33 Knots Wing on Wing, SNAP

The sailing today, 6/21/09 on the Delaware Bay was about as good as the bay can give you. We departed the C&D Canal about 5:30am and Set sail at the exit of the canal. The winds were a 330 and our course to Cape May is 150. Sounds like WING ON WING to me, so with the winds at 20-25, we set a reefed main sail to starboard and a 135% Jenny to port. Up when the whisker pole and well secured with a topping lift and using the lazy sheet as a foeguy we had a good sail set. Sailing downwind like this we were easily doing 6.5 to 7.5 directly towards our destination.

Next the discussion, by Jeff, was...."Maybe above 25 knots, we should think about rolling this in!" The captain says...."No, it seems to be well secured and I do not want to change anything, so let's run this as is, but if we see 30 knots we will furl."

So on we sailed and as every sailor will always say in a story like this....."WE WERE FLYIN!" (that always cracks me up, because 6-8 knots is NOT flyin, 25+ knots on a Volvo Ocean Race boat, now that is FLYIN)

So you guessed it, the wind builds to 25-30 with many gusts over 33 knots. Jeff goes for the furling line and I stop him, I boldly say...."Hold on Jeff, I got this, she seems to be sailing well, and it is all locked down, do not furl it!" Jeff says...."OK, but I am seeing 30+ knots." Captain says...I know, lets run with this for now.....BANG...WHAT WAS THAT? OH CRAP THE POLE BROKE....within seconds Jeff had the jenny furled and the pole was bent in half.

Lucky for us, the pole did not do any damage to the sail, or to the rig. So with a harness, I go forward to secure the pole and to inspect the boat. With pole secured to the deck, we unfurled the jenny to starboard and continued on.

NOTE TO SELF:
When Jeff says FURL......then FURL....and when the wind is over 25-30, furl.....come on!

In all, this turned out to be one of the best days of sailing on Island Spirit EVER. The winds moved a bit more north and we were able to sail this 25-30 knots the entire way with a full 135% and a reefed main. We dropped sails at the Cape May canal and motored in.

From Engineers Cove on the C&D to the Anchorage at the Coast Guard Station, we logged a total of 3 hrs motoring. 2 hrs out the CD & 1 hr into the Cape May canal. PERFECT DAY of SAILING!

The broken Whisker Pole, very light design.
Next one Carbon Fiber!

Sailing at 7+ knots....."FLYIN" :-)

PS:
The Rock Hall Fleet also sailed this entire leg where we are all anchored up in Cape May, NJ. IP40 Surprise, IP380 CAVU, IP380 Memphis Belle, IP440 Lyons Pride and IP35 Island Spirit. The fleet is heading for MAINE...