Attack of the cling-ons !

Good morning everyone!

Well, yesterday evening was HARD work!

I was just thinking that now the upwind work has started, things will become quieter - I may even get bored. That was a mistake; just as I picked up my book ("Into the blue, boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before"), Roxy lurched and slowed instantly from 10 to 8 knots.

SO, I got out my endoscope to inspect what "cling-ons" we had picked up, and discovered that we had been attacked by a forest of GIANT kelp! I spent an hour doing back downs - after four years of Figaro sailing, I'm good at that - but to no avail. The kelp wrapped around the keel was probably as long as Roxy as the branches trailed beyond the transom. I managed to wrestle a bit of it off using my hands and the boathook - disgusting!

I then realised that I was potentially going to have to take an earlier bath than planned to free us from our "cling-ons". I stopped Roxy by dropping all the sails: this was the first time in two months of racing that Roxy has stopped. I anxiously waited to see if this would clear the kelp and had another look with the endoscope - YES! The forest was gone, thank goodness, which meant no swimming for me today. Phew!

However, the downside to this was the big wind to hoist the main back up. I made the most of it being down to check the top of the sail and battens, headboard and halyard lashings.

After a lot of exercise and 2 hours of down-time, I got Roxy up and running again. She is now kelp-free and 2 knots faster. I was so knackered that I managed to eat an 800 calorie meal, a bar of chocolate and drink pretty much an entire bottle of water!

This was essential as I still had a tack, including stacking of all the gear and sails, to do. After the tack I fell into a BIG sleep, with no alarms and just Roxy to wake me up. It was WONDERFUL!

Hopefully today I will not have so many adventures - in fact I am actually quite looking forward to being bored.

S x