The mirror turned topsy turvy

After leaving Kota Kinabalu, we sailed out in light but good winds from behind (not the usual on the nose stuff) heading further northwards.  It was so good that we pulled out our almost forgotten gennaker, hauled it up and enjoyed an hour or so of pleasant sailing with this wonderful balloon sail.  However, all good things must end and the winds suddenly went from a peaceful 12 knots to well over 25.  Now we always drop the gennaker if the winds get to more than 17 but this happened so quickly and the snuffing sock stuck that we couldn't get it down in time so, sadly, it blew out big time.  Before we knew it, we had red, blue and yellow fabric all over us, the boat and in the sea.  Paul managed to wrangle it all back on board and into the bag; we'd have to check on the damage later, damn.  Up until Miri, we'd had nothing but flat, calm and mirror-like sea conditions so this came as a bit of a surprise.

.........and not so good (it was worse than we had thought)

While it was looking great

It had been our intention to stop at a couple of small islands about 15nm from the mainland where we'd heard that there was some good snorkelling but when we got there, the recommended anchorage was far too bumpy.  We sailed around to the other side thinking it may be more protected but still no good.  This meant that we'd have to go back to the mainland and find an alternative anchorage.  Our charts showed us a possible place called White Rocks (hmmm rocks, not a good sign) but we headed for that anyway.  We actually got as far as dropping our anchor but soon realised we would never be able to sleep or relax as it was just way too rough.

Up anchor and off to the next possibility another 15nm away but by now daylight was in short supply.  And then all hell broke loose!  We were hit by another horrendous squall of about 40 knots and we desperately tried to pull the headsail in but a block broke away on the inhaul and the sheets went flying.  I started the engine to move away from the shallows and just then the port sheet whipped over to the starboard side, dropped into the water and promptly wrapped itself around the prop. Great!  Fortunately, we threw it into neutral immediately and just prayed we hadn't damaged the propeller.  We're now in shallow water with rocks nearby, can't engage the engine and can't take in or let out any more sail as the sheet is jammed under the boat. 

The angle of the wind allowed us to move out further into deeper waters but there was nothing we could do to free the tangled sheet, we just had to carry on under a compromised sail.  In all of this, Paul (aka Tarzan) decided he had to do something about freeing the clew end of the port sheet or else we'd be unable to tack back and forth so he tied himself on, stood up on the microscopically thin life lines and managed to undo the bowline in the clew.  But now he had to also find another rope to replace the port sheet and tie that on.  Somehow (I could barely watch) he leaned out, reached up and almost one-handed, tied a replacement line in place.  All this in the most incredbly rough conditions.  Whew!

The next three hours went quite smoothly other than many more squalls were attacking us at regular intervals but we made good time.  In order to get the right angle to tack into the next anchorage, we had to sail well past it and it's now getting dark.  Saol Eile went ahead to check things out and give us a rundown on conditions and depth as we had no other options open to us now other than turning back out to sea and spending the night out there.  Paraic flashed a light periodically to show us the way in (actually, if truth be known, I'm sure he flashed it to ensure that we didn't run into them) and, despite the hideous conditions, we were able to go right in then release the sail and drop anchor.  We made it!  It was an awful night hobby horsing in huge waves and swells; we couldn't sleep but the anchor held and we just had to ride it out.

In the morning, it was still incredibly rough but Paul had to dive down to check the wrap which, so very fortunately, had only turned around the prop shaft a few times and he was immediately able to release the sheet, thank goodness.  I had visions of the boat coming down on top of his head while he was down there but he managed quickly and easily - not bad for an old bloke.  The second it was free, we upped anchor and got out of there.

It was only another ten miles to the tip of Borneo where, once we'd turned over the top, conditions improved radically so we managed a nice sail for about another hour then chose an anchorage just down the east side to stop to rest - we needed it.