Hey Listers, Remember this story? Well, it got written up in this month’s issue of Caribbean Compass. Starting on p.18 of https://www.caribbeancompass.com/online/compass_online.pdf.
Cheers, Randy > On Dec 4, 2021, at 5:05 PM, Randy Stafford <randal.staff...@icloud.com> wrote: > > Correct. There were no medical emergencies. The boat was afloat and not > leaking. It had propulsion and it had steerage. If assistance had not > arrived, the first dire issue they might have faced was running out of > drinking water. The second might have been running out of food. Once the > seas calmed enough to dive the prop, they were able to get back to a better > state (esp. since they had a watermaker on board). A third issue they were > facing was running out of fuel to make landfall before running out of food. > So, a question to ponder, was this an emergency, or just a major and scary > inconvenience? > > I had to go through that thought process on an offshore passage earlier this > year. The boat I was on had a multi-cause steering failure in the middle of > the night, that required use of the emergency tiller while awaiting daylight > to fix a problem. But we were afloat, not leaking, had propulsion and > steerage, no medical problems, and enough water, food, and fuel to make > landfall. Not an emergency, but an exhausting and “exciting” night of > inconvenience. > > Cheers, > Randy > >> On Dec 4, 2021, at 3:37 PM, dwight veinot via CnC-List >> <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: >> >> Bad as it sounds everybody stayed above the water. Right. That is what a >> boat is for in simplest terms >> >> On Fri, Dec 3, 2021 at 6:30 PM Randy Stafford via CnC-List >> <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: >> Listers, >> >> Here’s an overdue report on this situation. Basically a tale of warning >> about what can go wrong offshore, with potentially very serious consequences. >> >> By coincidence a few weeks ago I came into contact on Facebook with one of >> Calypso’s crew, a retired pediatrician. We subsequently spoke on the phone, >> and she documented her experience on her Facebook timeline, which I’ll quote >> below. >> >> Calypso’s owner and captain is a 75-year old man who’d never been offshore. >> He found passage crew on findacrew.net <http://findacrew.net/>, and they too >> had never been offshore (and in two cases had little sailing experience). >> >> The boat experienced a sequence of cascading problems on the passage, which >> put it and its crew in a very serious situation: no electricity, no engine, >> low fresh water, and broken forestay many hundreds of miles offshore. The >> sequence started with problems furling an asym on a top-down furler. That >> somehow caused problems with the genoa furler too: the genoa wouldn’t furl >> all the way in or out. That in turn contributed to the forestay snapping >> when the wind picked up. When that happened, the crew lashed the genoa down >> the length of the side deck, and fouled the prop with sheets or lashing >> lines. The prop was fouled hard enough, in forward gear, that it wasn’t >> possible to shift to neutral. So they couldn’t run the engine. So they got >> down to 4% battery. They had to shut off all electrical loads including >> radio, radar, GPS/AIS, lights, watermaker, and refrigerator. They had to >> drift for two days waiting for seas to calm enough to dive the prop. They >> lost refrigerated food and got down to 11% fresh water (with apparently no >> bottled water aboard). >> >> If they had not been able to get off distress calls on their electronics and >> satellite phone before shutting down, they would have been in serious >> trouble. Fortunately two other boats received notifications of Calypso’s >> distress and came to assist, accompanying the disabled boat for many days. >> They lent water and fuel, support and advice. One of those boats was a >> Leopard 40 named Nobody’s Home in the Salty Dogs rally to Antigua, whose >> delivery captain was a man named Vinny, who is a friend of the delivery >> captain Scott of the boat I was on (a Fountaine Pajot Saona 47 named Quite >> The Catch). We first heard about this whole situation when Vinny texted >> Scott via satphone. >> >> Calypso departed from Hampton, VA on Saturday October 30th (day 1 for them) >> as part of the Salty Dogs rally. My boat departed Newport, RI on Monday >> November 1st, bound for the USVI (not part of the rally). Calypso's >> forestay snapped on their day 7 or 8: Saturday November 7th or Sunday >> November 8th. By that time there was a strong storm happening between the >> east coast and Bermuda, which would slam New England several days later as a >> nor’easter packing hurricane-strength winds. By Friday November 6th Chris >> Parker was advising all boats in the vicinity to get as far south and east >> as possible, as quickly as possible. At that time, Quite The Catch was >> approaching Bermuda, and we were seeing forecasts of >50kts on PredictWind >> southwest of our position over the next couple days. So we diverted SE two >> days and 400nm out of our way to avoid that weather. Calypso probably >> sailed right through it, but the max