Day 9 Canaries-Martinique

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 Monday 17th Nov ’25


Another day heading towards the middle of the Atlantic with no one in sight and no one else seen since the day we left Verde.

The only visitors we have seen are the odd pod of dolphins and a few flying fish, several of them head butted the front windows leaving an oily stain behind.  While Richard was having shower yesterday one of them even flew through the open hatch (see the pic) and landed on the floor flapping around while he tried to pick it up and send it back to where it came from! 

We are making good progress with sustained 20kt winds we are have averaged 8.5kts for the last 24hrs with just the “big red” headsail out.  Long may it last!

Well the day went a bit sideways.
While I was sitting in the forward cockpit trying to get a bit of a breeze to cool down I looked up at “big red” only to see a little bit of daylight through the material two thirds of the way up the sail - BUGGER!

So we headed downwind to reduce the pressure on the sail and brought it down to see if we could repair it with some sail repair tape.  The only problem is it is 30m long and we are only 19m so we had to fold it up and run it through the saloon (see the photos), try and unwind it just enough to access the problem area.  Well after only 30mins we had it repaired and hoisted back up - job done.

                                                 The open hatch where the friendly flying fish entered!
                    

                                                                    The problem area


Unravelling the beast 







           Cleaning the area for repair  make sure


     The patch, we put one on each side


      Hoisted back up and working great 





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