The boat will go on to Guatemala
and I will fly back to Fort Pierce
for Dads funeral.
Dave, Sue, and Tom are excited to continue their voyage delivering this ladies sailboat. I'm THRILLED to be getting off this small cramped body bruising bone crunching crashing old Irwin sailboat. 32.5ft is too small for 4 adults to fit on. I'm bruised all over and have a cut on my scalp from banging around.(this boat is too small for ME to stand on. Or lay on, or sleep on.) I came over at 6am to meet them for breakfast and to help them cast off their lines for a safe departure. Fortunately it all worked exactly to plan... (i write 'came over' because I got a hotel rm on Isla Mujares. It gave Dave and Sue some privacy and me a full size bed!)
The ENTIRE TRIP has gone to plan. Just not always our plan. Did I mention being rescued by the US Coast Guard? That was not exactly the 'plan.'
Tue. Nov 5th I drove across the state from Ft. Pierce to Cortez FL (just south of Tampa bay)
Wed. Nov 6th The VHF crapped out and
we lost the GPS to the chart plotter. A new VHF and hours on the phone with Raymarine help line, but we never got the GPS to work w/ Plotter. The first day of departure was scrapped back in Cortez FL because the VHF radio crapped out. After replacing it, the Raytheon chart plotter took a dump. (you need a chart plotter to see where you are)
Thur. Nov 7th after over 20 phone calls with the helpline and a solid hour on the phone with Mr. Goodyear of the Raymarine help desk we finally got the GPS signal working on the chart plotter. We DEPARTED and motored a half mile over to the fuel dock and our engine overheated - with a bad impeller. *Our spare impeller was the wrong size. Next the boat started overheating. So we lost another day 'fixing' the heat exchanger.
Fri Nov 8th @ 6am Captain Dave and I drove 90 minutes each way to pick up two new impellers. By 2pm
we were finally headed out to sea... smooth sailing, except fuel filters are starting to clog faster from dirty fuel tank sludge. What could possibly go wrong?
Sat Nov 9th great winds and a tired crew sail toward Key West. Captain Dave decides we will stop filling the small fuel tank and instead place the 5 gallon plastic jerri tanks down in the bilge and run the fuel line out of them. this solves the clogged filter problem and the 3 cylinder kubota runs smooth. All this fun, PLUS the autopilot
never worked. So we took 3hr shifts of hand steering the entire voyage. Three hours of grueling concentrated work followed by six hours of time to try to sleep on a twisting bouncing rolling bunk. (lack of sleep was impacting everyone by now)
Sun. Nov 10 Another great sailing day till midnight, when things went from bad to worse. We lost the ability to steer. It was going along fine. We just pointed South toward Cuba and planned to turn due West when we got low enough, without getting 'too close' to Cuba. (easy) Anyway, I was at the helm some time after midnight when "the little ship was lost." I could not steer. I could turn hard to port, or hard to starboard, but I could not make the boat go toward a position. I could only make her go East, or West. That was my full extent of control. Plus the current was pushing us North at 1.5 knots. Time to wake people up and try to fix her. (being able to steer is fundamental to not just going 'someplace' but going to the right place)
Marks 3 hrs apart as we drift to nowhere awaiting morning.
330am calling the Coast Guard with our location
OTH. An Over The Horizon, Coast Guard approach vessel.
Mon. Nov 11th HELP! 1am and a loss of steerage. We used our new VHF radio to call for help. I was at the helm when things went a little 'hinky.' I could not steer the boat. We started flopping all around and I could no longer hold a straight course. We called for aid on the VHF radio and the US coast guard responded. The Coasties on Venturous had done a two month voyage of the Pacific and were on their way home to Tampa for 'time off for the holidays.' (60 days at sea, working, and then almost within sight of home they get sent to help US.) They circled our boat and called us every 30 minutes to confirm our status from 3am till 9am when they deployed the 20' run about.
Reuben, Sue, Matt
9am. as the OTH 20ft rescue boat pulled up toward us I could clearly see the pilots lips as he said, "This is so Fu*@%ed up!" The six rescue guys rammed our boat as two guys in coveralls - from their engine room - jumped over onto our boat. They were; Matt the Wogg and Rueben the Sandwich. (Matt had just crossed the equator on their ship during his Pacific tour and they, the ship of Venturess, were celebrating all the 'new Woggs' who had crossed the equator. (a right of passage) Except Matt was on our little boat cussing it, along with us! Rueben who had more longevity with the Coasties was looking at his 20 yr retirement date and contemplating being home with family in Tampa. Everyone (read EVERYONE) wanted them off our boat! But we didnt want to drift to Cuba or to Galveston... SHORT VERSION: the coasties re-did everything we had done the night before. the outside small boat reported how our rudder looked, the supplied an underwater camera. Both crews watched and repoted what they thought. (onboard we reported it as a rudder problem, outside they reported something onboard as broken) After about an hour of all of us uncertain, the captain on the big vessel said over the radio, "inform the crew that they need to prepare to abandon ship and have their vessel recovered by a salvage company. (Captain Dave, our delivery captain had quite a shocked face at this) About this time the Coastie came up to the cockpit and told us he 'found the rudder post seemed to have come loose and risen.' He told us to turn the wheel all the way port and then starboard. Down below he was hitting the rudder post with his biggest wrench. It finally dropped back down into place and we had steering again. (he just said, "every once in awhile knock the crap out of it.") The coasties packed up and departed. We just needed a bigger hammer!
Tue. Nov 12th We ALMOST make it into Isla before a massive squall line hits us and we sail up and back all night awaiting fair weather and daylight. Parallel to the island, with the current drifting then sailing against it all night.
I fell asleep at the helm and smashed my nose on the steering wheel. (fell asleep while in mid conversation with Dave. "thud, i do a face-plant.")
waiting all night and drifting outside the Isla
Wed. Nov 13th LAND HO and we tie up at the marina dock. Oh joy to get off this little tub!*
* I commented that I hated this boat and Dave said, "oh it's not that bad." I challenged him to tell me one thing he LIKED about her... After several long seconds of contemplation he replied, "she has a nicely shaped hull." Well he got me there. I guess in all fairness, if you are a very small person and this is what you can afford, then it's perfect for you?
Anyway, we hung out for two days of working on the boat preparing for the next leg of the trip down to Placencia Belize and finally to Rio dulce Guatemala. The sail had a couple of small tears. We needed more diesel fuel. (and fuel filters!) Had to chart the course on the navigation equipment, provision with food, laundry, handle customs paperwork, and a bunch of other stuff. Today THEY took off and are making great progress. I guess they just needed "the Jonah" off the boat?
Departing Isla Mujares for Guatemala
A through the pilings departure
Good Luck and God's speed on the rest of the trip!
- Captain Skip
