# Lost at Sea



## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

It is with sad heart that I report my good friend George lost his boat just off the coast of Bermuda, 9 days into his around the world cruise. The following video on YouTube was taken by a passenger on the NCL Dawn during his rescue. There are two videos here, this is the link to the first one and the other one will come up as Rescue 2. 
YouTube - Rescue 2

George spent 5 years 24/7/365 days to fix up his Vagabond 42 for this cruise. I posted George's log entries on Sailmonster.com in two parts in my blog section. It is too long to post here. The comments on the Second post are my perspective of the tragic event as well as others.

Account Login » SailMonster Part 1

Account Login » SailMonster Part 2 with my comments at the bottom

It makes for a good read and tons of lessons learned.


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## WheresTheBrakes (Sep 29, 2008)

post it somewhere where we don't have to sign up to see it.. 
sailnet can handle a long post..


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## sww914 (Oct 25, 2008)

Did anything work for him on that trip?
Sad to hear.


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## Joesaila (May 19, 2007)

*What happened?*

Saw the U tube video and what looks like a rescue attempt...heard the people on the ships 'comments' but don't really know what happened. If he left the boat, its really sad. Though I completely understand how the ocean can become too much for anyone.


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## Vasco (Sep 24, 2006)

He abandoned the boat. No engine , bulkheads moving, mainsail torn, water contaminated, no tow to Bermuda. The boat was still floating. Real horror story.


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

Quite a tale. Should be must reading for anyone going off shore... so many mistakes yet from an experienced cruisers. Lots of lessons. 
Here is one case where the boat WAS falling apart more than the crew. This may also be the reason why Vagabond 42's are not on the Mahina Bluewater Boat lists despite protests that they should be. 

Thanks for those links Mel. Sorry for your friends loss but given all the circumstances, abandoning the boat was probably the right decision for him.
Note...it is tough to get to the story on your blogs for non-members...it would be helpful if you could post it here or somewhere where it would be more easily accessible.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Melrna - I'm with Brakes - can you bring those articles over here? I don't want to sign up over there to read them. Like I need to belong to any more sailing forums.


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## JohnRPollard (Mar 26, 2007)

camaraderie said:


> Note...it is tough to get to the story on your blogs for non-members...it would be helpful if you could post it here or somewhere where it would be more easily accessible.





smackdaddy said:


> Melrna - I'm with Brakes - can you bring those articles over here? I don't want to sign up over there to read them. Like I need to belong to any more sailing forums.


Ditto, Mel.

Not enough bandwidth on my part...


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

Ok here is the log:
Lost in the North Atlantic
At the time I write this I had planned to be in the Azores Islands, I am instead in South America grieving the loss of ******, which I had to leave near the Bermuda Islands. Though the decision was a no-brainer for me, losing my home still hurts a lot&#8230;In a nutshell, after a fast 7-day passage from Miami we arrived at the Bermuda. ****** was battered up by the heavy weather that we had encountered but still in one piece. Though the storm damage would have been reparable in port, I was unable to get a tow into Bermuda.
Continuing on a several week passage to the Azores, across the roaring forties (Latitude 40 N), without the engine, mainsail, mizzen, electricity (navigation lights, autopilot, and electronics), life raft, dinghy and a contaminated water-supply was too much of a risk to take, there was a
chance I could have pulled it through, but it was more likely to turn into a survival ordeal. It was with a heavy heart -but with no doubt in my mind that I was making the right call- that I left ******. For those of you interested in the details, here is the full-blown tale.
DAY 1
It was June 16 2009 at 6 AM local time (10:00 Zulu), when ****** and I left the port of Miami for the port of Horta on the Azores Islands. The first day was uneventful as I charted a course following the Average Axis of the Gulf Stream. This served the purpose of picking up the most current in our favor, but also as traffic separation from South-bound vessels as they all kept a good 4 to 6 miles away from the axis. It was very hot and the seas were calm; the wind was 5 MPH from the South. At barely 1500 RPM we were making turns for at 6 KTS, while picking up a 3 KTS current. ******´s theoretical displacement hull speed is 8 KTS, which means that anything above 8KTS implies pushing water or surfing instead of "displacing water"; though on the water we were only making 6 KTS, over the ground we were at 9 KTS. Progress was swift and spirits were high.
DAY 2
At dawn on the second day, a nasty chop had developed after a night of fast -moving thunderstorms that left behind some very confused seas. The seas were only 3-4 FT but with a very short interval and coming from all directions, making the motion very uncomfortable.
The battery of 16 Jerry jugs full with Diesel and Drinking Water that I carried on the port-side of foredeck was lashed "spider web" style to the 15 FT aluminum boarding scaffold that doubled as a boarding board, but with the violent motion some managed to sneak out of the web and a Diesel jug spilled all its 6 GALS on deck, making for a VERY slippery deck. Two water Jerry jugs also managed to pop their caps and spill everything on deck. I re-lashed all the jerry jugs with more webbing thinking that this time they would stay put, but I was wrong, once the jugs get a little play, the constant motion keeps them tugging at their lashings and its only a matter a timer before they worked loose again. I had encountered the same problem before, and I chided myself for not building a crate or at least having a two by four to "sandwich" the jerry jugs together. By noon I had enough of the nasty washing-machine motion, and having already cleared the Bahamas, I changed course to the East so as to get out of that very uncomfortable windagainst-current situation. The change of course produced the desire result, s few hours later we had left the nasty chop behind and we were now making good progress towards Bermuda at 6 KTS.
A significant problem was discovered when I tried to refill the galley 2.5 gallon water dispenser on the galley: I found out that the water was over-chlorinated. When I refilled the jerry jugs at the marina fuel dock, I found that some of the water had turned green over the last two weeks, so instead of just adding a teaspoon of chlorine to each jerry jug, I added a dash. And a larger dash for the water tanks&#8230; as a result, the water was completely undrinkable. I figured that in time the chlorine would evaporate and that in the meantime I could accelerate the evaporation process by boiling it, but since I had a supply of bottled water for a few days in the fridge and a water-maker that I could rig, I was not too worried about it.
Considering the two-plus days of motoring with no wind, the spilled diesel and the water supply problem, that night I decided to call on the Bermuda Islands to top of the fuel tanks, so that I could motor through the Azores high, into the Azores. High pressure systems have little or no wind in them and are geo-stationary for long periods, a sailing vessel can get stuck in
them for couple weeks while making no progress&#8230; Topping the tanks would allow me to motor for a couple of days instead of drifting at 1 KT toward my destination, or even more demoralizing: drifting away from it!
According to the Pilot Charts, the Gulfstream is supposed to curve towards the East in the Sea of Sargasso, were I was, yet the direction of the current proved to be quite elusive: sometimes we were picking up 1.5 to 2 KTS and sometimes we had 1 to 1.5 KTS against us. I attributed this phenomena to the many eddies created as the Gulfstream flows like a river on the open ocean Northeast of the Bahamas.
DAY 3
The seas remained calm and there was a light breeze from the South-Southwest. The sails came out and we were making 5 KTS with Jib, Staysail, Mainsail and Mizzen. ****** looked great, the motion was mild and from one direction only, so life was good. Before noon, the wind died and we could not keep 3 KTS, so I fired up the engine again. After two days of sailing I was down to half a tank of diesel, so I loaded four 6 GALS jerry jugs into the tank. This Diesel was from Admiral Oil, as opposed to the one in the tank which was from the gas station at 22 nd Avenue and 22nd Street. At first, I wanted to conserve fuel in order to be able to motor across the Azores high pressure zone, but I did not want to dilly-dally West of the Bermuda Islands and risk having a surprise encounter with a Tropical Storm or -even worse- a full blown Hurricane. Once East of Bermuda, ****** and I would be out of the Hurricane Alley, more infamously known as the "Bermuda Triangle".

