Things that go bang in the night

Things that go bang in the night are never a good thing for a Vendée skipper and tonight on Medallia we had a big bang. This, big bang, was not the start of anything but instead the end of my fractional gennaker halyard lock, which let go while I was charging along at 18knots.

The result was carnage. Medallia was still charging forwards, but with the code zero over the side, billowing out and filling with water. This was acting like a brake pulling Medallia downwind, but was also pulling hard down on the bowsprit. I tried to pull the sail back onboard but could not get it to even budge one tiny bit, it was like trying to uproot an old oak tree.

Standing on the deck in the pitch dark and freezing cold I knew I had to come up with a plan quickly. There was no way of hoisting the sail up and as it filled with water it was pulling down so hard on the bowsprit I was pretty sure the sprit would rip off in a matter of minutes. I needed to do something quickly.

The only option seemed to be to cut the tack line and let the sail stream down the side of the boat. I did this, the lines went with a bang and the sail swept past, catching the pulpit (the metal frame on the front of the boat) on the way and crushing it. Now the sprit was safe but the sail was pulling down on the mast hard. Again I had no chance of pulling it out of the water while it was full of water so I needed to try and get some of the water out of the sail. I needed to gybe and to get the starboard side out of the water as high as I could, so I gybed, left the mainsail pinned on the wrong side and the keel on the wrong side so Medallia lay on her side. Then climbed up the near vertical deck and sure enough was able to pull the sail, lines and furler back onboard and shove them down a hatch.

The whole thing took about an hour, I just put my head down and worked. Determined to save as much as I could. At the end I rerigged the outrigger with my J2, put Medallia back on course in the right direction and made the most of the breeze I knew would eventually leave me behind.

This morning I am nearly becalmed. There is a huge swell running, knocking the wind out of Medallia’s sails but we are struggling to move with no offwind sails. In the light of day I have surveyed the damage and spoken with Joff about what options I have for getting one of my code zero's back up in the sky. Goodness knows I could do with it now. Without it I am waddling along to the finish and that is not how this story ends.

I am gutted to have to pull out of my fight with the foilers. Last night charging along in the South I knew I would be giving them some grief at the next position schedule, maybe not enough to overtake but certainly to keep them on their toes. Now I will finish alone and probably around 12 hours later. It depends how long I get stuck in this wind hole and whether I can rig up a sail that will get me out of it a bit quicker. One thing is for sure, this is not over and I still have the clock to race against.

Track of the day: Feeling Good: Nina Simone.