The pictures below would be the last of this brand new sail. Not because the sail was bad, but because the sailors flying it aren’t all that good. Winds picked up as we sailed north throughout the day, and as darkness rolled in we really should have furled the Code C and put up the main instead. However, it’s easier to just hope the wind will back off a bit—so that’s what we did instead.

Of course, the wind didn’t lighten up. It increased a bit to around 22 knots, but the bigger problem was that the direction had shifted as well. We sailed well off course and eventually had no real choice but to furl it. So we ran downwind and I went forward to furl it in.

Worth mentioning here is that last week while I was furling the sail the line on our continuous-line furler separated. The line is a big loop that is spliced together on the ends, and that splice fell apart. Fortunately, when it did, the sail was just about finished furling and the wind was about three knots. So we just dropped it down on deck and stuck it in a locker. Later, I pulled out a used spare furling line that had been on the boat, installed it on the furler, raised the sail at anchor, and rolled it nicely again. Problem solved, I thought.

Anyway, back to furling the sail on this night. I had Ali let the sail out to spill the wind and began rolling it up. I got about a third of the way before the furling line would suddenly release again and the sail would spill back out. For some reason, the line was slipping through the furler when it shouldn’t have been. Line too small, line too worn, I don’t know. After a few attempts my arms were shot and I could never get the sail furled beyond maybe one-third before it would unfurl again.

We tried a number of things, without success, before deciding we just had to get the sail down and somehow drop it on deck. This was a poor decision. We couldn’t do it going downwind because the sail would just drop in the water and we’d run it over or be pulled overboard ourselves as the wind snapped it full. So I somehow decided we’d turn up into the wind and drop the flailing sail on deck that way.

Still not sure how I thought this might work. It was 2 am. It’s always 2 am.

The problem escalated quickly. We turned the engines on and turned up into the wind. But of course the boat didn’t just go straight into the wind. We loosened the halyard and started to drop it. But as soon as the bow went just a little too far the sail backed and blew the boat hard over the other direction. The sail was now snapping and pressed completely over our spreaders. Within seconds the sail tore. Not just tore, but shredded, from side to side and top to bottom. Pieces were still flailing around at the top in the spreaders, and others were snapping across the deck. We eventually got everything down, halyard secured, sail remnants shoved into locker, and the motors pointing us towards our destination again. Another expensive sailing mistake in the books.

About thirty minutes later it occurred to me that pulling out the jib while running downwind would have blocked a good amount of the wind from the sail and might have allowed me to get the Code C furled. Maybe, maybe not, but it definitely would have been worth a try, and had to be better than our alternative. Heck, we could have even raised the main to help out.

I’m generally really good at learning things the hardest, most expensive way.

I should mention that at least the autopilot had been working again. I’m not entirely sure why. I’d fiddled with a few things, including topping off the hydraulic fluid in the autopilot piston (whatever that thing is called). After that it seemed to start cooperating.

We pulled into Vanuatu’s capital city of Port Vila early in the morning after what should have been a very good overnight sail.

We were immediately impressed by Port Vila. The town was quite nice, with plenty of restaurants to choose from, a good looking produce market, and a grocery store that blew our minds. Everything about the place exceeded our expectations.

I’m amazed such a small population can support so many new car dealerships full of expensive vehicles.

Vanuatu is known for its beef. After traveling through the South Pacific for a while this display case is an absolute sight to behold. Throughout the South Pacific you’d be lucky to find some Grade C frozen hamburger patties imported from New Zealand, then thawed and frozen a dozen times before arriving to you covered in ice.

This dog was hanging out at the dinghy dock. It was over a mile walk to the restaurant. Is it any surprise to find that she followed Ali the whole way? She’d follow us all the way back at the end of the night, too. The waitresses didn’t seem to think anything of it. Also, the whole front of the restaurant was open, so it’s not like we brought her in through the front door.

We played a few games against the locals, and actually held on to the table for a while despite their homecourt advantage.

Port Vila from above. The marina is a seawall that boats can med moor themselves up to (seen in bottom right), but they also have a bunch of mooring balls available which we found to be the better alternative. There is a deep anchorage about half a mile away, but the convenience of the marina’s moorings made the cost well worth it.