Someone stole our spinnaker !?

Suspend belief, stop any logic, because on Thursday in the middle of the Atlantic, without any ships in sight and without any warning someone or something must have stolen our spinnaker. For a second, on a sunny afternoon, although highly unlikely and almost impossible to accomplish, this seemed at least a possibility.

It all started in the morning when, with light winds from behind, we decided it was time to set the spinnaker, or as José Manuel put it, it is time to put the condom on. So we did, a flawless set and off we were sailing and doing 6 to 7 knots on a 8 to 9 knots of breeze. Quite an accomplishment if I may say so. The sail performed flawlessly all morning, in fact we were doing so well on such light breeze and light seas, we kind of forgot we were even using it.

It was lunch time and Dad and José Manuel were below deck preparing some sandwiches. I was above deck, how shall I put it, ASLEEP! Basking in the sun and dreaming of being with my wife and kids. At least that is what I’m saying since it will get me brownie points back home. At any rate, Dad comes up and asks me casually: Where is the spinnaker?

What a simple question. Yet, it didn’t seem to have a simple answer. I turned around look at the front to point to it and it was not there. Looked behind and we did not seem to be dragging it. Looked high at the mast expecting to see it partially flapping and…nothing.

Huh.. What the heck? Then for a second and somewhat laughingly we both said: someone stole our spinnaker !?

Well, it turns out the rope attaching the snuffer to the spinnaker had broken. Thus the snuffer was flying high on the mast while the spinnaker was indeed dragging on the starboard side of the sailboat. It was just that it was dragging in such a way that if you simply looked to the side or back you wouldn’t see it. How long did we drag it like that? I have no idea. We were able to fix everything and fly the spinnaker again that afternoon. But the thought of some Atlantic sea creatures coming and silently taking the sail away still amuses us.