We are head towards St Helena. It is overcast, about 65 degrees is my guess, 15-18 knots of wind and 6.5-7.5 knots of boat speed. We are again using our twin head sails which require little attention on our part. We should be careful of being too confident. Two boats this morning reported having broken parts from accidental jibs. The group is sailing down wind which often means your main sail is swung wide out over the side of the boat. The wind is coming from the stern. If the boat were to turn in a way to put the boom/main sail on the opposite side of the wind then the boom comes crashing over to the other side with all the force of the wind and a very long arc to swing thru. Both boats had preventers rigged. A preventer is a line attached to the boom to stop it from swinging across the boat in an accidental jib. Unfortunately the preventer worked but the force was too great and broke a piece of the boat it was attached to. Both boats lost the function of their autopilot which caused the accidental jib. In our case we are not using the main sail and have no risk of this happening. I know that I do not know enough about sailing to be very opinionated but I sure do like our twin head sails even if I am ignorant of some flaws. I did read that one of the boats to compete in the first solo non stop competition use twin head sails because they thought it made their wind vane work well. That is my boating lesson for the day.
Now for sharing my information from reading, I offer the following quote from a biography on Benjamin Franklin. This is from the debates while writing the constitution. "Elbridge Gerry, arguing against a large standing army, lasciviously compared it to a standing penis: “An excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure.” Excerpt From: Isaacson, Walter. “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.” Simon & Schuster,
I just finished the book. I did not appreciate Franklin as much as I do now after having read the book. He sure had his flaws especially in his family life but he sure was a massive contributor to our beginning as a nation. He was the only person to have signed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the peace accord with England and the treaties defining France helping the colonies. At the same time he had an illegitimate son who had an illegitimate son who had an illegitimate son. You do not have to be pure to be good.
May fair winds fill your sails with good deeds and forgiveness of our flaws.
Bob