SPINNAKER WRAP IN SOUTHERN OCEAN – GOLD COAST 130600ZOCT11 SKED

LAT 45 21.1S
LONG 045 00.4E
DTR 3380
ETA 1200I 28 Oct 11

Wind 279 @ 32kts gusting 40
Conditions Cloud 6/8 with occasional snow shower

SKIPPERS BLOG

The last 24 hours has been a mixture of the most beautiful fair weather sailing in
the southern ocean and some of the most extreme sailing of one can experaince.

Yesterday Goldcoast Australia was having a fantastic sail in the southern ocean
surrounded by Petrels, Whales, Sharks and even tuna jumping out of the water.
Wind was perfect between 20 and 25 kts and we were running downwind with the heavy
weight kite up. At dinner time I checked the log as usual and noticed the
barometer had been dropping steadily over the past two hours so decided to take
the spinnaker down. While everybody was getting on deck ready for the drop, the
helmsman got a 30 kt gust combined with a bad wave and we rounded up. Armegeddon
was upon us! The spinnaker pole snapped for reasons I am unsure about and the
kite flew foward. Unfortunately the crew could not bring the emergency tack line
on quick enough and the kite wrapped around the forestay rendering the tack line
useless. Efforts were immediately made to unwrap the kite in accordance with our
SOP’s without success.

I made the decision to go up the forestry and attempt to unwrap the main twist
that was causing the problems while the wind was still under 30 kts. Whilst up
the forestay the spinnaker wrapped again with me inside it, forcing me to cut my
way out and cut the spinnaker that was now jamming my halyards. Over an hour
later I was winched back to the deck. I then made attempts to untwist the
spinnaker from the top, again without success. After two hours up the forestay,
with moderate success and wind gusts that were reported later up to 57kts I
returned to the deck and attempted to remove the lower part of the spinnaker from
the forestay, again with moderate success. 7 hours fighting flat out to retrieve
what we could of the heavy weight spinnaker the forestay and inner forestay remain
are still not completely clear.

Upon returning to the wheel, I noticed that for the past two hours we had been
sailing due south further into the depression. We tacked around and we are now
sailing towards Ile De Possession en route to the scoring gate and waiting for the
wind to moderate or hoping for a lee beneath the islands before removing the
reminisce of our spinnaker.

This morning at sunrise I was called to the deck as a big brown cloud was
approaching us fast. With two reefs already in the mainsail there was no time to
put a third in before the cloud was upon us, bringing 60kt gusts and the pleasant
supprise of snow.

Porridge and hot tea for breakfast. Everybody onboard is safe and well, no damage
to boat apart from some cloth that used to be a heavy weight spinnaker and a
broken pole and damaged pride. Will conduct further rig checks when conditions
are suitable. For now we are dug in and riding out the storm comfortably and
safely.

Richard Hewson
Goldcoast Australia