Pitufa.at

Last night the wind died down and Pitufa staggered through the confused waves with banging sails. We tried to optimise (tighter preventer, less sail area, etc.), but the nervewrecking cacophony went on. It’s not just the noise and the shaking that goes through the mast and rigging all throughout the boat, it’s also the knowledge of the damage done to the material that makes these situations so annoying. At 5 in the morning we gave up and motored for a while. The first light revealed that during the night the decklight had been shaken out of its broken housing and a mast slide was broken. We hoisted the gennaker, Christian climbed the mast to rescue the decklight before the shards could be shattered over the deck and we started experimenting with our old lightwind sail to make a few miles. We hoisted it starboard, then to port, tried flying it from a pole like a spinnaker and soon discovered yet another little tear in the worn-out fabric. Down with the sail, repair tape on and back up with it. Imagine all these manoeuvres carried out by two people who hardly got any sleep the night before which doesn’t help the general coordination of all the lines involved. Under such circumstances we don’t refer to port and starboard, we’re glad when we know left from right or at least agree on the same left/right. Leeloo used the calm weather for a walk around the deck and to check out what we were doing, but she has learned long ago to stay out of the way of moving lines and working sailors, so she soon returned to the safety of the cockpit. After fabulous daily runs of 140 nautical miles on the first two days, we managed meagre 79 today. 360 nm to go!