ARC Day 4: Parasail Blues

This morning, the winds were still very light at 5 or 6 knots, but by the afternoon, they slowly began to build. Rudy and Sylvie had rigged the Parasail, ready to hoist, and all we needed was for the wind to settle and deliver a steady speed of 10+ knots. Without this, the Parasail would not hold up reliably. Eventually, we felt confident that the wind was here to stay, so we raised the sail with the halyard, pulled up the sock, and everything went up smoothly. We were sailing happily along at 5+ knots in a 10-knot breeze. “Perfect,” I hear you say.

We were on a starboard tack. On this tack, the starboard tack line and the port sheet are the working lines controlling the sail, while the port tack line and the starboard sheet are eased out and inactive.

After a couple of hours of steady sailing, it was time to jibe the Parasail from the starboard tack to the port tack. In theory, this is a relatively simple operation: ease out the starboard tack line and the port sheet while hardening the port tack line and the starboard sheet, all while turning the stern of the boat through the wind. “What could go wrong?” I hear you ask. Well, apparently, quite a lot.

The helmsman, who shall remain nameless (but he is closely related to the boat), turned the boat slightly the wrong way—just enough to collapse the Parasail—before correcting. But alas, it was too late. The edge of the Parasail managed to find a spreader, and the wing support lines became tangled in the pulley on the jib sheets. The jib, having been over-furled, had its pulley sitting on the forward side of the furled jib, practically crying out, “Catch on me!”

The net result of this brief misstep was significant: the edge of the Parasail tore where it caught on the spreader, and several lines supporting the wing broke. The damage rendered the sail unusable onboard; it would need to be repaired by a sailmaker.

This incident was painfully reminiscent of an earlier one we experienced while sailing down the coast of Portugal. The challenge with the Parasail is that it doesn’t get flown often, so it’s difficult to build proficiency. The solution? A full dress rehearsal before raising, jibing, or snuffing the beast. Truly, it’s the school of hard knocks!

We continued southward, weighing two options: continue to Cape Verde to find a sailmaker for repairs, or turn west toward St. Lucia once we hit the trade winds. Either way, we planned to continue south for another day, so there was no need for an immediate decision. With full main and Gennaker we are still making good progress.

This is the Parasail before picture:

We did not capture any after pictures, but take it from me, they were not pretty.

I reached out to the ARC office and asked them to connect me with someone in Mindelo who could repair our sail quickly. To be continued…

In the meantime the crew remains in good spirits and are enjoying very smooth seas, fair winds and good food.

Two Knotty boys, learning how to make a soft shackles.

Just another sunset:

Finally, in the early evening there was a really bright light in the sky, so bright that we could not figure out what it was. But with the help of the "GoSkyWatch" App we managed to figure out it was Venus. Amazing.