“Bill, the sail fell down!”

Not the best way to wake up. We were making good time on a comfortable broad reach sailing with just our genoa and our mizzen. The genoa had come detached at the top of the mast, and was quickly settling down into the water.

It wasn’t going to go anywhere, it was still attached at the bottom, but it is a very big, heavy sail that gets REALLY heavy when it full of water. It took about 20 minutes to drag it all up on deck, and get it tied down safely.

It seems the lashing that holds the head of the sail to the swivel had come undone. The good news is I had not tied it on, the crew in Martinique did that as they were reassembling things after the work they did. The bad news is that without the weight of the sail, the swivel is stuck at the top of the mast until I get up there to pull it down. To do that, we are headed into a calm anchorage. We are motorsailing in that direction now, and hope to be there late tonight.

Tomorrow we’ll get the sail back up, and be on our way.