14 June 2008
Hilary's Blog - 14 June 2008
To say that today has not been plain sailing would be an understatement. The plan was simple; to sail towards Folkestone with the tide and then face a hard slog back against it as a dry run for Monday (launch day). Toby spent the last 2 days fixing my electronics and, miracle of miracles, when we put them on the boat all the systems worked! It was looking as if things were finally beginning to go our way.
We towed out into the outer habour in Dover to do a thorough systems check and Sean and Mike even managed to help rescue 2 people whose dingy had capsized. It was blowing 20 knots but Arty can easily cope with more. Sean and Mike towed us outside the habour and left us in a particularly nasty patch of water which runs outside Dover habour until you are about a mile off shore. We hoisted the main with 2 reefs in and put on the jib. My comms system which keeps me in touch with the RIB (using a voice activated system because without the use of my hands I can't push the button on a standard radio), had experienced a glitch (a technical term) when we did a check ashore. So today Toby stayed on the boat with me, which turned out to be extremely fortunate.
The wind began to pick up a little and, after a few soakings, we decided that we didn't need the jib after all. VERY glad of his dry suit, Toby went forward to furl the jib. At the exact moment he finished the furl, there was a snap and the jib halyard broke. He retrieved the still furled sail and its wire and quickly decided that we could safely carry on sailing as we had full vhf contact with both RIB and shore. We started the run back towards Dover, albeit sooner than we had planned, and stopped getting as wet as we were now running down wind and the waves were breaking over the stern. I began to have some fun, surfing and enjoying the swell for the first time.
A few minutes later there was a loud bang. We both wondered what had happened, and made a quick check of the boat and couldn't immediately see anything wrong. However it quickly became apparent that there was something seriously amiss with the mast as all the rigging was slack. The RIB took us into tow and we made for the safety of Dover habour and our berth as quickly as possible. At the dock we lifted the mast out and, to our horror, found it had snapped in two below the deck. There was nothing for it but to remove all the lines whilst Helen and I went for essential supplies of tea and cake. Fortunately we had a spare mast and after a phone call to Dave Rutter at Vizmarine, Paul and Mike were volunteered to drive to Chichester with the broken mast in tow. At 11 pm we are eagerly awaiting their return with the new mast.
Page last updated on 22 June 2008 at 17:15