S/V Sirocco: We're Back

The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that's when adventure starts.
-yvon chouinard

Friday afternoon, 100 miles from Freeport, I was taking down the big headsail (the front sail) to put up a smaller one because of the building wind. After it was down, I noticed a piece of string on the piece of wire that holds the mast up, called the forestay. Only it wasn't string, it was a piece of the wire. The forestay was fraying, drastically reducing it's strength and making it impossible to raise another headsail.

Because of the safety factor, we decided to turn around and come back to Galveston to get a new forestay and while we are at it, the other rigging that keeps the mast up. Hopefully when it starts really blowing out there I'll sleep more soundly with the new rigging.

It sounds like we may have found someone to make new rigging tomorrow, so we could be gone as early as Wednesday. I'll be sure to post updates as they become known. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of the short "shake down" trip! All picture credits go to the faithful crewmate, Ed Stancil.