Around noon I received a call on the VHF: "Sailing vessel 60 degrees from my starboard bow, this is United States Warship." The warship was trawling a large sonar array. After arranging with their skipper for a passage with a 3NM separation, he asked me if I had seen a submarine in the vicinity... he explained that they were hunting for a (hostile?) submarine that had been
sighted earlier. We were 140 miles East of Cape Canaveral and there was a shuttle launch in progress which had been already delayed a couple of times. I wondered if the sub sighting had anything to do with the delay&#8230;
A couple of hours later, we approached NOAA Super-Buoy "41010" which I was very curious to inspect. The buoy is all painted in yellow and resembles a 30-FT trawler built in heavy steel with all sorts of equipment on deck and on the roof. Colliding with it would for sure ruin your day! There are two interesting facts about this "Super" buoy, the first is that it is located on
2700 feet of water (yep, that is half a mile deep, about 850 meters!) To anchor it with a 5 to 1 rode you would need to lay two and half miles of cable!!! The second fact is that it was located almost two nautical miles South East of its charted position; I couldn't help to wonder
if this was its normal swinging radius&#8230; In any case it is a significant danger for short-handed small boats. There are a few of these buoys on the Eastern seaboard, but you would need detailed charts to find them.
After sighting "41010" and taking a few pictures, I change course to due North, impatiently looking for the Westerly wind that would carry us to Bermuda. Despite the calm weather that surrounded us, I knew that we wind would come and come it did. ​​​DAY 4
The wind finally came in. It was blowing from the Southwest at a steady 15 to 20 MPH, and it picked up to 20 to 25 MPH in the afternoon. We were sailing as the saying goes: "three sheets to the wind" at 6 to 7 KTS under jib, mainsail and mizzen. ****** was comfortable with the wind, but the short, steep seas were a problem. As ****** rolled, the sails regularly collapsed and then filled up with an extremely violent tug on the sheets. I solved the problem on the mainsail and mizzen by rigging preventers downwind. These worked great and were really life-savers for the sails.
The jib problem was solved by rigging a spinnaker pole to windward, complete with topping lift, foreguy and aftguy. Handling the pole on a heavy pitching and rolling deck is no picnic, every few seconds I had to hang on with both hands in order to stay onboard! But all the effort that I put in rigging the pole system paid off now, as I was able to deploy the whole thing in small increments, never out of control. Once rigged, I trimmed it in a straight line with the mainsail boom, a similar arrangement to what a square rigged vessel does. The seas were on the beam at 8-12 feet with a short period, making for a very uncomfortable ride. Motion relief could have come from changing course a few points to North, but I had already decided to call on the Bermudas and did not want to be blown to the North, since it would had been very hard -if not impossible- to make any Southing later on. If we wanted to make landfall, I had no choice but to stay the course to Bermuda, and damn the seas on the beam. To complicate things, there was a second train of swells coming from the South and when the two swells synchronized and joined, it made for 15-20 feet seas. That means that when ****** was on the trough (-20 feet), the waves (+20 feet) were taller than the mizzen mast. I had encountered much larger waves in the South Pacific, but this time the period between waves was much shorted, resulting in extremely sharp wave faces, especially when waves from the two wave trains synchronized. Every few minutes, a very large wave would hit ****** rolling her on her side making me brace with both hands...
The ride was miserable, but all-in-all I was coping fairly well. All chores aboard became extremely difficult: forget about cooking, I ate the sandwich ingredients one at a time while bracing myself with the other hand and shifting all my weight to one leg. Taking a leak became an adventure on itself, as I had to brace myself hand-on-hand just to make it to the head.
When we were hit by one of the large steep waves, the roll was so violent that it threw me on the lee-lines that I had rigged in the starboard settee, in lieu of the lee-canvas. Staying in the cockpit was not comfortable, nor safe and I kept getting thrown out of the starboard berth was To my surprise the wide master cabin was much more comfortable, since I was laying in an athwarship position, I was able to read a book or sleep, though once in a while a deep roll would slide me down to port with mattress, featherbed, pillows and comforter. I would end up standing on the "foot of the bed" for a few seconds and having to rearrange al the bed items again and again... Nevertheless, sleeping athwart-ship vs. fore-and-aft was comfortable and I was very grateful that the aft cabin gave me that option.
Some of you may be wondering what happened with all the loose stuff that was on the shelves. Well, believe or not, all the stuff loose on the shelves -and also all the stuff loose on deck held somehow managed to hand in place! But the pantry doors manage to work loose of the lock and spilled the contents on the cabin sole&#8230; I spent two hours cursing like a drunken sailor, while crawling on the floor, cleaning broken glass, all this while fighting motion sickness.
Before sunset I lost the mainsail when the leech tape stitches gave in and the tape started flying like a pennant. The panel stitching was also breaking up as the sail luffed while I rolled it in, but since I had caught in time, I figured that I could re-stitch it in port and make it good again. Rolling the mainsail proved to be a major challenge, as this task required that ******
be pointed into the wind while the sail was being rolled. This was made difficult enough by the high seas, but further complicated by the fact that the roller-furler took a loooong time to roll while the mainsail was luffing. Meantime, the jib and the staysail would also be taking a beating, so I had to roll the headsails in before rolling the mainsail. All this, while motoring to
