What's the worst that could happen?

We had a phenomenal day yesterday sailing in lots of wind with the spinnaker up and surfing almost continuously. The wind continued to build and we were having a crew discussion about midnight on whether to continue under our heavy air spinnaker ("4S") or switch to a poled out headsail. Several of us thought we had it under control, and some were wavering. Our skipper uttered those now famous words. We should have cringed rather than charging on.

Well, the worst didn't happen. But our fearless leader, to remain unnamed, rounded up and wrapped the spinnaker really badly around the headstay. It was not very pretty. Imagine $5000 worth of nylon flogging and shaking the rig for all it was worth and tying incredible knots with the halyard, topping lifts and sheets. John and I spent 30 minutes on the foredeck pulling and winching for all we were worth, to no avail - it would not budge. The picture included 28 kts. of wind, the boat sailing at 10-12 knots of speed, lots of rough seas, spray flying, and a dark moonless night. We needed to send someone up the rig to cut it down and that wasn't going to happen in the dark at sea. We tied everything off as well as we could, jibed the boat and started making course for the lee of Cedros island or Turtle bay. Oh, and the vang broke in the jibe. An hour and half later we actually did finally get the spinnaker on deck (it was a "shift" miracle).

We're licking our wounds and looking for that cold beer in Turtle Bay tonight, where we will decide what to do next. Everyone is safe and well on board.