A long eventful day. We were passed in the anchorage by a Junk Rigged boat under full sail just as we were weighing anchor. We followed her out into the Solent and once our sails were up were soon overtaking her, when I noticed the Genoa luff go saggy, followed by the whole thing gently lowering itself.

First thing was to gather in the now flogging sail and secure it safely on deck. Then to find out what happened. First thought was a snapped Halyard but to my dismay, I discovered I had done what is known in our sailing club as a “Gregory”. A ‘Gregory’ is a knot which comes undone. As a result the halyard had removed itself from the mast. Oh the shame of it!

We needed to rethread our now missing Halyard up the mast, but neither of us wanted to, or indeed should go. We had a bit of discussion about what to do next and ended up at the Folly Inn after finding all of the marina’s in Cowes full. As it happened this was a blessing in disguise as the very friendly Berthing officer offered his 9 stone son to go up the mast to re-thread the Genoa Halyard for us. And along he came with a nice strong mate to do the winching. Our two knights in T shirts and shorts. 30 minutes later and the job was done for which we are truly grateful.

ln hour later we were on our way again but now the passage plan was shot. Overall we were three hours late the tides were all against us and instead of arriving in Chichester at 2 o clock, it was more like 6!

Safely anchored, supper eaten, passage planned to Brighton tomorrow which will be an early start.

Trip 33 Miles Total 61 miles.