Hi all,
Well to make it to Tyrell Bay before Xmas I had to leave on the Thursday before. The weather though was not good. North East wind (on the nose) 15 - 20 knts of wind with a north east swell 6 + feet.
(day one)...I left anyway, bad move as I had a terrid hangover after saying 'ta ra' to everyone the day before !
First thing big jib went up, cleared the reef, then 10 mins later the port sheet fell off ! I can not sail on starb. tack without it ! boat was rolling so bad made it very hard to get it down. This done with fall all over the deck in a mess, went and started to put it back up, well with all the rolling the halyard had gone behind the spreader, the sail and hoisting block then went round the stay maybe 6 times while I got the fall back round the spreader ! sail would not now go up or down. It started flogging violently in the high wind and so I rolled and tied it up to the leech and stay. next sail up was little staysail, all lines now completely wrapped up with each other this took a long time. No way was the main going to go up, so motored gently round to St Georges, arriving as it got dark and anchored for the night.
(day two) At approx 02:30 a very strong squall swept across the bay and off I went out to sea dragging the anchor behind me! Boat missed hitting anything and I let it go until no boats behind me then let the chain go until the boat was stopped.
As soon as it was light, about 06:45 I started to get the jib down, that took till 09:00, then after making sure every rope was in the right place put up all sail and off I went again.
After being on the hook since August, I had become so unfit for sailing, things stopped working, the big things took even longer to fix, I got very tied, boat bottom was so dirty boat would only do 5 knots max. I wasn't even heading for Carriacou but going NNE BY NORTH. Took all day and most of the night until level with Union Island, that was approx 03:00 (day three) I was then able to go South East and head Straight to Tyrell Bay. I arrived at 06:00 and on the hook at 07:00 at last.
Made it !!!
Roy