keep the boat pointing into the wind. During one of these maneuvers the engine high temperature alarm came in, I shut it down and when I looked into the engine room it was full of smoke. I vented the compartment and waited until the engine cooled down. At first I thought that it had lost the coolant through a loose hose but no, the coolant level was fine. I tried to start the engine again and had to shut it down right away as it was exhausting inside the engine compartment. The gassing was very bad, I could not keep the engine running even for a few seconds to see where it was coming from, without getting sick right away. I suspected a blown head gasket, but then I found out that the hose from the exhaust riser (the manifold) to the muffler had melted down. Obviously this was the result of overheating due to the lack of raw water flow. I checked the hoses and they were all attached, so it could have been either a failure of the raw water pump (impeller?) or a clogged heat exchanger. I suspect that the problem was caused by barnacles in the lines dying and clogging the heat exchanger. In any case, a repair at sea was out of the question, unless were encountered a calm, but no calm seas were in store for us. Another challenge was to find a replacement for the 3" exhaust hose, or the means to mend it, not to mention that access to the engine compartment was tortuous, at best.
DAY 5
The wind picked up to 25 to 30 and the seas too. I was puzzled by the steep swell which I could not explain by the current wind we were encountering, so I started to suspect that there was some heavy weather to the South of my position. After all, my last weather report was three days old, and it doesn´t take long for tropical weather to form. I figured that the weather was still far away and that since we were travelling perpendicular to it, we should be able to get out of its way should it decide to track North. To confirm my suspicions, the barometer kept dipping at a slow but steady pace. We were now sailing under staysail and mizzen only. It was great sailing, ****** was making good time at 6 to 8 KTS, keeping a steady course thanks to the full keel, after all, this was what the boat was design to do.
Unfortunately, the waves were much larger than what the wind warranted and we were taking quite pounding, hour after hour. A major problem developed when the shackle holding the dinghy bow to the davit lifting bar parted. The dinghy was left hanging from the transom to one davit and both the dinghy and the lifting bar where banging wildly on the transom. The best course of action would have been to cut it loose and stop any further damage, but since I had no liferaft (the dinghy was my survival platform), I was reluctant to cut it loose. Instead, I decide to lash the good shackle tight to the transom, so as to reduce the movement, and to let it play out. There was always time to cut it loose if things got out of hand&#8230; like the dinghy showing up for a visit inside the aft cabin! Jumping in the dinghy to attach something to the bow lift-harness was out of the question, even after lashing the rear harness tight to the transom, the dinghy was bucking wildly and I would not have lasted two seconds in it. Never mind that it was difficult enough to get back on board ****** in a calm anchorage, it would have been easier to ride a mechanical bull with no hands than to climb back up the transom with the sea motion. Cutting the tender loose and bringing it along side ****** in order to lift it up was also impossible: imagine trying to pull the dinghy transom first, semi-logged with water was a sure ways to lose it on the first wave that passed...
Life on board came to stand still, I was able to do the basics, but every task became very difficult, mostly because of the need to maintain balance. Work on deck was particularly dangerous due to the seas hitting us abeam which caused the deck to buck widely up and down, while dangerously rolling deeply. Even laying down on the cockpit was not safe, because I kept been thrown out of the settee. But I was managing to move around with difficulty, lashing things that became loose, trimming sails and untangling lines on the foredeck. By the way, I never got around to building a canvas cover for the windlass and surely enough, just as I had feared, the leeward sheets kept tangling on the windlass brakes when I slacked them. By taking enough time to do each task and taking long breaks in between, I was able to thwart seasickness and fatigue. I felt proud of being able to overcome all the challenges and felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
Notwithstanding my positive frame of mind, some disturbing thoughts were brewing in my head. ******´s hull was flexing and the deck was creaking a lot. Places that had been recently caulked and should not have been leaking were leaking like a sieve, for example the cabin portholes, the chainplates and the mast base. Having properly caulked them with abundant sealant, the only possible explanation left for the leaks was that the hull was flexing.
A very disturbing thought indeed... I inspected all the accessible bulkhead-hull joints and they look like they were moving. The confirmation came later in the day, when I felt the floor move. You could stand on certain spots and feel the floor boards bucking&#8230; As I replayed all these findings in my mind, I came to the conclusion that the bulkhead-hull joints were delaminated or flexing, which had previously caused ******´s hull to flex, cracking the
external gelcoat. The telltales had been there, but I had mistaken attributed the multitude of hairline cracks to gelcoat aging instead of the real cause: hull flexing.
Though there was no immediate danger to the hull, it was clear that ****** was in no condition to go around the world. Regularly sailing in high latitudes while encountering strong-winds and high-seas, or even just going through a particularly nasty storm, would eventually tear ******´s hull apart. The cure is very straightforward: remove all the bulkhead and floor joints from the hull and then reattach them with a proper resin lamination.
