Just before Mike is supposed to wake me for my 2 am watch, a freighter appears, coming quite close to the convoy and all the boats have to move in closer to Basia so that we make a large enough object on the freighter’s radar and Graham calls them just to make sure and they alter course.
As they say, every cloud has a silver lining. As Mike knows I freak out when boats are close at night, he stays on watch until the freighter has passed and the convoy can separate out a little again.
There are the occasional squalls during the night but nothing which brings anything too bad, just some rain. The morning brings a clear blue sky and sun though which is very welcome.
After lunch when Mike has gone for his afternoon kip, I am sitting at the helm getting ready to wave to Basia as we overtake them (we all play cat and mouse throughout the day, catching them up, overtaking then dropping back) when Anna calls over the VHF and asks me if I know about the rip that is in our mainsail. Rip? Shit! I rush out and sure enough, there’s a rip right across the sail. I wake Mike up and we quickly get the sail down and examine it. The sail itself actually turns out to be intact, but the stitching along one of the horizontal seams has obviously had enough of the UV and has given way. This is not good news. Unless we get strong winds we cannot sail by the genoa alone and we probably don’t have enough fuel to motor sail for more than half of the remaining miles. We have to repair it. Graham offers us his sewing machine and Tucanon offer us Bev and Moe in the dinghy to ferry it from Eowyn to us.
Photo: The rip!
We all get in a huddle again for another transfer. Of course, having been sunny all day, Mother Nature now decides to track a squall right towards us and the deluge that comes with it is torrential. We wait it out. Getting the dinghy out in open sea is bad enough without the strong winds that this squall brings with it.
Photo: It’s coming – blue sky all around and tracking straight for us
As soon as it is over, Bev and Moe bring it over to us, then it’s sails up (and motor for us) and off we go.
Photo: Bev and Moe collect the sewing machine from Eowyn
Photo: The delivery
I examine the sewing machine and ponder the problem. I realise that we can’t use it because the edges of the sail are so bulky they won’t fit through the machine. Mmmm. I ponder a while longer then put a life jacket on and go up onto the coach roof to see if we can hand sew it in situ. After standing there, naked, strapped to the boom by my life line (what a picture and thank goodness Mike isn’t cruel enough to get the camera out for that one) I realise that there is no way I can stand there and do the job. I can’t match the stitch holes up as the boat moves, and bracing yourself against the pitching of the boat is exhausting. It would need both of us to do it, one in front of the sail and one behind, passing the needle back and forth, would take an absolute age and I don’t think Mike’s arthritis would cope with it. We decide to motor sail through the night and attack the problem in the morning.
Somewhat subdued, the evening passes slowly. We are both tired and long for sleep. Luckily my turn comes first.
Our position is: 06 deg 53 min N, 52 deg 22 min W
Distance so far: 23899 nautical miles
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