Day 1 and 2
We left Crown Bay Marina at around 2:30pm on the 19th of June. The wind was blowing around 10 to 15 knots from the ENE so our course would be right down wind. First order of business was to rig and launch the SCREECHER sail. The screecher is a giant, big bellied, genoa sail which has its own roller-furler and stay line integral to the sail. To launch it we had to attach the head of the sail/roller furler to the halyard and the foot to its line. Then we had to rig a sheet (we only needed 1 sheet because you will not be tacking or jibing this sail, it is strictly for down wind runs.) Next we tried to untwist any twists in the sail and then Dylan hauled in on the halyard while I worked the sheet and the whole sail went up a lot like a big spinnaker .... POOF it bellied out with only one twist still in it... I let out the sheet a bit while Bob pulled on the leech and the twist came out with another poof, there she was flying beautifully!
We ran the rest of the day and through the night under screecher alone sometimes making 9.5 knots but averaging around 7 knots.
The night was beautiful lots of stars and dodging the occasional squall kept the person on watch on their toes. Jered made spaghetti and that turned out to be his undoing... he had been feeling fine up until his culinary feat but by the time the noodles were done so was Jered... He ended up feeding the fish and, as is usually the case with things like this, soon after Jered had succumbed to the mal-de-mer so did Dylan. Bob and I ate our spaghetti and figured since we both had healthy appetites it would not be our day to make the customary bow before Poseidon and offer up a sacrifice.
We spent the night sailing past the north coast of Puerto Rico watching the lights on the land and the cruise ships come and go in the distance.
This morning the wind died off a bit so we decided to pull the genoa out on the Starboard side of the boat (the screecher is flying on the port side.) We ran the jib sheet out board of the shrouds and through the mid-ships deck cleat and up to the winch. By running the sheet out like this it makes the wide beem of the Cat act almost like a pole to pole out the jib. We rolled it out and just like that we are flying downwind wing-on-wing with the big screecher on port and the big Genoa on starboard! Right now the wind is blowing around 10 knots but the boat is still making 7 knots!! Days like these a mono-hull sailor like myself checks off yet another reason my next boat will probably be a cat.
Hope this finds you all well! Send us a free Iridium message! Beck will post instructions with this blog.
Wing-On-Winging It,
Captain Tofer, Bob, Jered, and Dylan
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