Easier said than done! This implies removing EVERYTHING from the boat, including the bulkheads (walls, for you landlubbers) and cabin sole (floor), then tearing out the interior and grinding out the fiberglass surfaces before laying several fiberglass layers to reattach them. Cost, time and the logistics of not being able to live in the boat while doing this, precluded a
repair in my near future...
Incidentally, when I bought ALLEY CAT, my previous boat, a Catalina 38 (a Sparkman and Stephens design) it had a tinny Danforth anchor and the insurance company gave me 30 days to replace it. Before the 30 days were over, ALLEY CAT was anchored on a cove at Anacapa Island and when the wind veered she dragged anchor and ended up on the rocks. I was able to
get it out with a heavy commercial tow that was at a nearby oil platform, but only after halfhour of being lifted by the waves and then pounded on the rocks, it was not a pretty experience. As a result of the grounding, the fin keel became loose and there was damage to the bulkhead-hull joints. The later one was discovered after insurance company had authorized the work on the yard, and was repaired at GREAT cost: the insurance company
paid more than $60K to the yard, on a boat that I had just purchased for $40K... This was a blessing in disguise, as ALLEY CAT was late on able to withstand severe weather with no damage, while a friend on a much heavier boat saw its floor boards pop-up from hull flexing, while sailing hard on a fresh breeze in Australia.
One thing was for sure, my dream of globe-trotting on ****** was over. While the hull could hold its own forever on mild sailing conditions, it would come apart on the seams if stressed hour-after-hour, day-after-day, month-after-month, on high-seas and high-winds. After five years of effort, and a year dedicated to prepare the boat for cruising, my mind refused to
accept this obvious conclusion. It took me a while to process and accept this, but eventually I came to the accept it, there was no feasible alternative.
DAY 6
Sunrise came and I was in good spirits. Nights are always long and sometimes they feel like never-ending, sunrises never fail to lift me up. I had decided to enjoy the sailing time that I had and that nothing was going to keep me from it. After all ****** was still good for some local cruising and a great home to live in. Now and then, the Southerly wind went down to 20-
25 MPH and a couple of hours later it was back at a steady 30-35 MPH, occasionally gusting 50- 60 MPH. ****** was tracking nicely under Staysail alone doing 6-7 KTS, but holding a 94 degree magnetic course (90 degrees true) was a major challenge. Steering 115 degrees, we were able to gain some Southing a few feet at a time, but when we were hit by one of the
"synchronized" large waves we would lose several hundred feet of cross-track error (XTE). Steering more that 110-115 degrees caused the staysail to occasionally collapse, loosing even more ground. The course had to be kept, or we would blow by Bermuda without a chance of coming back.
Dealing with the Mizzen sail proved to be a major challenge. Though the Dutchman/StakPak system worked great, it requires the sail to be luffing. Pointing to the wind without the engine assistance was very difficult to do with the large seas. Most important of all, the mizzen boom
height required me to climb and stand in top of the aft deck table underneath the rapidly swinging mizzen boom in order to reach the canvas while lowering the sail. On a heavy pitching and rolling deck this was extremely hard to do as there was always the imminent risk of being thrown out clean out of the boat.
Another troubling discovery was that the generator was not getting any fuel. After much work tracing the clog, I was able to open the inspection lid on the fuel tank and pulled the intake tube out. To my dismay, I discovered that the Diesel had turned to syrup and that the pick-up tube was clogged with gravel&#8230; I reckon that the either the Diesel from Admiral Oil which "May
have ethanol." or the constant violent motion from the storm, had caused the hard and soft deposits inside the tank to become loose, resulting in a gooey ¼ tank with loose gravel on the bottom&#8230; and all my fuel was in that tank. I cleaned it up and fired up the generator, but it soon died again. The Racor filter manometer read "-25 PSI" again, instead of the normal -5 PSI,
or even the 10-12 PSI when the filter elements need to be replaced. The tank would need to be emptied, the gravel removed, the insides scrubbed, re-filled with clean fuel and the lines purged. A few days project to do in port, but out of the question under gale-strength winds and seas.
DAY 7
Today, we would make landfall on Bermuda. Calm waters, a good meal, several hours of sleep, many projects to tack and a new and exciting port environment, full with new sights and unusual characters. Conditions were as miserable as the day before, but despite all the issues that had popped, I felt confident and I was in control, though a bit anxious about the Bermuda landfall. Since I did not plan to call in here, I had no detailed charts to guide me in, so I would have to depend on their tow in service. Because the islands have claimed countless ships over the years, Bermuda has a very developed maritime system, reaching to all vessels within 30 NM of the island. Buoys are not reliable, but they do have a radar station, a traffic control radio, and a towing service to bring vessels in. The Sailing Directions stated that the towing service was strongly recommended for all vessels without detailed current charts, as the reef pass is very dangerous and more so in heavy weather.
Bermuda is an old island, much smaller than when it was born. The reef, which grows an inch a year, marks the perimeter of the original volcano island. This reef goes up to 12 NM out. The only vessel entrance is in the East end. I was coming from the West, so I had to cross the island in order to get in. I had planned to take the island to Port, so as to have the wind behind when approaching the entrance, but the Sailing Directions were very specific about recommending against it, favoring an approach from the North. With the strong Southerly wind, it made sense not to have the island on the leeside and sailing to lee of the island should also provide some protection from the Southerly swells, so I changed my approach plan. It later proved to be a critical mistake.
