After more than a week of preparations in a rainy autumn Vigo, Puffin had undergone a full engine service, had a new autopilot installed, a new wind instrument installed and several other smaller projects taken care of in preparation for some ocean sailing. Puffin even had a surprise wash down after her propeller was acting up and needed a lift to get almost a kilo worth of growth washed off from the propeller. We were super ready to sail south to the Canary Islands and find the sun!
Well, we had a bumpy start and then the wind slowly died. We were making several sail changes and adjustments to find some kind of groove that would take us south. On the night between day 3 and 4, the wind completely died and our only solution was to turn on the engine. As we are taking down the main sail (Max has woken Charlotte to make sure that we are two up and alert) we see a rip. Out of the blue, there is a rip along the luff and we could see more tearing points along the luff. Oh no, this is not good…
We keep our fingers crossed that things will look better in daylight. The main sail is only three years old and was recently surveyed and deemed in very good condition. As the sun rose and we could see things clearer, the fears were unfortunately confirmed. This main sail is not taking us to the Canary Islands.
This gave us two options, trust that we can reach the Canary Islands on our Genoa alone (the main sail is usually the sail who does the heavy lifting in all sail setups) with the diesel we had left to push us parts of the way. This would take us at least seven days. Or we turn 180 degrees and go in towards Lagos, Portugal. Our diesel should last us this long but make us significantly delayed for the Atlantic crossing and our crew flying down. Safety first, we opted for the Lagos option and are now hoping to find a sail maker that can help us repair the sail quickly.
Puffin vs Ocean 0-1, these two bummed sailors are in need for pizza and good news!
