Last night at midnight, at the usual time for sail problems to occur, we went to furl the screecher as we were seeing some gusts that were a bit big for that sail and found it didnt work. A quick examination showed that the lashing that ties the furling fitting to the sail, had been damaged and cut. Presumably as they must have got loose at some point, and the then cut up by the furler fitting. We worked out a way to safely get it down (given that it is 77m2 and there was some wind around) and after an hour, without incident, we had it lashed to the catwalk between the two tramps. It was pretty straight forward, and we were very lucky that the wind didnt build during the process. In the light of day today, we managed to lay it out on the tramps, and a couple of hours later we had it all repaired and back up in use. Not having it would be a bit like not having 4th or 5the gear when you were driving from Sydney to Brisbane.... Not life threatening but pretty frustrating!

Anyway, it is as good as new, and we have some new knowledge on how the continuous furling system works.

On more positive news, the sun is out today! well at least it was for a few hours. Still not enough to charge our batteries much, but positive none the less.

Les cooked a very delicious bacon, poached eggs and mushroom brunch, and now we are working on a few jobs before the night sets in.

The wind has reduced as forecast and we are now seeing 8 to 10kts from the Southeast. The sea is pretty flat and we are cruising along at about 5kts.

Nothing much more to report,

back to sailing...