Getting home the hard way......
Our trip back from the Bahamas would be the longest offshore venture for us yet. We had done many 24-36 hour passages as we went up and down the Atlantic Coast, but wanted to try a several day passage with just the two of us. A several day passage on a race boat with a talented and reliable crew can test a person’s skill and endurance, and we were familiar with that experience. We were feeling confident that this was a good time for us to venture offshore for several days and head straight for the Chesapeake Bay.
Our trip did quite end the way we envisioned.
Friday – May 11
After listening to Chris Parker, a weather expert and watching the grib files (downloadable wind predictions) for a week, we decided it was a good weather window to leave Abaco for Hampton, VA. The trip was about 675 nm and would take us about 4 ½ days. After numerous chores, we departed on high tide in the early afternoon. The winds were north of east at 15-20 knots and were driving us more north-west; we sailed about 60 degrees off the wind. During the afternoon we kept in radio contact with two “buddy boats” Tashi Delik and Cloud Nine that left Abaco at the same time we did. As the sun set, we had 2 reefs in the main and about 1/3 or more of the jib rolled in. Seas were 4’ to 6’ but not overwhelming. Going into our first night, we were feeling relaxed and confident.
Saturday – May 12
At 6:00 AM on Saturday morning the engine overheated; we were running it to generate some electricity after depleting the batteries overnight with instruments. We didn’t think it was going to be a problem; we were pretty healed over and bouncing around quite a bit with the waves. We assumed it was OK and would be looked at when the seas flattened. It was predicted that the wind would die later in the trip.
Saturday morning we were hailed by Tashi Delik via VHF radio confirming a good previous night of sailing and that all is well. We could not hear Cloud Nine because they were too far away, but knew that Tashi Delik was in contact with them. Both of the other boats are about the same size as ours although we were sailing a little more off the wind and slightly faster than they were. We realized that we may be out of radio contact with both of them soon.
Later in the morning the baby stay (extra foresail wire stay) came loose and was swinging wildly around the boat; it was retrieved without harm to boat or persons.
At 11:20 the autohelm stopped working. Mike went back and checked the steering mechanism and discovered that the rudder collar had become loose causing the steering quadrant to rock, which created pressure on the bolt holding the autohelm to the steering mechanism. This bolt failed and could not be replaced underway. We realized that we would need to divert our course to land because we would need to hand steer the rest of the way. With just two of us that was going to be a challenge since we were about 240 miles from the nearest shore. We began discussing which port would be best our best destination given the wind conditions and current in the Gulf Stream. Using the radio, we attempted to contact the buddy boats to let them know of our change in plans. We could not contact them; we presumed they were out of radio range.
Suddenly 4 of our 6 shrouds holding up the mast fell to the deck. Instantly we both looked at the mast, expecting it to sway, break in two, taking down the remaining shrouds, and worst case take parts of the deck as well. The mast stayed upright; and we turned on the engine after being assured that there were no lines or shrouds in the water and scrambled to take down the sails in record time. Not something we had recently done with no autohelm to keep us in the wind while we worked the lines! The shrouds that came off the mast were the middle shrouds, which left us one upper shroud on each side and the forestay and backstay. Mike began securing the mast with the baby stay and additional halyards, while Francie drove the boat downwind to keep as little pressure on the rig as possible. We resumed the discussion about where to go, but with the added dimension that we could no longer sail. Our prime concern was keeping our mast in place. Even motoring we needed to keep as much pressure off the rig as possible. The wind was between 18-24 knots and seas were building; no matter what we did the boat would be riding up and down waves and lurching from side to side as a confused wave would come from another direction.
We had travelled150 miles already and decided to head for Jacksonville since it was the only large downwind port. It was 242 miles away and a sharp left hand turn from our current position. The course would keep us from pounding into the waves and have the added benefit of a little push from the Gulf Stream.
Francie was driving as Mike continued to clean up from the shroud failure, when the engine alarms went off, the engine was overheating again and Francie shut it down quickly. With our fingers crossed, we waited about 15 minutes and tried to start the engine. It didn’t take long for it to overheat again. There would be no engine until Mike checked the impeller and did some troubleshooting. Francie kept the boat pointed in the right direction, as we wallowed around in the 6-8 foot seas. After about 10 minutes, Mike yelled up that the impeller was fried. Not only would it have to be replaced, but a series of cooling hoses had to be removed to get all of the broken pieces of the old impeller. This was not an easy task with a hot engine and jostling seas.
