Ever closer comes the Creep!

The weather in Rock over the last ten days or so has been fabulous for the sun worshippers and fair for sailors. We are now coming to the end of Shrimper Week with just two more days of racing. Winds for racing have been predominantly light although a squall on Saturday had us on our toes as well as our scuppers. Saturday was our two race day - one after the other at the entrance to the estuary - and it really blew in the second. A number of boats reefed down and more retired. We did neither and Joanna and I had two pretty good races - for us! BB performed very well in the stronger winds which perhaps gave some assurance as to what comes next.

Apart from a problem with the jib furling line our gear has been fine. The furling problem did not allow us to furl after the last windy race on Saturday making for an interesting return to our mooring. We had to lower the whole jib foil and then attack the problem once moored to our buoy. Has anyone ever tried untangling a furling line at the end of a bowsprit while standing in a dinghy with an ebb tide running at about 2kts and a big wind? I don't recommend it. Very uncomfortable but it did wonders for my shoulder and neck muscles. Anyway problem sorted I thought and we re-set the jib foil, furled the jib and returned to shore - but more trouble was to come.

Yesterday we were preparing for racing with new crew member Peter Innes-Ker. We hoisted the main, left our mooring and prepared to set the jib and nothing happened. It was jammed and would not unfurl. After a brief examination and race time looming there was only one thing to do and that was sacrifice the furling line and race without and sort the problem after the race.

After a fun race where we found ourselves having a race within the race with a couple of boats we returned to the mooring and found that the main would not drop. We spotted the problem quickly - the jib foil was tangled with the main halliard. This has not prevented the earlier raising of the main but had prevented the unfurling of the jib. This issue was quickly sorted. The last thing to do was to get a new furling lined rigged before our next race.

We acquired the necessary line from the Shrimper factory here in Rock and at low water last night we motored out to BB who by this time was sitting on one of the large sand bars. Fitting the new line whilst standing on firm sand was a lot easier than the previous operation in a bucking dinghy! We tested everything last night and are hopeful of clean running rigging today.

Richard Goodman arrives in Rock tomorrow in readiness for the Off which is currently planned for the early hours of friday the 3rd of July. The weather charts at the moment are showing very light SW winds and I anticipate a fair bit of motoring to St Ives our first stop.

Thursday will be spent victualling boat and loading her up with all our bits and bobs. We will spend Thursday evening on the boat and slip away at about 0300 hours on the 3rd on the high tide.

I will try and post another blog before we set off and in the meantime hope for some fun racing over the next two days and of course an excellent closing dinner on wednesday. That might be the last decent meal for a few days! BB