Saturday, 2 May 2015

2nd May - -Tandag to Catarman Bay (Mindanao) - minor problem with mainsail

Saturday 2ndMay 2015

7 degrees 59.928N
126 degrees 26.595E
Catarman Anche
10.6m depth
Between two reefs

A twelve hour day getting from…one part of the east cast of Mindanao to another.  We covered about seventy nautical miles.  Tomorrow we will get up at 3.00am and try to do…eighty!

All went well.  Except…Pete decided that there was a tiny zephyr so maybe we should put up the headsail (as usual) and…the MAIN…(OH NO!! What can possibly go wrong??)


I am quite frightened of the mainsail.  Something always goes wrong…I am happy with the headsail, feel it is my friend and companion.  But the huge great mainsail?  Well it swings around and crashes, with its big boom, and that is…BAD!

Today the zephyr didn’t increase so there was no crashing and smashing.  But…the boom managed to detach itself from the mast…Pete and I spent quite a long time trying to hoick it back into place…it had lost a crucial nut and somehow Pete had managed to lift it out of its secure placing when he pulled one of the reefing lines…




But eventually…all was well.  And…we pulled it back down; there really wasn’t enough wind to justify its existence, on the day.  The good thing was – the boom cover yielded a full bucket of fresh clear rainwater!  I had a lovely wash on deck after we anchored, pouring big containers full over my freshly shampooed head, to my heart’s content, while Pete…made G & T’s!!


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