We continued to try to hail our buddy boats on the VHF with no success; then we tried hailing “any vessel” with no success. We broadcast our position and situation in case someone could hear us even though we couldn’t hear them. This turned out to be the case, both Tashi Delik and Cloud Nine had heard us and were sailing toward us to provide assistance if needed. When we could hear them on the VHF, we were greatly relieved. We updated them on our current dilemmas and asked that they relay the information to the Coast Guard. We were confident that we could get the boat back to Florida once the engine was working again, but we wanted the Coast Guard to know of our concerns about the stability of the rig and have enough information to assist us if the rig came down and the boat was compromised. We asked Tashi Delik to let the Coast Guard know that we were safe and heading to Jacksonville, a mere 242 miles away! Tashi Delik relayed our position to the Coast Guard and informed us that a Coast Guard boat was leaving Cape Canaveral, but would take 10 hours at least to reach us.
Winds started shifting from NE to E at15-24 mph, with a good sized following sea, having most of the Atlantic to gain steam. Driving was difficult and required lots of concentration. We needed to keep the boat headed dead downwind, up and down the waves. We took turns at the helm for an hour while the other person slept, and then we switched. This would go on for the next 42 hours. Tashi Delik and Cloud Nine were still headed our way, but we were moving too. We encouraged them to continue on their original course. It would have been unsafe for us to try to wait for them and not work our way to shore. There was no additional assistance they could provide; they had already done the most important thing which was to inform the Coast Guard of our situation, course and speed. We were feeling extremely guilty about causing them to alter their course and possibly have to change their destination because of us. They kept in radio contact with us as long as possible; we were very grateful for their help.
Sunday – May 13
We continued our 1 hour shifts throughout the night. The time on the helm went quickly because it took absolutely 100% concentration to keep the boat under control. Steering was harder because we couldn’t see the waves, but every once in a while we would get a glimpse of the wave from our bow running lights as we were propelled over the top of the wave and began racing to the other side. It felt like trying to steer the boat in the agitation cycle of a washing machine! We could see the wind speed on our instrument. Several times the gusts peaked to 18 to 20 apparent. To make sure that we were off shift for only an hour, we set a timer for 55 minutes. It was always a surprise to see that the shift was over.
The salon berths on either side of the mast are set up for sleeping on the overnight passages. Both have lee cloths to keep you in the berth when the boat heels. The person who is down below is easily accessible to the cockpit and communication is easy when necessary. Without the middle shrouds, the creaking of the mast as the boat moves up and down the waves takes on mythic proportions. Sleeping more than an hour at a time was impossible.
At about 2:00 in the morning on Sunday, we commented to each other that we should have seen the Coast Guard boat that we understood had been sent out. Since we didn’t, we assumed that we had discouraged them from coming by informing them that we were safe enough to stay with the vessel and did not need to abandon ship. Throughout the night and morning at the beginning of each shift, we used the radio to,” hail any vessel,” with the hope of relaying our current position to the Coast Guard.
At 10:30 AM we saw a large military looking ship ahead of us in the Gulf Stream and attempted to contact it by radio. We had no response from the ship, but eventually got a response from “Pelican” which turned out to be a war plane in the area. Pelican transmitted our position, course and speed to the Coast Guard. Later we learned that there were actually two war ships in the area; one was a Spanish war ship. Both ships were monitoring our progress although we had limited contact with the two war ships. By now we were 111 miles away from Jacksonville and in the Gulf Stream.
At about 1:00PM, a Coast Guard rescue plane was circling overhead and communicating with us. One of his first comments was, “We’re glad we finally found you”. We were momentarily confused since they knew our position from Pelican. (It was not until later that the comment would have a different perspective.) After the initial sense of relief and gratitude that we had finally made personal contact with the Coast Guard, we wanted to take a picture of the plane swooping around the boat. We changed our minds because we didn’t want them to think we were acting like this was a sight-seeing tour!
