Day 25 - 18.02.2026

« Oxley’s rescue »

This morning started very well, we were having breakfast at around 10:30, going 5,5kts when suddenly we felt that our speed had dropped down to 3 kts. We quickly realised something was wrong, checked outside through our windows and noticed we couldn’t see the Oxley… So we jumped up and rushed out: the Oxley was attached at its foot but the rest of the sail was dragging in the water on the side of the boat, clearly something had detached from the top of the mast. We quickly got it out as fast as possible, stretched it out to dry and noticed it hadn’t suffered at all but that the halyards pulley had come lose somehow, basically, the shackle’s pin holding the spinnaker pulley on top of the mast had wiggled/broken out resulting in the sail falling down all its length, halyard included. No harm was done to anything luckily, just a little fright and an annoying job ahead: having to go up the mast to replace this pulley.

We got the topping lift ready to hoist Lorenzo up all the way to the top, it was going to be a rocky ride up there. We winched together, JB and I, to get him and the halyard to the top. After a 15’ struggle to replace the pulley and halyard line, wishing he had an extra arm to help in the process, he was successfully back on the deck. 

Up went the Oxley again, happy to shake off the salty water: we will have to get it rinsed when we arrive. The whole process took about an hour and 15’, we were happy to finally get a break from the sun and the heat. The rest of the day remained uneventful, we also set our watches back an hour again, to GMT-2. Brazil is GMT-3 but I think we will wait to arrive before changing again.