Days in Belfast were flying by and my focus remained on recovery to leave this nasty cold behind me, once and forever! The pharmacist the other day recommended with a smoky, rough voice and smiling face: warm whiskey!

Disintegrated luff extrusion profile.

Feeling better now and pumped up to hit the ocean again, I left Belfast in the evening hours, ETA Douglas next day 11am, 1 hour before hight tide, 80nm, weather window & tides perfectly arrange. All good until I unfurled the headsail and observed something strange at the top of the forestay.

Picture taken, shared and minutes later, after a very helpful discussion over a phone call with sailing mate Volker from SY Hexe, I concluded: not going to proceed under these conditions, need to be fixed first. Douglas can wait.

Bangor, the sailing mekka of Nothern Ireland and accredited with five golden anchors, was just 4nm ahead.

I informed Jan & Natascha from SY Auryn that they will have to proceed without our accompany.

Looking forward to understand the root cause of this issue.

Fair winds…