A new problem developed; periodically the engine would sputter and conk out. After letting it sit a bit and it would start again and run for several hours. Mike did not think it was an impeller problem, but probably air in the fuel line. We still felt comfortable (maybe that not the right word!) continuing under our own steam. We assured the Coast Guard rescue plane we were safe. It circled the area for a while and then returned to its home base. The plane instructed us to contact the Jacksonville Coast Guard when we were in radio range, and that they would be standing by for a tow or to pilot us in the channel.
At 11:00 PM we are hailed from the Coast Guard Cutter Shrike, who by now is following us astern. We did not even realize they were there! All our energy remained focused on staying awake and our GPS and AIS plotters are oriented to what is in front of us. It turns out that they were the boat that had been sent out from Cape Canaveral at the initial contact with the Coast Guard on Saturday morning. They had apparently been looking for us since then; and had gotten our position after this morning’s contact with the Coast Guard Rescue plane. Shrike followed us and monitored our situation until we were just about 10 miles outside of Jacksonville and in radio contact with the Jacksonville Coast Guard.
Monday – May 14
At 6:30 AM we arrived in Jacksonville with our mast still intact despite a few more engine shutdowns, which were coming at more frequent intervals. We are living the dream! The last several hours seemed to take forever as we were in sight of land and coordinating our tow in with the Coast Guard and Boat US.
We are happy to be "home"! We have clean laundry (free!), a hot shower, electricity, internet and a boat yard to repair the rudder post! We have a referral for a rigger to repair or replace the standing rigging. A margarita and good night’s sleep were next on the list!
An unfortunate series of events! Could have been worse, said the spider to the fly . . .
Our trip did quite end the way we envisioned.
Friday – May 11
After listening to Chris Parker, a weather expert and watching the grib files (downloadable wind predictions) for a week, we decided it was a good weather window to leave Abaco for Hampton, VA. The trip was about 675 nm and would take us about 4 ½ days. After numerous chores, we departed on high tide in the early afternoon. The winds were north of east at 15-20 knots and were driving us more north-west; we sailed about 60 degrees off the wind. During the afternoon we kept in radio contact with two “buddy boats” Tashi Delik and Cloud Nine that left Abaco at the same time we did. As the sun set, we had 2 reefs in the main and about 1/3 or more of the jib rolled in. Seas were 4’ to 6’ but not overwhelming. Going into our first night, we were feeling relaxed and confident.
Saturday – May 12
At 6:00 AM on Saturday morning the engine overheated; we were running it to generate some electricity after depleting the batteries overnight with instruments. We didn’t think it was going to be a problem; we were pretty healed over and bouncing around quite a bit with the waves. We assumed it was OK and would be looked at when the seas flattened. It was predicted that the wind would die later in the trip.
Saturday morning we were hailed by Tashi Delik via VHF radio confirming a good previous night of sailing and that all is well. We could not hear Cloud Nine because they were too far away, but knew that Tashi Delik was in contact with them. Both of the other boats are about the same size as ours although we were sailing a little more off the wind and slightly faster than they were. We realized that we may be out of radio contact with both of them soon.
Later in the morning the baby stay (extra foresail wire stay) came loose and was swinging wildly around the boat; it was retrieved without harm to boat or persons.
At 11:20 the autohelm stopped working. Mike went back and checked the steering mechanism and discovered that the rudder collar had become loose causing the steering quadrant to rock, which created pressure on the bolt holding the autohelm to the steering mechanism. This bolt failed and could not be replaced underway. We realized that we would need to divert our course to land because we would need to hand steer the rest of the way. With just two of us that was going to be a challenge since we were about 240 miles from the nearest shore. We began discussing which port would be best our best destination given the wind conditions and current in the Gulf Stream. Using the radio, we attempted to contact the buddy boats to let them know of our change in plans. We could not contact them; we presumed they were out of radio range.