The wind was unchanged, but the seas somehow were bigger. Progress became slow. I was concerned about making landfall late on the day and having to enter the harbor at night, so I trimmed the staysail for comfort instead of speed, and resigned myself to making landfall on the next morning. The boat interior was a mess and there were water leaks were they should have been none, but we were about to make landfall, and there would be time to fix things in port. My bottled water supply was almost exhausted, so I started hitting the OJ. I sighted a couple of ships, one of which was a huge Japanese container carrier that crossed in front of me. It was quite a sight to see the waves crashing on the side of this monster hull and the spray and
foam jettison deck high. The night was busier than previous, as I needed to keep an eye on traffic since we were approaching land and as vessels converge to a point, the risk of collision increases exponentially. Also, we were pinching, which meant that I needed to adjust course often in order to make landfall. We were tracking true, but it required constant attention and
effort to get all the Southing that we could and not get blown up North, out of reach of Bermuda.
DAY 8
The wind remained unchanged. Though I could not see the island, I knew that we were slightly North of the West end reef. The VHF chatter had increased, which told me that there were several vessels in the vicinity. I was able to establish radio contact with Bermuda Radio and I requested a tow from the NE corner of the island. A few hours later they could see us on their radar screen, and I was asked to report every hour. The lee of the island provided little or no protection from the seas, so I still had hard time keeping the course. I spotted a sloop (a sailboat with a single mast) a few miles South of our position, hugging the reef making way on a Westerly course under deeply reefed mainsail and a tiny storm jib. They were probably heading for a tight pass on the NorthWest side of the reef, but I could not confirm
this. Rain kept coming and going, making for poor visibility.
When I was closing on the rendezvous position with the tow, I got on the VHF and requested confirmation that the tow vessel was on its way. Bermuda Radio surprised me with another rendezvous point several miles South of the first position. Since this was straight upwind, over the next several hours I tried every I could to get them to meet me a bit North, but due to the heavy weather, they commercial towing company refused to go out&#8230; they said that they did not wanted to risk their lives. Towing a 25 ton vessel in heavy seas is no picnic, when a large wave hits the tow, it displaces is with the inevitable tug on the towing cable. In mild conditions, a long towing cable with its deep catenary can absorb this motion, but in heavy weather the load can make the towing vessel to go backwards and founder. Large commercial tows use a wire spool with a clutch, so that when the tow pulls hard there is no danger to the towing vessel. And there is also the risk of the cable parting and slicing through the crew bodies&#8230; I can't blame the guys for refusing to go out.
While still trying to get the tow guys to meet me, I tried everything I could to make some way upwind, but it was useless, the GPS showed little or no upwind progress while tacking and coming about was an ordeal, as the waves prevented ******'s from crossing the wind. Each tack I lost ground&#8230; I also tried to start the engine and let it fill the cabin with fumes, but it
soon died from fuel starvation. Now I had a cabin full with smoke! With a pounding headache from the fumes, I opened some hatches so as to get some cross ventilation while I sat on the cockpit going over and over my options.
The weather forecast was for 30-35 KTS and rain to continue for several days. Sailing back west ward to make another approach was a dicey proposition. With the increased seas after several days blowing I may not be able to make landfall on the Island after turning and coming
back East. I tacked back and forth in the lee of the island, but I was unable to make any Southing. I even tried to ride the current eddies on the edge of the island, to no avail. I tried with and without the mizzen, it made no difference, the heavy seas were pushing us downwind faster than any tiny upwind progress that we could make. The GPS "crumbs" showed the track history, which told the whole story: no progress. The result of all that
exhausting sailing effort was just to prevent us from drifting downwind&#8230; and I could not sustain it throughout the night, much less over several days. It reminded me of the accounts of old ships unsuccessfully trying to "claw" their way out of a lee shore in the middle of a storm hour after hour, only to lose the battle in the end. On one of the tacks, the bailer for the mizzen sheet blew clean out of the boom. With the boom swinging widely, I painfully rigged a preventer to the rigid, but fragile rigid boom vang attachment to stop the swinging that threatened to "bat" me out of the boat. It worked, but a much better attachment point was needed for the sheet if the sail was to be deployed. Lashing a line to the end of the boom was an option, but this would require me to climb on top of the table, put one foot on top of the aft railing and another on top of one of the davits in order to attach the lashing behind the sail. Not an easy task to do with the vessel at anchor, but on a rolling and pitching deck, where I could barely keep my balance crouching, this was out of the question. Now the mizzen was out of commission until we got some respite from the heavy weather and I could do a proper repair.
Heaving-to would take me further North, making a Bermuda land fall impossible unless the wind shifted to the West, which was not bound to happen any time soon. The most likely scenario was that tacking or heaved-to, ****** would drift further North, scrapping any chance of a landfall within a week.
