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Spinnaker Issues: An Update from Captain Hoy

A few days ago a couple hours before dawn the spinnaker fell in the water! Luckily no damage from the hull, but now the spinnaker halyard is skyed, or at the top of the mast. As it was as calm as its likely to get, I considered climbing the mast, but finally decided it wasn’t worth the risk since I expected the winds to pick up in a day or two and wouldn’t be needing the spinnaker after that. It’s not a tallship and climbing the mast at sea on a small boat means at least many bruises, and possibly much worse injury. It’s pretty violent up there!

The exact same thing happened in 2012 from Virginia to BVI. I finally figured out someone replaced the swivel with a cheap one with sharp edges. I replaced it with a better lashing, but it was cut through and skyed. As winds stayed light I did set the spinnaker again using the second jib halyard and that gave us some speed and a better ride in very light winds. We spent a lot of time running downwind with 2.5 kts of speed and 5 kts of apparent wind. Pitiful speed, but clear, sunny and a decent ride.

Yesterday we had 3 fat flying fish on deck. They were a little old and stiff to fry up, so I froze them for bait later. We also had dolphins! Layla was very excited as when she’s aboard we rarely see dolphins. I have seen many but when she’s with me the sea empties. They were smaller than I usually see with medium grey top, light grey bottom. Also, they don’t spend much time above water so they are harder to see.

Flying fish sacrificing themselves for our benefit! God bless’em

The winds picked up a lot yesterday and we sometimes make better speed, but have had several rain showers and gusty winds and the waves have built up so its much more rolly. Now it’s very hard to cook or do dishes. Everything is trying to take flight This morning had a pretty heavy shower and the wind keeps veering.

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