We had the main down during the night as it was pretty breezy and looking squally on the radar. At first light, things were looking a little tamer, so I decided to put it back up with two reefs in.
And then just as we are about to pull it up I noticed, by a chance of one in a million (I hope), the halyard was snagged on the tang fitting for the stay right at the top of the mast.
Hmmmmm.
It was a bit of a head-scratcher, so we had to do a bit of surgery and unthread the halyard, tying fishing line to the end of it so we could retrieve it. The plan was to get the wind on the port side and motor, allowing the wind to help pop it off the tang.
Next came the difficult bit. I climbed up onto the boom and, with absolutely perfect timing, a delicate flick of the wrist and a well-timed wave coinciding with a sudden gust of wind, absolutely nothing happened.
It turned out that a delicate wrist and good timing weren't quite enough. Apparently, what was needed was a subtle blend of brute force and violence.
That didn't work either.
So we blended all the techniques together into one big mash-up of good luck, brute force, delicate wrist action and a few other things and eventually the halyard slipped off.
We rethreaded it, pulled the main up and off we went.
The 24-hour run was 166 nm, which is pretty good going.
The long-term forecast yesterday was showing a low-pressure system developing near New Zealand, which was going to coincide with our arrival and throw a spanner in the works. This morning, the latest model run is showing that the low has largely dissipated and shouldn't affect us too much. However, a following high-pressure system may bring some strong headwinds.
We have plenty of fuel and around seven days to go, so at this stage we're going to keep keeping on and see how we do.
I prefer to get some positive miles smashed out rather than change tactics for something that may not eventuate. We can reassess things in a few days when we have a better idea of what the weather is actually going to do.
For now, the halyard is free, the main is up and we're making miles. I'll take that as a win.