If it's Monday, it must be the jib
11 June 2011 | 17.5N; 142W
Peter
I was stretched out on the cockpit seat last night, marking time during my 2130--0030 shift. At midnight I glanced up, as I typically do every +10-20 minutes just to make sure things are all right. Imagine my surprise to look over the leeward rail and see the jib floating in the water next to the boat! Hmmm....that doesn't look right!
I hauled the sail aboard and mused at the myriad of things that could have produced such a situation. When we were in Grenada last January I had the jib fall down. The webbing at the head of the sail that I had sewn on the year previous had failed. Typical Greek webbing. I expected to see the new webbing in a similar state of failure. When I had purchased it from the sail loft they said it was special Dyneema webbing. I was beginning to wonder if I had been sold a bill of goods.
But when I got the jib aboard I was surprised to find the webbing repair I had made in Grenada was just fine. The failure came from somewhere else. It was too late, and i was too tired, to try to figure it all out just then so I handed the watch over to Jim and went below for some much-needed rest. We vowed to address the situation in the morning. In the meantime, we sailed the rest of the night under a triple-reefed main.
This morning I surmised that the Spectra line I had used instead of a shackle likely failed. In any case, the head of the roller furler was still at the top of the mast and required someone (me!!) to go aloft and retrieve it. For those of you doing the math at home, we are talking 10- 12' seas and the top of the mast is about 62' up in the air. You can only imagine the wild ride at the top of that pole!!
I climbed aloft -- quickly, gingerly, but carefully. I took breaks when the swing got particularly bad. Jim did a great job tailing the halyard from the deck and soon I was at the top of the mast hanging onto it with my legs like a koala bear! I confirmed my earlier suspicion about the Spectra line failing and then sent the top of the roller furler down the head foil to the deck. Jim lowered me down quickly and I was safe and secure before too long. What a wild, scary ride that was!!
I found a shackle and we hoisted the jib back up. That takes a lot of doing because the sail is heavy (made even heavier by the water) and with the seas and 20k winds, it was quite an effort. But we got it all up OK and headed back down onto our course towards Hilo.
I am feeling pretty good about our sails. We got the main repaired yesterday; the jib today. I think we should be in great shape (he said with fingers crossed!). We are closing in on our target -- 850 nm to go at this writing. It should be Sunday at the latest. We may even be able to make Sat. evening. Just depends on the wind at this point....and keeping the boat together!!