It was a busy night. We set the chute around midnight after rounding Cape Ann; we triple checked everything and had a great, if hesitant, hoist! Then Gurhan then got his first solo night watch with a preview of the Perseids to keep him company. I set an alarm for when we’d get close to the Isle of Shoals and got some sleep. There was enough pressure in the sails that I didn’t feel the need to rig a preventer; though I might have if the boom end had already been prepared.
Indecision meant the take-down was more of a fire drill than I would have liked as we bore down on the Isle of Shoals in the dark. 2.4 nautical miles is not a lot of time when you’re making 8 knots. Otto took the helm again. From the pit I pre-lowered the halyard till the chute was almost touching the water. Gurhan blew the tack line from the bow and made his way to the pit as I gathered up the foot; the tack line got soaked but the kite stayed dry. I pulled down the chute as Gurhan eased the halyard. We gybed away from the shoals without time to clean up the carnage 🙁
It was still too early: it was pitch black out so we opted not to cut between the islands not knowing about lobster pot saturation. We decided not to go further from Boston and pointed back upwind. The 5 foot chop kept us from getting really close to the wind but that was a blessing in disguise: that few degrees allowed us to avoid tucking in a reef. Gurhan went below to sleep while I slalomed and bashed my way upwind.
No spinnakers were harmed in the making of this adventure; no thanks to the missing spinnaker sock, lazy bag on the boom and our itty bitty tack line…
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