By sun down I was physically exhausted from tacking without success, attempting everything I could think of to make some upwind progress towards the rendezvous point, now 15 miles upwind. My brain was also tired from jugging all the options, weighting the probabilities and possible outcomes without coming up with any good answers. The only possible course of action was to continue unto to the Azores and with all the problems I had onboard, that was a very dicey proposition. I needed some rest, so I heaved-to, ate something and went to sleep while ****** kept drifting downwind at 1 KT.
DAY 9
At midnight I woke up and reviewed all my options, which I already had analyzed time and time again. I contacted Radio Bermuda and ask them whether they had found any vessel willing to tow ******, now virtually disabled, but nobody wanted to deal with a tow in heavy weather.
Looking at the GPS, we were approaching the 25 NM mark, so by dawn I would lose VHF contact with Bermuda. The HF radio was not working. The 406 MHZ EPIRB would be my only outside contact, and it had a 5 year old battery&#8230; life support -even without the comfort of electricity- was dicey because of the tainted water supply, the dinghy could not last a few weeks if left hanging on one tackle (I was surprised it had lasted three days), I had limited propulsion to make a very slow passage to the Azores, a good chance of getting stuck for days or weeks on the nearby high, and without electricity no autopilot, no chartplotter and no radar. If someone offered me a million bucks, I would not have jumped on board for this passage. It was time I got out and try to find someone to tow ****** into port. I called Bermuda Radio and told them that I was declaring an emergency, and that I was requesting a salvage tow, which meant that the vessel would now have to be sold to pay for the salvage and hopefully I could have all my personal items shipped somewhere. They arranged for a rendezvous with the closest vessel, the cruiseship NORWAY DAWN, carrying 2800 passengers and 1000 crew.
On June 24, at 3 AM local time (0600 Zulu), the NORWAY DAWN maneuvered to the windward of ****** and launched a tender. By 3:15, I had unleashed the dinghy, walked it alongside, tied it to starboard and boarded it with a small bundle of personal effects (the giant cruise ship
was acting as a breakwater, there was huge surge, but no; transferred to their tender with three people, and we were hoisted out of the water and into one of the upper decks via a crane cable. From there I saw ****** disappear into the dark rainy night&#8230;
The ship crew was extremely helpful. After a trip to the hi-tech bridge -where I made a last unsuccessful plea for a tow- I took a shower, was given a medical, and I was shown to passenger cabin. My mind was numb, but eventually I got some sleep&#8230; at 8 AM the ship was at an alternate dock on the West end of the island. There was a custom official on board
checking in the ship passengers so that they could go ashore, but he refused to check me in, instead directing me to go downtown, which ended up being a two hour drive in the traffic and rain. Fortunately, once ashore I was able to persuade a K-9 customer official into giving me a ride to downtown. After the formalities of checking in myself and ****** (don't ask me why&#8230, I went about to find a tow. ****** was only 25 NM out there and I just needed a vessel that could go and fetch it. By now I was set on salvage, so cost was not a problem. I was told that the only tows that might go out were the government ones, which charged an exorbitant amount (something like $150K for the whole thing) and that even then it would take a long time to complete the formalities an get them moving. I spoke with the harbormaster who promised to look into the fishing fleet (I had already exhausted all the maybe's that customs gave me).
Back on the NORWAY DAWN, I was told by the hotel people that I could stay until Friday, when the ship had to leave, but later on they told me that security required me to leave the next day. Bermuda is extremely expensive and my funds were limited, so I had already reserved an AM flight on Thursday and Friday. I booked the Thursday flight and was lucky to get an
upgrade with my miles.
Aftermath
As I sat on the plane, waiting for take-off I was thinking that I had being privileged to been able to pursue my dream, even if the dream didn't pan out as I hoped.
What will happen to ******? The vessel has an extensive battery bank and two solar panels. Before leaving, I turned everything off, except for the strobe light and the bilge pumps. Problem is that the propeller shaft uses water as a lubricant, so there is a constant drip of sea water coming into the bilge which would accumulate overtime. If the solar panels are able to keep up with the strobe light consumption, the bilge pumps will have enough power to cycle ON now and then, keeping the bilge dry. If not, the bilge water will slowly accumulate and eventually encumber the vessel until she is low in the water and a wave swamps it and she founders. There is a strong possibility however, that the solar panels will produce enough power to keep up with the strobe light (or that the strobe light bulb will burn out) and that there is enough power to keep the bilge pumps, which only run occasionally for few seconds. If the bilge stays dry, ****** will stay afloat drifting due East with the prevailing wind and currents, either heaved-to or with the staysail pinching at about 1 KT (waves and wind could cause her to come out of the heave-to). This would put ****** near the European coast in about 3 months, by the end of September. Depending on the currents and local winds at the time, ****** could be blown off ashore, making landfall anywhere, or, following the Southern the current South turn, it may end off the North coast of Africa in a few more months. If the vessel is found, it is more likely than not it would be sacked&#8230; but there is a very slim hope that a government vessel could tow it back into port for investigation. Time will tell.
Losing one's home is a very emotional experience; I am still recovering from it. I have replayed the scenario in my head a thousand times and I am still convinced that I made the right decision. But rationale aside, the loss still hurts. They say that time heals all wounds&#8230; Well, if there is something I have plenty of right now, that's time.​
Until the next time we meet!
​


