Leading the Escapade · video

What this video covers

Departing the Ragged Islands in the southern Bahamas bound for Colombia, the crew of Leading the Escapade spent the morning patching additional tears in the headsail before reinstalling it onto the furling system in 28-knot winds and a rolly anchorage.0:50 Jase fed the luff tape into the foil groove while Janaye hoisted on the halyard and Tom controlled the flogging sail; a sheet loosely wrapped on a winch let them furl it immediately once raised.2:59 Once underway, Jase noticed the mast bending forward and back at the spreaders under load — the shrouds on both sides were visibly loose, a known consequence of new standing rigging installed in Miami bedding in after a 40-knot upwind passage to the Bahamas.8:03 The crew tightened the aft shrouds and planned to tack to address the other side, debating how much mast flex is acceptable versus dangerous.8:42 Forecast winds of 16 knots gusting to 20 proved badly wrong; sustained 30 knots had the crew questioning whether they would have left at all with accurate data.13:35 PredictWind routing was in use but also off.7:12 The chartplotter lost GPS signal, possibly due to newly installed solar panels causing interference.15:41 Hindsight confirmed the forecast failure: conditions worsened significantly beyond what the video covers, with the crew noting the passage ultimately threatened their Pacific crossing plans.14:45

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