26 November - Into the trades, and a spot of bother (again)

26 November - Into the trades, and a spot of bother (again) We just managed to scrape in our daily 144 miles over the last 2 days, ......we need to keep up our 6 knot average. Progress is helped by our magic rig. Boomed out staysail to windward, well forward and fairly flat so it feeds wind into the genoa to fill it at all times even well offwind. This rig is almost as fast as a cruising chute and is safe and stable. We had hoped for quiet Saturday at sea, and so it started. First signs of tradewind clouds and a little less swell. Temperature definitely on the up. Getting in our stride and taking on little jobs on board. We see other boats about every 2 hours and sometimes chat on VHF. There is a big HF SSB chat session amongst the cruising section at noon daily so we can get the weather, and positions and swop banter.
Crusising chute up each afternoon once any overnight chaos has been cleared. This a very large and sometimes troublesome sail which we fly with pole, sheets, and guy, as an asymmetric spinnaker. Pulls like a trooper but a bugger to launch and recover. Up today at 1300 and crack along all afternoon. Cross 20 degrees North at 1500.
As evening arrives, our troubles begin. Time to get 'the thing' down. David is the bowman, with Nick in the cockpit and skipper faffing on deck directing. Guy and sheet slipped and the halyard run, but the sail stays firmly up while its bits begin to wrap up everything forward of the mast. Panic ensues and darkness arrives. Skipper dons his climbing gear for bumpy ascent. Ropes everywhere. Up aloft the problem is obvious. Spinnaker block mangled and halyard jammed in the remains. Skipper clinging onto 30ft arc of swing and wishing he was elsewhere and 30yrs younger. Once released, the chute falls far below into our bow wave. Battered descent to deck with mangled halyard block. Deck looks like aftermath of tsunami. Crack on with getting out big genoa and boomed out staysail. Leave the junk till tomorrow. Must keep speed up. Crew make skipper go below to cook Chili as he is getting in the way. Beer all round. All totally knackered and bruised after 3 hours of mayhem. (Fastnet race anyone?). Not looking forward to tomorrows mast climb to reinstall spinnaker halyard and block. Crossed tracks with 2 boats tonight. At least we managed a 146 mile day despite the knockbacks, and tomorrow we crack 1000 since the start.
Not looking forward to further mast-climbing.
M, D, N on RAPAREE