I asked the crew draped around the cockpit "Well, gang, what do you think? Shall we go for it?" We were all gasping in the airless heat.
"Ummmmmmm" said one
"Errrrrrr" said another
"Well, I don't know, the last time we did it, it was hell" said a third
(Except for the hero of our tale, the identity of the crew shall remain nameless for reasons that will soon be self evident)
It had to be 33 degrees in the shade of our tiny cockpit bimini. All of us were crowded into the small square of shade made by the makeshift cover, trying to get comfortable. It was only 9 am, but already, we all were showing dark stains of perspiration through our shirts and hats. Finally the morning sun had risen high enough in the sky to create enough shade for us all to come up from the growing heat down below. Believe it or not, the heat of the cockpit seemed the lessor of the infernos. We
were a bit chagrined by the slow progress of passage the last couple of days, but mostly what we all wanted most was relief from the tropic sun arching above. Beads of perspiration ran down my cheeks from under my Tilly hat. I was growing desperate.
"But consider the alternative," I urged, "It could be like this all day"
"Ummmmmmm" said one crew
"Errrrrrrrr" said another
Finally, one crew piped up "Yeah, we ARE dying here folks. We've got to do something".
"Ummmmmm" said one\
"Errrrrrr" said another
"Well….. okay," said another crew, "anything is better than this, anything!"
"Yeah, I guess" said one
"Whatever" said another
And with that the die was cast. The adventure wouldn't end until and hour and half latter when Matt's feet landed back on the deck from the mast head.
We would set the spinnaker.
(Dennis and Rita take up the tale)
After 6 hrs of instruction and practice, we learned what the groan was about. Because of its size, we have to watch constantly to keep things under control. During the last afternoon watch before "happy hour", the captain noted another batten on the main sail had worn off and decided it was time to repair it as we had done on our trip from Fiji to Tanna. Unfortunately, lower the sail caused the spinnaker to do more erratic things that the novice helmsman didn't know about and caused it to wrap itself
around the fore stay. Quickly the Captain yelled that the spinnaker had to come down and all the work on the main sail halted. Because the spinnaker was twisted around the fore stay, the clews were released and the bottom of the spinnaker was stuffed down into the main galley. Two battens (2nd one was almost worn through) were then repaired on the main sail and the sail hoisted back up. With grins (forced) on the crews' faces, the spinnaker was also ordered back up. Unfortunately, the pulley rope
for the spinnaker cover was not attached to the boat and also went up with the spinnaker. Upon noting this error, the captain instructed us to lower the spinnaker. As it was being lowered, the pulley rope got tangled on the top spreader and attempts to free it were futile. Our exasperated captain looked at the first mate and said the only solution was for him to go up in the boson's chair to free the lines (no wonder the first mate groans at the mention of the spinnaker). It was a rocky ride up and
down the mast with the solent slapping the first mate at every wave motion but true to his fearless character, he managed to free the lines. He was so confident of his ability that he asked that Rita video the whole procedure (8 minutes of looking up at his ass). Finally with lines free and the spinnaker itself untwisted, she was "bedded down" for the night and sailing finally resumed.
We really put the captain's patience to the test! Instead of making any of us "walk the plank" he ordered extra beer rations for all. Let's chalk that up to experience and hopefully learn from it! (like not agree to use the spinnaker) It's with even more trepidation that we take our turns today steering with the spinnaker up.
Relieved and humbled yet again by the winds,
Dennis and Rita
Post Script:
Next day. Guess what? We have the spinnaker up again. Some people don't know when to quite. Our excuse? It needed drying out anyway.
Just wish us luck getting it down.
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