Enda O'Coineen is now four weeks ino the Vendee Globe Race and reports from the Indian Ocean.
“Welcome to the Indian Ocean. Wow! The first to greet us was Rich Wilson on Great American IV. We trailed him by over 300 miles and finally caught him on the transition. I was feeling slightly smug and lucky that I was not having problems that other boats seemed to be having.
The day started normal. The wind was increasing so I thought I would furl the Blast Reacher and sail with the main alone with one reef and perhaps try the second. Then all hell broke loose. In preparing the furl line for the J3 became undone and the sail opened out of control. Then the furling line on the blast reacher broke leaving me stuck with two headsails out of control in the now gale force winds. Sheets and sails flogged, all wrapped around each other in a mess, as the wind howled. Then there was an involuntary gibe. As the boom crossed it caught in the runner and the boat, with the keel the wrong way, went on its side. Eventually I got to the keel hydraulics and pulled it up the other way and released the runner in the chaos while bringing the new one on. Rather than crash gybe back and risk serious damage, I continued the wrong gybe and set out to sort out the mess below and on deck. Fortunately, after a few hours the wrong gybe, the wind moved around and it became the right gibe.
To complicate matters the radar dome, one third the way up the mast - for no apparent reason - came loose and crashed down pulling the wires out of the mast. Fortunately, we saved the unit, but I am not sure it will work again on this voyage and minus an important safety tool.”