wind strength they saw (at least, while >> they had instrumentation) was 37 knots. >> >> Calypso was able to compensate for the broken forestay using halyards to the >> bow stem. They got her prop unfouled and engine started and batteries >> charged. Then she was able to limp along under reefed main. Unbelievably, >> despite all that and a subsequently broken autopilot, her captain wanted to >> continue to Antigua and was requesting fuel! On the evening of Thursday >> November 11th, as navigator on Quite The Catch, I plotted an intercept >> course to backtrack eight hours to Calypso and give her fuel, but we decided >> not to do it. >> >> When Calyspo got far enough south to hit the easterly trade winds, her >> captain wanted to start tacking upwind to Antigua, starting with a NE leg. >> At that point her crew mutinied, and forced the captain to turn towards the >> USVI. She arrived in St. Thomas on November 15th after 16 days at sea from >> Hampton, VA. By contrast my boat arrived on November 12th after 12 days at >> sea from Newport, RI (two of which were extra days for weather routing). >> >> Learn what you will from this saga. Now I will paste the crew member’s >> Facebook postings, in the order in which she posted them. >> >> "Wow! Where to start?? We just spent 16 days at sea and ended up in the US >> Virgin Islands instead of Antigua. Lots of stuff on the boat broke and >> because of it we couldn’t sail east into the wind to get there. We >> anticipate being able to pick up another sailboat from here and continue to >> explore the Caribbean. Here are some pretty sunrises and sunsets while I >> process how to share this story.” >> >> "Days 3-6: Our trip was supposed to be about 14 days. We should have >> traveled east for the first 5 or so days until we got through the Gulf >> Stream, and then we would head S or SW using the trade winds to arrive in >> Antigua. It very much didn’t happen that way. First, our Spinnaker (a very >> light, broad sail that sits in the front of the boat and is used in light >> winds), wouldn’t open or close from its wound-up position properly. We >> ended up having to disassemble it and put it away in a bag every day (see >> 5th pic). Even though the bag was clipped to safety lines on the boat, the >> rough weather caused the bag to open and dumped the sail into the ocean. >> Twice, we woke to find the sail floating alongside the boat. Nothing like >> picking up 250 pounds of wet sail out of the ocean while the boat is bumping >> along at 7 knots.” >> >> "Day 7-8: Turns out the the spinnaker problem somehow turned into a jib >> problem. (The lines may have wrapped around it at some point, or something) >> The jib wouldn’t wind itself closed/open properly and the extra stress >> caused the forestay (the forward cable that holds up the mast) to snap. Now >> we were down 2 sails and had minimal support to our mast for our last, the >> main sail - so had to drop our last sail to save the mast. We tied the jib >> to the deck but apparently didn’t secure the lines well enough and they (the >> lines) drifted under the boat and tangled in our prop. No prop —> no motor >> to charge the batteries—> batteries dropped to 4%. Had to retain enough >> power to fire the engine when we eventually unfouled the prop so turned off >> all lights, all radar and radio, the refrigerator (yes, we lost most of our >> food), the desalinator (we were down to 11% water), and we were adrift with >> no power for a night. Luckily, our 2 buddy boats drifted with us but I won’t >> lie, we were scared shi!tless.” >> >> "Day 8-9: As we were praying for our lives we sorta forgot to take pictures >> for the next part of the saga but here’s the gist: As our forestay broke and >> the jib sail was whipping all over the place I was trying to figure out how >> to get help. In my panic, I couldn’t find the number to our shore support so >> I called my dear sister, Stephanie, who couldn’t hear anything I was saying >> on the satellite phone other than “Mayday” so she just called the Coast >> Guard! Then I saw all the SOS buttons on all our equipment. Needless to say, >> both the coast guard and shore support for the rally (endless thank yous to >> Kevin and Glenn) responded with calm guidance and the other two boats >> (mentioned yesterday). >> >> After spending the first night adrift with no lights or battery power (due >> to the lines wrapped around our prop), the next day we were able to slowly >> sail with a heavily reefed main (see video and explanatory note below it) >> and manual steering. The second night, still without power, we blindly >> sailed all night long just following the lights of our buddy boat. On the >> second day, we finally had calm seas and Steve and I went swimming under the >> boat to remove the lines from the prop. Truth be told, Studly Steve gets to >> add that job to his résumé. With the prop cleared, we were able to start >> the motor, charge the batteries and get underway again, albeit with a reefed >> main sail. But the story isn’t over quite yet…” >> >> "Day 11-16: With a damaged forestay we would probably have to motor more >> than we originally planned. After