24 June Day 1 fixing the issues

Yesterday we came frighteningly close to losing Jackster by being blown onto a reef after leaving the marina in Pointe-a-Pitre with a dirty propeller. Lesson learned – we should have cleaned the hull before leaving the dock rather than assuming we'd have enough propulsion to clear the channel. No matter how unpleasant it would have been to dive in the murky marina water, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as living with the aftermath of going aground on the reefs. And we didn't expect the sudden squall that caused the mainsail halyard to part.

By hook and by crook we avoided the hull crunching hard stuff and are now safe on a mooring at the Saints.  The wind is gusting and swirling behind the island.

After we've added more sail lashings up to first spreaders to control flogging and to stop damage the next thing is for David to get into his scuba gear and clean the hull and prop. At least the water is clean here, clear to see an unexpectedly large amount of growth and barnacles. Now should something happen we can motor.

In the afternoon we begin to tackle the issue of a snapped halyard. To be able to lower the sail we first have to attach a line to the remains of the broken halyard then tension the sail back to the top of the mast, and then we can fully unfurl it . Once the sail is free from the snags and creases, we lower the sail down and lash it all to the boom. 

I winch David up to the top of the mast. If you were playing to your strengths smaller me would have been in the bosun's chair and stronger David would have been on the winch. But I lack to expertise to fix whatever has gone awry at the top of the mast and the knowledge of which in mast channel to drop a weighted fishing line. 

Our plan was to drop strong fishing line because it is thin and slippery with several lead fishing weights on the end down to the bottom of the mast where I could pull it through. Then David would attach a 'mouse' line of stronger cord so we'd have the means to hoist a new rope up the mast to the top. Sounds straight forward? The lower half of the original halyard we are trying to replace has emerged out of the bottom of the mast onto the deck, but the top half is stuck fast somewhere inside, presumably the upper free end has managed to fold itself around something equally important inside the mast, perhaps one of several electrical cables powering the various lights, VHF radio and wind instruments, and we can't a new line through despite our best efforts. The temptation to attach the broken line to a winch and drag it out is dismissed for the moment, that would be the last resort.

The sun's gone down and it's getting too dark to continue. Tomorrow's another day for solving problems.