Suddenly 4 of our 6 shrouds holding up the mast fell to the deck. Instantly we both looked at the mast, expecting it to sway, break in two, taking down the remaining shrouds, and worst case take parts of the deck as well. The mast stayed upright; and we turned on the engine after being assured that there were no lines or shrouds in the water and scrambled to take down the sails in record time. Not something we had recently done with no autohelm to keep us in the wind while we worked the lines! The shrouds that came off the mast were the middle shrouds, which left us one upper shroud on each side and the forestay and backstay. Mike began securing the mast with the baby stay and additional halyards, while Francie drove the boat downwind to keep as little pressure on the rig as possible. We resumed the discussion about where to go, but with the added dimension that we could no longer sail. Our prime concern was keeping our mast in place. Even motoring we needed to keep as much pressure off the rig as possible. The wind was between 18-24 knots and seas were building; no matter what we did the boat would be riding up and down waves and lurching from side to side as a confused wave would come from another direction.
We had travelled150 miles already and decided to head for Jacksonville since it was the only large downwind port. It was 242 miles away and a sharp left hand turn from our current position. The course would keep us from pounding into the waves and have the added benefit of a little push from the Gulf Stream.
Francie was driving as Mike continued to clean up from the shroud failure, when the engine alarms went off, the engine was overheating again and Francie shut it down quickly. With our fingers crossed, we waited about 15 minutes and tried to start the engine. It didn’t take long for it to overheat again. There would be no engine until Mike checked the impeller and did some troubleshooting. Francie kept the boat pointed in the right direction, as we wallowed around in the 6-8 foot seas. After about 10 minutes, Mike yelled up that the impeller was fried. Not only would it have to be replaced, but a series of cooling hoses had to be removed to get all of the broken pieces of the old impeller. This was not an easy task with a hot engine and jostling seas.
We continued to try to hail our buddy boats on the VHF with no success; then we tried hailing “any vessel” with no success. We broadcast our position and situation in case someone could hear us even though we couldn’t hear them. This turned out to be the case, both Tashi Delik and Cloud Nine had heard us and were sailing toward us to provide assistance if needed. When we could hear them on the VHF, we were greatly relieved. We updated them on our current dilemmas and asked that they relay the information to the Coast Guard. We were confident that we could get the boat back to Florida once the engine was working again, but we wanted the Coast Guard to know of our concerns about the stability of the rig and have enough information to assist us if the rig came down and the boat was compromised. We asked Tashi Delik to let the Coast Guard know that we were safe and heading to Jacksonville, a mere 242 miles away! Tashi Delik relayed our position to the Coast Guard and informed us that a Coast Guard boat was leaving Cape Canaveral, but would take 10 hours at least to reach us.
Winds started shifting from NE to E at15-24 mph, with a good sized following sea, having most of the Atlantic to gain steam. Driving was difficult and required lots of concentration. We needed to keep the boat headed dead downwind, up and down the waves. We took turns at the helm for an hour while the other person slept, and then we switched. This would go on for the next 42 hours. Tashi Delik and Cloud Nine were still headed our way, but we were moving too. We encouraged them to continue on their original course. It would have been unsafe for us to try to wait for them and not work our way to shore. There was no additional assistance they could provide; they had already done the most important thing which was to inform the Coast Guard of our situation, course and speed. We were feeling extremely guilty about causing them to alter their course and possibly have to change their destination because of us. They kept in radio contact with us as long as possible; we were very grateful for their help.
Sunday – May 13
We continued our 1 hour shifts throughout the night. The time on the helm went quickly because it took absolutely 100% concentration to keep the boat under control. Steering was harder because we couldn’t see the waves, but every once in a while we would get a glimpse of the wave from our bow running lights as we were propelled over the top of the wave and began racing to the other side. It felt like trying to steer the boat in the agitation cycle of a washing machine! We could see the wind speed on our instrument. Several times the gusts peaked to 18 to 20 apparent. To make sure that we were off shift for only an hour, we set a timer for 55 minutes. It was always a surprise to see that the shift was over.
The salon berths on either side of the mast are set up for sleeping on the overnight passages. Both have lee cloths to keep you in the berth when the boat heels. The person who is down below is easily accessible to the cockpit and communication is easy when necessary. Without the middle shrouds, the creaking of the mast as the boat moves up and down the waves takes on mythic proportions. Sleeping more than an hour at a time was impossible.
At about 2:00 in the morning on Sunday, we commented to each other that we should have seen the Coast Guard boat that we understood had been sent out. Since we didn’t, we assumed that we had discouraged them from coming by informing them that we were safe enough to stay with the vessel and did not need to abandon ship. Throughout the night and morning at the beginning of each shift, we used the radio to,” hail any vessel,” with the hope of relaying our current position to the Coast Guard.
