When things start going wrong you sometimes need to punt. I remember one time on a race running DDW with the spinnaker when the head stay came loose. It was in the middle of a moonless night with a pretty good sea running. The only thing holding up the mast was the spinnaker. The owner came up and said that something dragging around on deck woke him up. I went up to investigate and thought it was going to be the jib halyard that might have come loose some how. I could see the cable passing through the light given off by the steaming light. The deck lights having failed the night prior. I reached up and grabbed the cable as it flew past and slid my hand down thinking I was going to grab the snap shackle. I was really surprised when I ended up with a turn buckle! I was tired and never even thought about the thickness or stiffness of the wire. I turned around and yelled to the helmsman, "Tom, don't round up!" We ended up finding a pin and held it in place with a safety pin.