More Halyard Drama

09/14/02

    The wind moderated and veered yesterday afternoon, and we were actually able to lay a course on the rhumb line.  Last night was a pleasant night, and we shook the reefs out of the main.  When I woke up this morning, however, the wind had freshened back up to 20, and we decided to put two reefs back in.  When furling the jib, the furling line had gotten stuck, and closer inspection showed that the halyard had worked loose and the top of the jib fitting had fallen below the wrap stop, a  fitting at the top of the extrusion (headstay) that prevents the halyard from twisting around the headstay when the jib is furled.  As a result the halyard was twisted.  We tried to untwist it the best we could but we ended up having to send David up the mast to clear it up.  This was a bit more tense than the first time he had gone up, as it had been calm conditions then.  This time it was blowing 20-25 knots and the boat was really rocking.  It went smoothly, and we were able to get the jib back in shape without too much trouble.  When Eric was putting the main halyard back on the sail, he lost his footing and fell, luckily against the ratlines, but in the process let go of the halyard, which was flailing all over the place.  The substantial shackle on the end of the halyard was a projectile, which if we weren’t able to catch it with our hands, threatened to really hurt one of us.  Since David still had the bicycle helmet on from his mast trip, he climbed the ratlines and snared it.  This whole situation was caused by my not tightening the brake on the winch enough when I had raised the jib the first time.  I was once again taken to task for my lack of seamanship.

    As of now we are doing 6 knots with a double-reefed main and staysail only.  We are looking at arriving at Cape Town tomorrow evening.  I will be kissing the ground on our arrival.