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

George had no insurance on the boat. It would have never passed survey. As more and more details are coming in on this George made every know error in seamanship. First he never did a shake down cruise. He never sailed this boat since he owned it. It was towed to the Marnia when he bought it. For 5 years it only left the dock less than a handful of times and all except one on the motor. Second, he lost his electronics 6 hours into the sail. We told him to turn back to fix them before continuing on. He refused. His damm South American macho BS got in the way. Here are the rest of the errors. 
Knew all the tanks were bad both fuel and water. One water tank was inoperable. Never polished the fuel before leaving. 
Unproven sailplan. All the rigging and running rigging was re-invented on this boat. 
Electrical wiring.. Each bulb, equipment or anything electrical had its own wire run. While it sounds grand, it wasn't done properly and we told him so. 
Engine - sat for over 8 years. He ran it a few times but never for any length of time. Had a few problems with it and fixed what was needed but from the blog it let him down. He had every known spare except a muffler hose for that engine. 
His mainsail shouldn't have came apart like it did. It was restitched and like new. Also, he should have been able to reef it in any wind direction being a furling mainsail. I am puzzled by this. George, having never sailed this boat and unfamiliar with a roller furling mainsail he made a huge error. 
The boat or George himself wasn't ready for such a voyage. But one cannot argue with a man when his mind is made up. He thought it would be like his Coconut Milk Run in the Pacific where he took a Coastal Cruiser Catalina 38. The Atlantic is different especially the North Atlantic. 
Some more thoughts. Well I might belittle George, first and foremost he was a true friend. He and I went sailing on my boat a few times and I went twice on his, both times motoring; one to get his boat out of dry dock after a 4 month refit on deck and hull and another to the sandbar. I have seen this boat go from a total waste to it last state of near completion. He was a very handy man with considerable boat craftsman skills. When ever I needed a part he always had it on his boat. In someways he was better than West Marine. His waterline was a foot or two lower by the amount of tools and spare parts. He help me a few times to over come problems that I faced on my own boat. In his own right he was an able body seaman. How many can say they had over 10,000 miles of sea time, all of cruising the Pacific in a Catalina to boot. Most of it was single handle or with an Admiral who knew almost nothing about sailing. 
This a tragedy that hurts me to the core. For those of us that dream of bluewater sailing, armchair with other sailors blogs there are many lessons learned here. The man had considerable seamanship, more than most beginner cruisers. He had a solid made, reputable bluewater cruising boat that is made to take the world oceans. However, as one can see judgement and boat came together to create such a disaster when mother nature doesn't play by the rules. Georges judgement began to fail when the cut the lines at all cost mentality started to corrupt his thought process. He worked on this boat for 5 years with set back after set back on getting systems right. We saw a change in his mood and thoughts about 6 moths ago. He set a date to cut the lines and by golly "Damm the torpedo's full speed ahead" he did. He lived on the hook, just outside the marina, for about 2 months after his date to finish the boat. It wasn't ready. We told him it wasn't ready. Go cruising in the Bahamas for 2 months or go up the East Coast to shake out the boat. He said no, for he was trying to beat the weather Gods before Hurricane season to cross the Atlantic to Spain, down to the Verde Islands to get to Brazil before winter. Put as we know the weather on the East Coast has been the weirdest on record with very cold wx to the NE, to storm after storm hitting everyday since April the entire east coast. All the cruisers have been complaining about what a horrible winter it was in the Bahama/Turks chain. As they made the annual Pilgrimage up the East Coast the rain, thunderstorms, and windy conditions made everyone hunker down vs cruising. George saw all this and figure the Atlantic crossing was better than what we proposed. In some ways it was as I was flying back and forth to Europe and saw the weather below. Most of the time everything east of 40 W past Bermuda was looking pretty good. Just had to get there. 
So the bottom-line is here is man who had the knowledge with a true bluewater boat failed. Failed due to judgement, pride and dignity getting in the way of sound seamanship. Both the man and the boat failed because neither were properly prepared.


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

I posted this here under some in trepidation. That being I don't want to see off hand remarks from some of the members. I posted it here so that some lessons can be learned by the sailing community at large. So please refrain off color remarks. Sorry I had to say this but it needs to be said. Most tragedies we can all learn and hopefully not make the same mistakes. 
I cannot begin to say how mad, sad, and grief I am feeling over this this event. I miss my friend and Gingo.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

Melissa, Thank you for the report and posting of the log. There are lessons for all of us to learn here.


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## JohnRPollard (Mar 26, 2007)

Mel,

Thanks very much for posting it here. 

This really reads like an "every thing that can go wrong, will" story. In some respects he is "lucky" he encountered bad weather on the very first leg of his circumnavigation, rather than in a remote region of the oceans. 

P.S. Gents, I'm going to go back and "suppress" some of our banter on this thread, which really is very off-topic and distracting. Sorry about that Mel.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Mel - thanks for the post. Definitely a lot to think about. And definitely a sober reminder.

I do have a question - in a situation like that, would it be better to be blown off course in order to ease the hammering on the boat? As I read it, I totally understood the desire to make Bermuda, but keeping that course at all costs, beam on to some nasty seas, I wondered what would be the better course of action.

Also, it seems like this might be the type of situation where a drogue/chute would help. No?


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

smackdaddy said:


> Mel - thanks for the post. Definitely a lot to think about. And definitely a sober reminder.
> 
> I do have a question - in a situation like that, would it be better to be blown off course in order to ease the hammering on the boat? As I read it, I totally understood the desire to make Bermuda, but keeping that course at all costs, beam on to some nasty seas, I wondered what would be the better course of action.
> 
> Also, it seems like this might be the type of situation where a drogue/chute would help. No?


