Greetings from yacht Ensemble!
We are now half way to San Blas islands - with under 500nm to go.
Our position is N 14d 11.72', W 71d 34.52', Course 236T, with winds of 23knots ENE, and a swell of 2-3m. We are seeing scattered squalls - and a temperature of 28C, with barometer rising at 1007.0 hpa.
Yesterday was fairly quiet. We had settled into the routine. Magali decided it was baking day and made banana bread and a loaf of wholemeal bread.
With the lack of a generator we decided to run the engines to top up the batteries. We still have over 500 litres of water - so no problems there.
We'd just settled down for our sunset cocktails when the tell tail 'whir'of the fishing line went. We'd previously decided if it was a dorado we'd throw it back - but it turned out to be a 2kg tuna. After a somewhat bloody struggle the fish succumbed to the fish sauce (vodka). So - sushi and champagne today to celebrate half way!
We had a lovely dinner of Mahi Mahi in papiottes (with brussel sprouts andcorn).
I'd finished my watch and had been asleep for what seemed like minutes when Magali woke me to say we'd lost the parasailor. I came up on deck to see the sail half in the water. It was too heavy for us to lift in over the rails - and the sea state was 2.5m swell with 25 knots of wind. The Dad's Army expression of "Don't Panic!" came to mind... We managed to get the sock and top of the sail on board and secured this to the winch. We then cut the sheets and downhalls and slowly dragged the sail on board up through the stern steps. Backbreaking and exhausting work - but we recovered the sail. The only downside is the starboard sheet is somehow trapped around the propeller / rudder - and with the sea state and darkness (not to mention we had just dumped a tuna head and a lot of blood over the side) - made me reluctant to go over and try and free it.
We set the jib and were comfortably doing 6 - 7 knots.
I went to sleep thinking "it could be worse"...
In the morning I was quite optimistic. I had rigged a spare line for the gennaker and thought, with luck, the parasailor would simply have fallen because of a bad knot of a line failure and we could re-rig the parasailor (or gennaker at worst). Unfortunately, this was not the case. It appears the eye bolt on the mast failed - so my spare line and "plan B' came to nothing.
So - more repairs when we get there!
Plenty of fuel and with the current winds the jib isn't a bad option.
Cheers for now.
Dave & Magali
12Jan2012 003