Man up!

That's my man. To Alice (Steve's Mom), you may not want to read this!
After sailing 4 days and nights, we finally landed in Bahia Santa Maria just in time for the
Baja Ha Ha beach party. So fun to meet up with current friends and to make new ones.
Start time to head for Cabo was 6:00 am the next morning, so we hit the bunks early and woke
up at 5:30 am. The weather report was so favorable for a beautiful 30- hour spinnaker sail.
15 knot winds out of the Northwest, wowie�... can't wait. After motor sailing for 4 days, we
were all anxious to get some good sailing in.
OK. We were a little too anxious.
Anchor came up, and 5 minutes later we set the shoot. Still behind the hills, the wind was
fluky. But up the shoot went, and immediately the sail wrapped around the head stay. And
then we got another wrap on top of the first one, then another, and another! Before we knew it,
we had a knot from hell around the headstay with lines over lapping lines. Life jacket tight,
clipped to the boat at the bow, Tim and Steve tried desperately to untangle the knot. Waves
were getting higher and higher. Soiree was rocking from side to side. All options and ideas
to solve the problem were heard.
Finally, Tim looked at Steve and said, �"someone has to climb up the headstay (we are talking
60 feet high).�" Steve digs out the boson's chair and gears up for the climb to the top of the
headstay.
Back in the cockpit, my heart was pounding. I steered a course into the wind, while Anne used
the electric wrench to pull Steve up. Anne and I reviewed the man over- board protocol, while
Steve was hanging on for dear life�... swinging back and forth with the rocking of the waves-
trying to free the sail. (You can see his head just above the spinnaker.)
What seemed like hours, (it was actually 10 minutes) Steve finally got the spinnaker loose, and
down it came, with Steve inching slowly behind it. Once he landed, he gave me a big hug and
smile. My brother Tim dubbed him �" a real stud�". That's my man!
Part 2, Spinnaker is up again, and we are going 9 knots. Weather is beautiful and we are
enjoying that sail we long awaited for�...the ordeal a distant memory (almost).

You can follow our position at
At the bottom of the page you can click on the Soiree's Position Link.