Change of Plan

The Tides Marine Strong Track that is used to fasten the luff of the mainsail to the mast has proven to be weaker than hoped. Last night sail slides began pulling out of the track. We went down to a triple-reefed mainsail, and this allowed us to use the sail a while longer, but now more slides have pulled out, so we have to drop the main. We will be putting in to Georgetown in hopes of ordering a new track, either to be shipped to us here, or shipped ahead to Panama. The girls are thrilled to take a rest from the boisterous upwind sailing that we have been experiencing. Winds have topped out at about 30, but for he most part we have been beating against easterly winds of between 15 and 25 knots. With the heavily loaded boat our tacking angles have been very wide, so progress has been slow even though boat speed has been good.

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