© Pierre Bouras

Hello, I had to go up my mast for the second time to complete the work. I had to cut through an aluminium ring, which was the part remaining from the broken hook system and which could have done some damage to the loop holding up the J3 stay.

The swell remains present and kept swinging me around the mast. Into the sunshine and then back into the shade. I took the disk cutter up with me which runs on a battery. So there I was 20m up trying to cut through the ring, paying attention to try to avoid injuring myself and damaging the loop, which would have been a disaster.

A few minutes of extreme concentration wedged in place between two huge swells, I cut through it, up there alone at sea, as if I was doing it calmly back in the harbour. Once the job was done, I came back down very quickly sliding down using my descender, which didn’t have much braking force. The loop is safe, the job done and I can relax. It is good for the morale when you achieve this sort of success. The trade winds are in place for the next few days. That should enable us to sail quickly down to the Doldrums and get back in the game.

See you soon,

Armel