A Tricky Maneuver with the Halyard

07/21/02

    We were on a nice run all night, but then this morning the wind speed was up to 20 knots from behind, and was beginning to overpower the boat.  Eric decided to take the main down, and set the staysail instead. 

    This was a bit tricky, as the waves had become pretty big, and though they didn’t seem so bad when they were coming on our stern, when we turned to face the wind to drop the main, their presence was indeed felt.  We had a  little glitch while rigging the staysail halyard.  The whisker pole had already been rigged for the jib, and was poking out perpendicular to the boat from the mast about eight feet above the deck.  When we unfastened the staysail halyard shackle from it’s home on the shroud, we realized that the halyard had to pass over the whisker pole and topping lift before we could attach it to the sail. 

    We attached a short line to the halyard shackle, and David had to climb up the ratlines (wooden ladder that goes up the shrouds) and pass it over to me.  This was quite a daring maneuver, with the boat  continuing to roll madly from the waves.  We managed to get the halyard safely passed over, and raised the staysail after two attempts.  In  the first attempt I got the wire bunched up in the winch and couldn’t hoist it all the way up, much to Eric’s perturbation.

    Of course, now that we have done all this, the wind has once again moderated.