At 10:30 AM we saw a large military looking ship ahead of us in the Gulf Stream and attempted to contact it by radio. We had no response from the ship, but eventually got a response from “Pelican” which turned out to be a war plane in the area. Pelican transmitted our position, course and speed to the Coast Guard. Later we learned that there were actually two war ships in the area; one was a Spanish war ship. Both ships were monitoring our progress although we had limited contact with the two war ships. By now we were 111 miles away from Jacksonville and in the Gulf Stream.
At about 1:00PM, a Coast Guard rescue plane was circling overhead and communicating with us. One of his first comments was, “We’re glad we finally found you”. We were momentarily confused since they knew our position from Pelican. (It was not until later that the comment would have a different perspective.) After the initial sense of relief and gratitude that we had finally made personal contact with the Coast Guard, we wanted to take a picture of the plane swooping around the boat. We changed our minds because we didn’t want them to think we were acting like this was a sight-seeing tour!
A new problem developed; periodically the engine would sputter and conk out. After letting it sit a bit and it would start again and run for several hours. Mike did not think it was an impeller problem, but probably air in the fuel line. We still felt comfortable (maybe that not the right word!) continuing under our own steam. We assured the Coast Guard rescue plane we were safe. It circled the area for a while and then returned to its home base. The plane instructed us to contact the Jacksonville Coast Guard when we were in radio range, and that they would be standing by for a tow or to pilot us in the channel.
At 11:00 PM we are hailed from the Coast Guard Cutter Shrike, who by now is following us astern. We did not even realize they were there! All our energy remained focused on staying awake and our GPS and AIS plotters are oriented to what is in front of us. It turns out that they were the boat that had been sent out from Cape Canaveral at the initial contact with the Coast Guard on Saturday morning. They had apparently been looking for us since then; and had gotten our position after this morning’s contact with the Coast Guard Rescue plane. Shrike followed us and monitored our situation until we were just about 10 miles outside of Jacksonville and in radio contact with the Jacksonville Coast Guard.
Monday – May 14
At 6:30 AM we arrived in Jacksonville with our mast still intact despite a few more engine shutdowns, which were coming at more frequent intervals. We are living the dream! The last several hours seemed to take forever as we were in sight of land and coordinating our tow in with the Coast Guard and Boat US.
We are happy to be "home"! We have clean laundry (free!), a hot shower, electricity, internet and a boat yard to repair the rudder post! We have a referral for a rigger to repair or replace the standing rigging. A margarita and good night’s sleep were next on the list!
An unfortunate series of events! Could have been worse, said the spider to the fly . . .
Thank you Coast Guard!
May 17, 2012
Our Boatyard junkie, Anam Cara is getting an annual fix at St. Johns Boatyard in Jacksonville Florida. We are out of the water and up on stands. The rudder post and bearings are being redone and the autohelm will be re-attached with thicker and stronger plates and bolts. While we are out of the water we will also replace a thru hull and the container for the stuffing box. From the back of our boat, we look at the vessel Atlantis II, which was the vessel that was used to explore the Titanic shortly after it was discovered! After our stay in the boatyard, we will go to a marina in Jacksonville where we will replace the standing rigging. There is a saying that sailing is hours of boredom interspersed by moments of terror; I think we will rephrase that to two days of terror followed by 2 weeks of repair in a boatyard!
Our Boatyard junkie, Anam Cara is getting an annual fix at St. Johns Boatyard in Jacksonville Florida. We are out of the water and up on stands. The rudder post and bearings are being redone and the autohelm will be re-attached with thicker and stronger plates and bolts. While we are out of the water we will also replace a thru hull and the container for the stuffing box. From the back of our boat, we look at the vessel Atlantis II, which was the vessel that was used to explore the Titanic shortly after it was discovered! After our stay in the boatyard, we will go to a marina in Jacksonville where we will replace the standing rigging. There is a saying that sailing is hours of boredom interspersed by moments of terror; I think we will rephrase that to two days of terror followed by 2 weeks of repair in a boatyard!
