Diane is Fine and Awaiting Word from the Race Officer Diane writes: I’m in Puerto Calero and tied up to the dock. I am about to send the Race Organizer a note to find out my status. In short, I have broken another spreader bracket and I am still having trouble with power on the boat. I can live without power on the boat as long as there is sunshine during the days to give me enough to get through the night. I will let you all know what the race officer says. My biggest worry is in fact, there would be too big a gap between myself and the rest of the fleet (if I can restart) and that it would therefore be unsafe to restart again. There are several minis here and one at least is leaving today and one of the accompanying boats left yesterday. As to the rig damage: I couldn’t tack and I couldn’t turn the boat around without risking losing the rig. The broken spreader bracket was the top one on the port side. The only reason the mast stayed up was because I was able to straighten the mast and pull the checkstays on, causing the mast to compress the broken fitting which still had some rivets holding. But this meant that with both checkstays on I couldn’t hoist the main. The reason the mast didn’t fall down was that I was very fortunate with the weather in that I could do the 300 miles on one tack slightly off the wind. I was extrememly lucky that there wasn’t any bad weather and that the wind blew from the north west to literally blow me into port. Sailed the 300 miles under jib alone and just barely made it to Peurto Calero. I was told there would be someone here to tow me in. But because I got in so late, everyone had gone home and there was just a security guard here. Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Las Palmas (MRCC) actually asked me if I could just wait until this morning when everything opened up. Eventually MRCC sent the rescue launch to tow me in the two miles to shore. Anyway, I am fine, very frustrated and very sad but I will survive And… I will let you all know what the race officer says. Diane
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 12:01:18 +0000
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