BIG BOYS SAIL
March 13, 2026 · 22 min · 61K views · Jolly Harbour, Antigua
What this video covers
Barry Perrins departs Antigua single-handed aboard Shaddy, bound for the Azores — a passage he describes as the biggest of the current voyage.0:30 Leaving the anchorage, he navigates a field of mooring buoys under IALA-B buoyage (green to port, opposite to the European convention he's accustomed to) and picks his way through shallow water off Antigua's coast, where the chart reads five meters but visible bottom and scattered coral heads keep him anxious.1:11 Polaroid sunglasses help him read the water.3:20 He raises the mainsail with two reefs pre-set to avoid reefing after dark, then manages a succession of Caribbean squalls through the first night at sea.4:16 A week out, in light and confused conditions, he discovers the boom-to-mast pin shearing out under load.15:46 He drops the mainsail immediately to remove the load, extracts the broken pin, and repairs it with an undersized replacement pin lashed through with seizing wire — a field fix he acknowledges is non-standard but sufficient.16:12 The incident prompts a full inspection of standing-rigging pins.18:00 Foredeck work in open ocean is highlighted as the most dangerous routine task on a short-handed passage, with the narrowest deck section near the shrouds identified as the point where tethering is hardest.13:10
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