Just noticed that anything it type after inserting a picture in an email doesn't get posted...
Hourglass post continued: Basically, one half is wound one direction and the wind has wound the other half in the opposite direction. My weight made very little impact on trying to pull it loose and the wind was whipping it around with abandon to make it worse. It took about 45 minutes to finally coax it free. My hands and arms were exhausted. Felt great to get it resolved.
This happened to me one other time on the way across the Atlantic on one of my middle of the night watches. I managed to resolve it eventually then so I had some reason for confidence that I would get it worked out eventually. Altering course to have the mainsail blanket the wind helped a bunch.
Today I've had a big sloop, "Enzo", a 70 foot yacht on my tail most of the afternoon. Initially they were 6 miles behind, but they chewed that down to 3 while I was struggling with the gennaker. They're certainly a much faster boat overall but I've felt good to be holding them off so long.
I'm glad I was spared the embarrassment of them blowing by me with my sail looking like tangled laundry :-)
A bit late now, but can you imagine how much help a 70 footer's shadow would be - especially with on or two of their crew to help out with lines. Anyway, you sorted it yourself and didn't get overhauled by a much bigger and fast (in principle) boat. Always feels good to have the edge on another boat. It's not a race - unless there's another sail on the horizon.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting to hear if you got my email.