Murphy's Law

2.19.13 Well it seems that if something bad can happen on this boat, it will. We were so excited to be finally leaving Marsh Harbour for the last time. We left this morning to head to Lynyard Cay to stage for our crossing on Thursday. The winds were good, coming from the South, but we had no problem tacking as the day was beautiful. Clear water, now waves, and never ending beautiful blue skies above. We had just rounded the tip of Matt Loew's Cay and were making excellent time with the wind abeam. We were both sitting back enjoying the sun when there was suddenly a loud ripping sound on the bow of the boat accompanied by something slapping the deck. When we stuck our head out to see what the heck had happened, we were both agape. The headsail had completely ripped in half! The lower half was hanging in the water and the upper half was slapping in the wind. When we finally got our wits about us, we immediately decided to lower the sail and just get it inside. Unfortunately, we have to turn away from the wind to do this and we were quite close to shore. While I was manning the helm and the lines from the cockpit, Brad ran to the bow to pull the sail in. It didn't take us long, but we were perilously close to shore by the time we got the sail down. After a quick turnaround, we headed over to Hopetown, which was just to our west. While Brad took care of the sail, I immediately hit the VHF to see if anyone in the area could tell us where to repair our sails. As is usually the case in the sailing community, we were not short of knowledge and were soon directed to Man O War Cay. It was a short sail (with only the main sail up) over to Man O War and we headed inside the narrow channel to pick up a mooring ball. We had been told that Jay Munney was the sailmaker to go see, so we loaded the sail into the dinghy and headed over. He met us down on the dock and helped us take the sail up the hill to his "workshop". And by workshop, I mean downstairs workshop in a beautiful mansion of a house sitting atop a hill overlooking the Sea of Abaco. Sail Repair must be a good gig.... Anyway, much to our chagrin and utter disappointment, it looks like the sail won't be ready until the end of next week. All our hopes to leave Abaco and make it to Georgetown for the Regatta are completely dashed. So tomorrow we will have a beach day and snorkel the Fowl Cay Preserve and then figure out how to entertain ourselves for another week. Here are a few pictures where you can see the two parts of the sail.