The halyard and/or the gennaker axis pulley broke a few hours ago, after the sunset. I’ve just finished putting the boat back to normal with the main sail and the solent.
I heard a noise and the next thing I know, the gennaker was in the water. It wrapped around the rudder, which got partially lifted up in the process.
I regained control of the boat and managed to bring the gennaker back on board thanks to two pulleys I set up on the deck. I had to go on the boomsprit a couple of times and used rope and a ring to reduce the pressure.
It was very dark when I retrieved my gennaker and tidied up the boat. I had to use a drill to make a bigger hole for the rudder circuit. Also, the rudder cleat is damages so I made knots to keep the tension up and make sure the rudder blade stayed in the water. I hoisted the main sail but meanwhile, the NKE autopilot alarm kept going off, it was the very loud alarm that goes off when someone falls overboard. I think what has actually happened is that the batteries of the remote command system are down. I guess that’s it, I’m sorry, these are pretty bad news and all that is definitely going to slow me down. The halyard for my small spinnaker and gennaker is gone and I can’t use my main gennaker any more because it’s too damaged…
I’ve made hot tea, fixed myself dinner and now I’ll get some rest. Tomorrow, I’ll use my binoculars to try to get a better understanding of the halyard situation.
Ciao
Alessandro
