Misfortunes are said to arrive in threes and our final twist in the trilogy of ‘ripped medium weight kidnapping by rain squall’, was having managed to stay in contact with GREAT Britain by a few miles.
On rounding Tory Island we found both spinnaker halyards had snarled and jammed in the starboard mast head block. So the first hour of our excursion to Rockall was spent sailing deep to assist getting up the mast and sorting the problem out. Eventually spinnaker down and Yankee 2 up saw us hard on the heels, but well to leeward of our current partners. During yesterday and last night, some excellent helming from the team has brought Unicef back in touch and as the wind eases I am going back up the rig shortly to get the block down so we can free the halyards.
The medium weight is well on its way to being ready for its next calling thanks to commitments from both watches and will most likely be needed when we round our next mark. Pats on the backs of all the team for digging deep in what was the most challenging 24 hours of the race so far!
There is general opinion on board that it is already autumn and the ice breakers are coming out of their hideouts to get another airing. Due to the intensity of the downwind aspect of the sailing, it was impossible to absorb the scenery of Tory Island yesterday, and sadly it was a blur on the horizon before I got down from the mast head, not even time to switch on mobile phone.
All good for now,
Cloughy