swimming under the boat, our two buddy >> boats took advantage of the calm day and sent over five 5 gal Jerry cans of >> fuel and two 5 gal bottles of water in a dinghy. As water in our tanks got >> low, we had noticed it was cloudy and there was all kinds of stuff floating >> in it. The three of us quietly kept one of the 5 gal water bottles to >> ourselves and didn’t tell our captain. >> >> After we started up again, we thought we might make it to Antigua after all >> but we had stiff winds and couldn’t sail into them because of the damage we >> had. Then our auto-pilot died and we couldn’t recalibrate it in the rough >> water and the radar which identifies hazards and other ships had failed. So >> when our cap’n suggested sailing north (!!) to get around the wind we just >> about mutinied. We’d survived two weeks without showers, the loss of much of >> our refrigerated/frozen food (shrimp, salmon, chicken, lunch meat, milk), >> the stench of the head, drinking cloudy water, 3 hour watches around the >> clock, not being able to sail at more than 5 knots, and being adrift at sea. >> We had had enough and told him he need to seek the nearest landfall. He >> initially said we’d have to throw him overboard, which we considered. >> Eventually, he came around and the US Virgin Islands here we come.” >> >> "Although we had a harrowing experience this hasn’t scared us off of >> sailing. There’s something peaceful about being out there surrounded by blue >> in all directions." >> >> Cheers, >> Randy Stafford >> S/V Grenadine >> C&C 30 MK I #79 >> Ken Caryl, CO >> >> >>> On Nov 12, 2021, at 11:39 AM, Chuck Gilchrest via CnC-List >>> <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: >>> >>> Any thoughts I had about becoming a delivery skipper as a retirement >>> “career” have dissolved and disappeared after reading this thread.. >>> Best of luck Randy on the remainder of the voyage and keeping fingers >>> crossed for Calypso. >>> Chuck Gilchrest >>> Half Magic >>> Landfall 35 >>> >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>>> On Nov 12, 2021, at 1:18 PM, Randal Stafford via CnC-List >>>> <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Thank you Dennis and all who replied. I just got a cell signal off >>>> Tortola, about 25nm ahead. >>>> >>>> As of this morning Calypso was some 200nm astern of us; we’re heading 214M >>>> to the western tip of Jost. In addition to her previous troubles (broken >>>> forestay, wrapped prop, etc.) now apparently her autopilot has also >>>> failed. But her owner is apparently determined to continue to Antigua, >>>> and borrow fuel to do so, instead of ducking a closer port for repairs. I >>>> gather someone dived the prop to clear it. >>>> >>>> There was a nasty storm between the Carolina coast and Bermuda last >>>> weekend. PredictWind showed 50 knots forecast, and by last Friday Chris >>>> Parker was advising boats to get as far south and east as they could, as >>>> fast as possible. >>>> >>>> I’m crewing the delivery of a Fountaine Pajot Saona 47 from Newport to St. >>>> Thomas. We sailed over 300 miles out of our way, almost to the 61st >>>> meridian, to avoid that storm, adding two days to our trip. And still we >>>> saw 41-knot gusts last Saturday or Sunday night. And due to that big low >>>> pressure system, the wind was out of the south for days instead of the >>>> usual easterlies, hampering our progress to the Caribbean. >>>> >>>> Anyway, I think Calypso was in the darkest red part of that storm and got >>>> beat up pretty badly. >>>> >>>> The delivery captain on my boat, Scott, has a friend Vinny who is >>>> delivering another boat to Antigua in the Salty Dog Rally, with the owners >>>> aboard. They were the closest vessel to Calypso when her distress call >>>> came in, and went to assist her. Vinny texted Scott about the situation, >>>> including issues with crew dynamics on Calypso. >>>> >>>> Last night we could have diverted six or eight hours to rendezvous with >>>> Calypso, but didn’t want to give away our fuel to a captain making (in our >>>> opinion) unreasonable decisions. So we never met up. >>>> >>>> As far as I know, Calypso’s owner is not on this mail list. >>>> >>>> Cheers, >>>> Randy >>>> >>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>> >>>>> On Nov 9, 2021, at 3:26 PM, Dennis C. via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com >>>>> <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Chuck is correct. >>>>> >>>>> I'm assuming that the 121 Calypso is the one making 5 knots trailing the >>>>> fleet. >> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Dennis C. >>>>> Touche' 35-1 #83 >>>>> Mandeville, LA >> Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with >> the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use >> PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray >> <https://www.paypal.me/stumurray> Thanks - Stu >> -- >> Sent from Gmail Mobile >> Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with >> the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use >> PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray >> <https://www.paypal.me/stumurray> Thanks - Stu >
