one attached to the forestay and the rest pulled through the water only held by the two leach lines.



There was no point in furling it; just dropping it and trying to get as much of it onboard rather than in the water. We struggled. It was heavy. Then the next challenge was to rig a replacement; i e the stay sail. The halyards were all tangled up, the inner forestay that needs to be fitted, was a bit corroded and not lubricated, so it was very heavy to set up. We couldn't reach the jib sheets because of the genoa taking all foredeck space. Eventually we got there, but by then the increasing wind and waves had swept the remnants of the genoa half overboard again.



This time we didn't manage to pull it back at first. Had it got entangled around the propeller or keel? Maybe we had to cut it loose? We had to stop the boat to ease the load on the sail that we were now towing through the water. Down came the stay sail which we had spent time hoisting and the main. Eventually we got it all onboard and tied the sail on the aft deck instead. We were under way again, but with reduced and less efficient sail plan. It was now 11 o'clock in the morning; i e more than five hours later.



Later we lost some ropes that we had not stored properly on foredeck. Not a disaster, but certainly annoying! I hate losing things, especially swept away into the sea. I could have prevented this and moved all of them, not just a few to the safety to the cockpit. We think that we couldn't prevent what had happened to the genoa, but losing the ropes is just not having the energy to go the extra mile when you know that you ought to.



The wind increased through the day and the sea state got increasingly bad. We had some 30 knots of wind gusting 40 to knots in a rain squall in the evening. That is a force eight and at times gusting force nine. The rain clouds brought severe gusts. Not fun; why are we doing this? The seas were very confused. It was a wet and uncomfortable ride. In the early evening we were tacking West, as the wind started to veer East. Hopefully this would produce "a banana shaped" course up to Madeira with the winds increasingly coming from the East.



Hans and I had a post mortem about the day's events. Ripping the genoa could not have been prevented. It was probably only a question when it would happen due to a combination of old age and being one of heaviest used sails. At least a new one will give us better performance in the future! How did we deal with the situation? I was certainly quite confused and did not have a 100 per cent clear course of action as a skipper. We did the right thing in the end, but a bit slow. Losing the genoa a second time over board was stupid and even more so the ropes. We had no major injuries, but Hans had got slightly hit in the head and had some bruises to both a foot and a finger.



The pretty bad conditions later in the day took its toll on us. We were not seasick, but certainly queasy; not helped by the diesel smell that has prevailed since emptying the fuel tanks. We ate, but not much. We carried out our tasks, but not more than necessary. Was there joy, not really at this particular moment. Let's see how we will view it in hindsight. We decided to stick to our original plan, as neither returning to Arrecife nor going straight to say Southern Portugal seemed to offer any advantages. Lessons learned include more preparation before setting out (like checking halyards) and not storing things unattached or badly attached on the foredeck!