All up for early start untangling stuff. A crazily busy morning. Pull spinnaker halyard out of mast by sewing another halyard to its tail. This in order to replace the smashed head block. Multiple painful mast ascents. Skipper goes aloft and swearing at the waves 50ft below as he clings on with teeth while assembling and mousing 3 shackles and block at crazingly gyrating masthead (cliche warning). Job finished at 1330 with all crew feeling thrashed. Time for cheese and fruitcake. Desperate to get some revs on to improve our speed but too knackered to face up to another hoist of that devil's bag of tricks called a cruising chute. Decide that as its Sunday aft we should be happy to do some dhobeying and trundle along at 6kts under twin jibs and main. Skipper slightly pained at possible loss of rankings but tired crew make painful mitsakes for little gain. Next debate is when to turn west (which could be a slow dead downwind run) as we are now keeping the wind on the quarter to maintain speed. Sooner or later this will turn to handicap rather than gain. We've got to work out when to turn.
Still trying fishing but nowt gained except for loss of 3 traces and lures. Plenty of flying fish, but no big scary creatures. They are being kept at bay by the dreadful smells emanating from the boat. Stale bodies, rotten clothes, sour milk, cabbage, old fruit, bodily waste etc. A bit like an old bungalow in Eastbourne or Bournmouth I suppose, and when did you see any whales there? Now that reminds me, where did I put that Stenna Stairlift for the mast?
Mike, Nick, David, on RAPAREE
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