0

0

Sunday 3rd October
We said farewell to Goldsmith and with light winds we headed south. The gennaker went up as we left the bay. The wind and swell were so low we decided to experiment with our other sails. We have a bag marked spinnaker that we have not opened as we either didnt have the correct wind conditions or competant crew to hoist a spinnaker. A spinnaker for this size boat requires more than two people.
So out came the spinnaker. As we we pulled it out of the bag we could see it was smaller than our gennaker, so it was off another boat. Being smaller it wasnt going to do us any good putting it up instead of the gennaker. The wind was coming from behind, just off the back quarter. So we hoisted the spinnaker along side the gennaker. It gave us a good look at the sail and two sails are always better than one. Having the two sails up gave us better spead but we were crabbing quite a bit, so it had to come down.
We also have a sail which we had tried once before and couldnt work out where it would fly from. The sail is another light weight sail and the corners are marked head, aft and tack. So we rigged it that way and hoisted it along side the gennaker. Once up we could see it also was not made for this boat. Although, it did allow us to point higher and increased our speed.
We then had the bright idea of flying the spinnaker off the pole and tying off to the bow like the gennaker but off the opposite side and run directly down wind for a while. With everything ready, Lydia hoisted the spinnaker while Sue pulled in the sheet through the pole. Andrew guided the sail as it went up. Problem! As it went up the sail twisted and looked like a figure 8. Andrew tried to untwist it. While doing so the bottom of the sail touched the water, immediately inverted to form a giant scoop. With several tonnes of water dragging the sail backwards, the pole was pulled hard up against the stay and had quite a bend on it. The only thing to do was for Lydia to cut the line from the bow. This opened up the scoop and we could then haul the sail back on board.
We decided to just stick with the gennaker for the rest of the trip to Keswick Island where we will stay a couple of days. We’ve had enough excitement for one day. Although once we dropped anchor, Lydia was off in the water heading towards the reef to snorkel when a power launch gunning his motors headed her way. She started power swimming towards the reef. Just when she thought it was safe, he turned and started coming back straight at her. She stuck her tall fin in the air, surely they would see her now …. and they did!