Now we haul on the pendant till we have boused down the cringle to the boom, and then lash it securely.
Next the tack is secured to the first reef cringle on the luff of the sail, the foot of the sail is rolled up, and the first row of reef points are tied.
Having got our reef down, we hoist up our reduced mainsail, slack out the main and mizzen sheets to let the vessel pay off a bit, then let go the weather foresheet and haul in the lee one and proceed on our voyage. The sails are now nicely balanced again, and the man at the tiller no longer grumbles at the arm pulling weather helm.
Fig. 43.
In the next reach the wind is ahead, and we have to tack again; but the tide has turned and is running strongly against us so that we find we are making no progress. We therefore decide to return home. The helm is put up, the mainsheet is eased off, and we bear away to run up the river.
By-and-by we are close hauled, and we observe that our sails are standing very badly, the jib especially so, for its luff is bending round in a great bow.
The cause of this is that our ropes have stretched, and a pull on the halyards all round becomes necessary. While the steersman luffs up for a moment so that the sails shake, a hand swigs down the jib halyards and belays them. So again while a pull is being taken on each halyard in its turn, the steersman luffs up, thereby relieving the sail of the pressure of the wind, but without stopping the vessel’s way.
And now we approach our moorings; the tide and wind are both with us. We lower our head sails, steer the yacht so that she takes a sweep round into the wind, and we haul in the mainsheet as she comes up. We bring her up head to wind, and she loses her way just as we are alongside the mooring buoy. A hand forward picks up the buoy rope with a boat hook and secures it. Then the mainsail and mizzen are quickly lowered, and we stow the sails at our leisure.