La Cigale - Day 20 - 8 December - Squall Too!

Well, the garlic may well have kept the squalls at bay overnight, but my theory fell apart today as, while chopping yet more garlic for a curry, I noticed the pans slopping about in exaggerated fashion and rain bouncing off and in through the hatches. Isabelle's cabin got damp in the process, and it looks like another game of sardines tonight when, unperturbed, she announced she would just sleep in our bed then. Catherine's room was fine as the gennaker sheet got caught in her window handle yesterday and ripped it clean off, so it's been shut ever since!

It turns out we were in the middle of a huge squall, five miles in diameter. It seemed to appear out of nowhere. Luckily we only had the jib up, after two failed attempts to put the larger gennaker up this morning, as the wind kept picking up at the last minute.

On one of those abortive missions we made two discoveries:
1. the gennaker halyard is badly chafed at the top, and Francis was refusing to go up the mast to fix it as a) the waves were 2-3m high and the top of the mast was doing its best to replicate the motion of a 5m yo-yo and b) he has vertigo. You just can't get the crew these days...
2. We had acquired an anchor line overnight! Encased in algae and molluscs it had looped onto the wire filaments at the bow. Xav fished it out with a boat hook and we then chucked it from the stern, not before temporarily acquiring a couple of little passengers: spider crabs!

The kids are on terrific form. The adults, though, are all suffering headaches. We reckon it's as much to do with the motion of the boat as the lack of sleep, but a Friday evening treat of wine (appropriately called "Terra" - not long now!), cheese & crackers, and bidding farewell to the last of our jamón ibérico, has done the power of good. Over a glass of red, there was ribald amusement when our Swiss Skipper suggested replacing the gennaker halyard with the topping line. What would then prevent the boom then from banging down on the roof of the cockpit? "Not to worry, I've got a stiff fender!" he declared. Actually the Skipper claims he said step, but it was lost in translation...