ARC Day 14: Jibe Ho - Finally.....

You might recall our jibe five days ago did not end well—not because of anything we did wrong. The crew executed a perfect controlled jibe, but that was the moment the mainsheet decided it was time for a trial separation from the traveler. When questioned after the event, the mainsheet commented, “I just felt trapped; he is very controlling, and I was never allowed to go out alone.” We’re all hoping that the offer of counselling a new car (traveler car) will entice the mainsheet to return home once we reach St. Lucia.

Before executing today’s jibe, we had to address a potential hazard. We have a small radar reflector atop the rigging, typical of what you’ll find on most sailboats. However, the ARC requires that you carry a large radar reflector that is either a) mounted on the rig or b) ready to be mounted on the rig. Stephen picked up a large radar reflector on the British side of Gibraltar, as I was unable to cross the border from the Spanish side to the British side (a story for another day). While in Las Palmas, I decided on option “a”—why have one if you’re not going to use it? But looking around, I noticed that few, if any, boats had a large radar reflector mounted on the rig.

The reflector consists of a few diamond-shaped sheets of aluminum that slot together and are held in place by flimsy plastic clips. Cutting to the chase: one of the clips popped off, leaving a pointy piece of aluminum poised to rip into a sail. It was on the port side, so when we jibed, there was a real risk of damage. Before we could safely jibe, it had to come down. Time to climb the mast!

I’ve climbed to the top of the mast several times while tied to the dock in Las Palmas and felt quite comfortable up there. However, going aloft when the boat is rolling and the mast is swinging is a completely different challenge.

With Byron on the winch, I connected the bosun’s chair to the topping lift line, climbed in, put on an additional safety harness, and donned a headset for communication. Our port-side winch is manual, so Byron had to hand-winch me up. Up I went, one hand on the stay and my feet bracing against the mast or the sail to avoid turning into a human “wrecking ball.” Fortunately, having the mainsail out made the task relatively easy, as I could use it as a surface to “walk” up. Mission accomplished, and Byron safely returned me to the deck.

With that done, we executed a successful jibe and adjusted our course, moving from a heading of 240 degrees (35 degrees south of west) to 315 degrees (45 degrees north of west). Without our parasail, we have to sail off the wind and jibe every few days. It’s slower than sailing straight west with the parasail, and we’re seeing our second-place position slip slowly away from us.

While slower, not flying a spinnaker has its advantages in squally conditions…

This is one of many such reports.

Timour was on hand with his SLR camera and captured some great shots:

Another nice thing about having an SLR with a zoom lens is that it makes inspecting the top of the mast easier. You get a much clearer view from the photo than you do using binoculars. Note the 2:1 chafe protected halyard. You may recall we were having twisting problems here on our Sardinia to Canary leg and when we attended the "ARC Rigging Session", the person who was giving the lecture (who happens to be a rep for one of the parasail companies) recommended eliminating the 2:1 in the halyard. We dod this, but on our test sail found that the force required on the winch to tension the !:1 halyard was "very uncomfortable". Temour re-rigged the 2:1, and added chafe protection. His advice to avoid twist was to fully tension the halyard. This has worked so far.

David commented yesterday that being on a boat is "Fixing things in exotic places", this is so true. Over the last couple of days we have had:

1. The radar reflector fall apart

2. Our AIS position stopped being broadcast (not yet fixed)

3. The jib coming out of the slot on the furler

4. The SuperB battery monitor stop working (requires wire to be connected/disconnected)

5. The connection of the autopilot ram to the rudder arm loosening
   

Fortunately, these are all very manageable issues, other boats have had worse.

As of 4.00am on December 9th we are in third place in the cruising catamaran class, I expect we will be overtaken by more spinaker equipped boats in the coming days. We are definitely "out of the race" and can enjoy a safe and enjoyable cruise to St Lucia.