Blog from Ineke (AQP)
What a day! Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. We have finally found the steady trade winds and sailing should have been perfect under these conditions. And whilst the crew mostly enjoyed helming the Code 2 in this weather, said sail had other ideas. After trying to wrap itself in different forms throughout every watch, the fifth time of heroically trying to unwrap the kite by the crew ended up being the last drop and so the code decided to blow its own tack. The best we can figure out is that the tripline got tripped in the flapping of the wrap. So down she came! Thankfully with only very minor damages, which Dawn and Brian, our amazing sail team, diligently set out to fix straight away.
So whilst that was being attended to, it was a good occasion to give our Code 3 another change, as the wind was increasing anyway. After the race down to Portimão we had all but written her off, but with love and a lot of hours of stopover time, our sail-making team (have I mentioned yet that they are amazing), with the help of Martin from Hyde Sails, have given it a new lease of life. So up she went. And she flew beautifully. Until 30 minutes ago. When doing a routine check of the halyard it looked like it had sustained considerable wear at the top. So we decided to play it safe and get the sail down, only to find that the halyard was fine! So now we are cruising along at a considerable slower pace waiting for the Code 3 to be re-packed so we can hoist it again. If nothing else it is good practice for the crew, but I am sure we much rather all be speeding along and getting some sleep.
Back on deck now, in the hope they are ready.