Journal, Monday 11/24

“In the early hours of Monday we break out of the island effects of Grand Canaria and back into the northwesterly gradient wind. A long slog with a double reef in the main and the roller genoa until about noon when the winds veer north and then north northeast. We shake out the reef and then set the AP kite – after shrimping with it for a bit. [Anthem carries four racing spinnakers. All tack to a ‘prod’ or extendable bowsprit rather than the more traditional spinnaker pole. Three are hoisted from the masthead halyard and one from the hounds halyard, about 8 feet down from the masthead, just above where the top of the headstay and the jib halyard meet the mast. The three masthead are called the VMG, the AP, and ‘Big Boy’. And they are progressively heavier and larger. The Hounds sail is the smallest and heaviest, and will turn out to be the workhorse of our inventory]. Commander’s Weather forecast arrives predicting Northeast winds of 15-20 knots for the next day. We’re off to St Lucia, sailing 10 knots plus in the right direction. 2500 miles [all nautical miles here, about 6076 feet each per].

“In the evening the wind gets a little too far forward and we drop the kite and go back to a jib reach. Then we switch to the hounds kite. The hounds kite is in an ATN sleeve, which makes hoisting and retrieving it, if not an easy job, then a much easier job than dealing with the masthead spinnakers. The masthead sails must be tied up with yarn before hoisting, so they don’t fill prematurely. When they come down it is an all hands exercise. It just a few square yards of the sail gets into the water, the friction of water flowing across it make it impossible to haul back aboard and we must stop the boat and drag it in like fishermen pulling up a seine net (know as shrimping). The hounds sail is hoisted inside its sleeve and then the sleeve is raised by its own internal halyard. It is doused by pulling the sleeve back down over the sail and then lowering the enclosed sail. Three or four people can handle this job, but dousing a masthead requires the entire crew and is always a little nerve-wracking.”