We were sailing along beautifully towards Aitutaki, with light following breeze and seas. That’s when our new halyard chafed through. Fortunately, the knot caught the block and kept the whole thing from falling into the water in front of us. The halyard comes out of the mast, drops down through a metal loop (eye) guide on the mast, then through that block and back to another metal eye where it is tied off. The old halyard was tied into a funky knot on there that I had trouble replicating when I was dangling up there, and I had eventually convinced myself that a bowline would be fine. Clearly, it wasn’t. Lesson learned. Nothing harmed, and we only lost a couple of feet of line in the process.

The sock got caught up at the top of the sail and for a while we weren’t able to bring the sail in. We eventually got that sorted and got everything down so we could rerig things a bit. I took the block off and decided we could just haul the halyard up the way it was. We were soon flying the Parasailor again.

So, clearly I’ve still got some things to learn about rigging and chafe avoidance. The next morning the Parasailor was down and we were now flying the Code Zero. We were sailing along nicely when suddenly things went very quiet and our speed dropped. I hopped up and looked forward to find that we no longer had a sail flying at the front of the boat. It was in the water alongside of us instead.

We were lucky again. The sail was fine, and nothing was tangled underneath the boat. We hauled it back onboard, shoved it in a locker, raised the mainsail and jib, and were on our way again. The halyard had chafed through and then fallen back down through the mast, meaning I’ll be making yet another trip up the mast to run a guide wire and hopefully fish that out so we can get the halyard back up again. I think this time maybe I’ll try and actually tie the right knot.

Morning flying fish hunt. Found this big guy inside the dinghy.

With our downwind sails out of commission we were reduced to flying the main and jib in a wing-on-wing formation.

In the middle of the night I was on watch and had just stood up to look around when there was a loud thwack followed by wild flapping on the seat cushion right next to me. I picked up the frantic flying fish and tossed him back in. I looked around but couldn’t find where he had hit as he came flying into the cockpit, but the next morning I figured it out when I spotted the scales smeared across my laptop.

We arrived in Aitutaki, Cook Islands right at slack tide. The only way into the island is through a narrow pass that they are constantly dredging in order to keep it deep enough for boats to get through.

Parts of it weren’t much wider than the boat.

Once inside there is a small harbor with room for maybe five boats to anchor.

Because of the dredging, the water is super silty.

Happy to be visiting somewhere new to all of us. Last time we were in the Cook Islands we only stopped at Palmerston Atoll. This year, Palmerston has announced they are closed due to a rat eradication program. First impressions of Aitutaki are good. Everyone is super friendly. They are a New Zealand territory, so we get the ease of English, and the benefits of their weak NZ dollar. Not to mention, it’s whale breeding season and there is some good diving to be done. Should be a nice stop for us.