We’re in St. Pierre (French island off the coast of Newfoundland). Arrived yesterday and found out that a storm was approaching. Having cleared into customs and immigration, we headed out to a mooring and prepped for what we thought would be a nasty but manageable bit of weather…

At 5:00am this morning, it’s blowing 40 knots and the boat is swinging around all over the place. So, we get up and make coffee – and of course the cat thinks it’s breakfast time therefore (some chance!) – so I’m standing in the companionway enjoying my coffee when all of a sudden, whump, whump, whump…. The top of the jib has come unfurled and is now taking an absolute beating in the winds – which seem to top out just shy of 50 knots…

In trying to gain control, I managed to overpower Laurie’s wisdom and a turning block for the furling line – fighting furler with tight jib sheets in 40+knots is stupid – and resulted in the complete destruction of the turning block! Finally came to my senses and released the jib sheets – no idea how they’d gotten so tight anyway – and started reeling in the jib with the big sheet winches. By now there was no furling the jib – she looked like a gonna.

I managed to wrap three spinnaker halyards around the flogging sail and finally at 8:00 am gain a modicum of control again – at least it was quieter…

We came off the mooring once the winds had abated to just 30 and headed for the dock where we tied up and rested…

With the help of crew from a neighboring boat we managed to pull the sail down and brought it into the cockpit where we could evaluate. Turned out, the only significant damage was to the UV luff covering and Laurie and I set about the sewing machine and got it fixed and back up on the furler!

It’s now 5:00pm, we’re exhausted and ready for some serious alcohol consumption!