Firstly thank you all for the messages of support regarding my emergency repairs via Facebook and Twitter. I am downloading my emails a couple of times a day when I get the weather so I still get them all.
Still very fast sailing and very bumpy out here but the wind angle has allowed me to get some much needed rest after a couple of days that have been hard on me. My loss of miles during my incident and repair means that I cannot follow the lead group as I am not far enough advanced to be able to keep the wind. I am heading east to pick up Cyclone Claudia in a couple of days and hopefully ride her in the right direction.
The repair to the tie bar seems to holding up well although it is currently on the windward unloaded side so I wont really know if it will hold until it is fully loaded while sailing on starboard. I did the repair in the same way as last time as it was the quickest way to get it back fitted again and I had proven it works with the previous repair. If it should fail I have various other options available which will take more time, so in terms of finishing I don't see this as a real problem.
The repairs to his tie bar are very similar to the ones he carried out three weeks ago, shown here: http://youtu.be/ww4c2WkNPD4
I am getting more used to the lack of communications onboard, I certainly miss speaking to my wife and the team, but we still communicate via email so it is not the end of the world.
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