"Unfinished Business" and "Spirit Undaunted"

"Unfinished Business" and "Spirit Undaunted” were the titles to articles in the April issues of Sailing Magazine and Cruising World respectively. Their contents captured the essence of why the attempt was abandoned, when the attachments of the rigging which hold up the mast proved to not be up to the task, and when the repairs I made to the end of the boom that holds the mainsail were questionable (I think I did good job)!

So, I left Sunday for Antigua, in the eastern Caribbean, where Kiwi Spirit should arrive from South Africa along with three French sailors who have been the delivery crew. All of them are well experienced and I shall look forward to debriefing with them. I will listen to their experiences, and seek their ideas on how to further improve the yacht and its performance. They did have a breakdown of the main autopilot and one of the hydro generators (makes power for instruments and navigation) also failed. They used the engine a great deal and stopped off briefly in St. Helena (in the mid-south Atlantic where Napoleon spent his last days in Brutish captivity) before completing the voyage to Antigua.

I am estimating five days in Antigua before I, along with Steve Pettengill, sail to St. Augustine, where she will rest at my dock before heading to Maine for repairs in June.

I am fortunate to have Steve on board as he is a tremendously experienced sailor, having sailed extensively including racing a sixty foot trimaran to break the record from New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn. We will have fun and I shall no doubt learn from him.