Grand Anse Arlet, 17th July -11

Our divebuddy Philip from Corynthe (boat name) says it's a good principle in the Caribbean to have one goal or project pr. day.

So I concidered myself well covered when I had finished the 200 stiches it took to fix the Yum-Yum logo to the dingy sunshield.

That was before we arrived Roseau, and realized we could not get our mainsail down.

Luckily we were doing our reefing well off shore in calm conditions this time, as we actually had to climb to the top of the mast to release the main halyard.

Yum-Yum has a very big, fully battened mainsail, and the halyard runs double through a block in the top of the sail.

This block sits on a spinner that definitely should not be there.

It is a good thing to get twists and tension out of a single rope, but here the result was complete clogging of the up-and downrunning parts of the halyard.

In the end it was actually very easy to give the block the four turns it took to release the clog, but getting there was not. The spinnaker halyard we used for elevating the captain, ends two metres under the mast top. The last climb had a spicy edge to it in the waves.

And then, instead of being treated as the hero of the day, the captain had to accept unspeakable terms dictated by the rope operator to be allowed return to deck.

Well, five days later we are now lying south of Port de France on Martinique, this island seems to be a constantly ongoing music festival with stages and good sound systems (Nexo) everywhere.

Music and traditional dance show to celebrate the French 14^thJuly, onboard sailing we have succeeded saving our watermaker inlet key from a detour in the hides of Yum-Yum's port bilge, and a finger trapped in the main halyard winch with bravour.

And done a very fast and heroic gybe to avoid hitting a meeting freighter that actually was at anchor (sigh!) But we are going to be very clever sailors eventually.

And good underwater photographers. Just give us some time to find out about the flash.
Tor