One thing we have to remember here, none of us was on this boat at the time. One can only Monday quarterback and second guess. I know what I would do with what is know at this time is this. 
I would have heave-to or lay a course to ease the pounding on the boat. I personally experience this in my Gulf stream crossing a few months ago. There was no time frame to get to the Azores. So why take it. The boat was provision for an extended stay on the water. His water supply while contaminated was drinkable with boiling. Furthermore, it was raining so water collection was doable. As far a drogue/chute I will have to take a hazy on. I don't think the seas where that big and confused at that. However, if one doesn't have the sails to heave-to than that option of deploying a chute is absolute. Since George didn't have his sea-legs yet, laying low for as many days as this storm hung around, being comfortable and maybe repairing a few things would have been the wise choice. Having sea room affords this luxury. 
A few things on bluewater cruising or just boats in general. 
Engine access. This should be a no brainer but boat manufactures seem to put engines in boats as an afterthought. Access to the engine should be 360 accessible without acrobatics or contortionist acts. We all know that Murphy's Law will always kill the engine when it most needed. Having access to that engine is crucial. 
Fuel systems - With contaiminated tanks I would have rigged up the jerry cans to supply the fuel right out the can for the generator and engine. 
Few boat builders put on a fuel filtering system, like the fuel boss sytem, to change filters, bleed and backup fuel pumps.


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## imagine2frolic (Aug 7, 2008)

At times you need to lose ground to save your boat. Nothing matters but the life of the boat. No boat = no life it's just the way it is. Mother Nature is indifferent to where we want to go, and how soon we want to be there........*i2f*


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Cool - thanks guys. I know these things can sometimes turn into a bashfest and there's no reason for that.

On the other hand, it is extremely helpful for us newbs to be able to ask questions and talk through these scenarios to get feedback from you guys that have been through them.


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## SailKing1 (Feb 20, 2002)

Mel, Iwas sorry to hear about your friend and his boat ******. But what an educational read. Thanks for the post.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

I am not sure that laying low was an option for him. Before leaving the boat he says in his log that he was out of bottled water and was now drinking OJ. I have to wonder how much he had left on board to drink. It is all about state of mind.


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## rickysail (Jul 15, 2009)

Vasco said:


> He abandoned the boat. No engine , bulkheads moving, mainsail torn, water contaminated, no tow to Bermuda. The boat was still floating. Real horror story.


Such a dreadful shame, all the work and blood sweat and tears he must have put into doing up his boat. It could have gone a lot worse, he could have been lost at sea as well. I hope he tries again, damn bermuda!


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## fendertweed (Apr 4, 2003)

quite a cautionary tale, lots of lessons there for anyone/all.


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## Undine (Jan 26, 2008)

Melrna,

Your friend has our sympathy for his ordeal and the loss of his boat.


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## Cruisingdad (Jul 21, 2006)

Mel,

Thank you VERY much for sharing that tale. Honestly, I have seen a number of these pop up here, but that was the first one I read from start to finish.

I also agree that we will keep this discussion on topic and nothing inappropriate.

I have long said in these discussions, whether Barnes or others, that the point here is to learn from others mistakes. Just remember as we discuss what WE would have done, that YOU were not there and it is really easy to sit at a computer to decide what you would have done than be in the thick of it and trying to decide.

That being said, my opinion is that his most critical mistake was the shake down cruise. I remember I was on the phone once with Frank Butler about dropping our 380 in Houston and sailing straight across the gulf and he said, "Making that kind of a trip without a super shake-down cruise is a recipe for disaster." Of course, I would not have done that - but the point was that even with a brand new boat that we knew well, a shake down cruise is mandatory. I figure that would have saved ****** because he would have had issues popping up all over the place. It would have at least given him more time on his boat and how she handled. Even if just one of his issues had been resolved, the odds were that he would have made it to Bermuda. Instead, it was almost a total failure short of sinking.

I will also point out something else we do not talk about much here: Jerry Cans. For those of you that have never tried to pour fuel out in a rolling sea (I have never tried to use Calder's method of blowing it through a tube) or seen the movement of the cans in a rolling or breaking sea, I will tell you that it is a mess. We have done it and I have hauled more diesel than Exxon on my rail, but we are going to great lengths right now to avoid using jerry cans. A fairly inexpensive option (that I will report on when we finish the project) are the fuel bladders. You can get them for water too. Anything you can do to get that fuel/water in a safer environment and below decks is a plus. Not to mention the stability aspect depending on how much fuel you are saving. I have been told that a breaking sea can rip the cans (with lifelines attached) right off the boat. I have never witnessed this - but it certainly seems plausible to me.

I cannot think of a single diesel tank that does not have an inspection port. Dad is in the process right now of checking out his tanks and cleaning them. We have a neighbor on a Panda 38 that did that and totally re-did his tanks. Glancing at the fuel tank periodically is a very simple matter and I am not sure it would take 10 minutes of your time.

As far as ****** goes... I am of the belief that the poor guy just had a strong dose of bad luck. I firmly believe that a shake-down would have identified many of his problems (not all), but even a shade of good luck or one less failure would have gotten him to Bermuda at least. If he reads this, or you speak to him again Mel, please tell him that we are all sorry for his loss. I cannot imagine the frustrations and dissapointment he is dealing with. Tell him also that it cannot rain every day. A change of fortunes will come and hopefully he will find another boat carry him back to his dream(s).

- CD


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## CalebD (Jan 11, 2008)

Melrna,

Thanks for posting the log here. It made an interesting read for many of us Monday morning quarterbacks.
It sounds as though your friend is hoping that someone will find his boat still floating off the coast of Europe in a few months. I hope that this will happen.
I still kick myself for allowing myself to be talked into doing a maiden voyage and delivery with a friends boat with no shake down sail. Fortunately for us our trip was a short coastal hop of 50 nm and we easily endured.
As is often said: "If it is going to happen, it will happen out there."
Lots of other good lessons here that you have already identified.


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## JagsBch (Jan 19, 2007)

So is this boat now just drifting aimlessly at sea?


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## CalebD (Jan 11, 2008)

Yep. Not aimlessly though. Ocean currents should push it towards Europe or north Africa.


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

Mel...thanks for your note of explanation. I must admit I was scratching my head and your note clarified all my questions and so served the purpose for which it was written. It took guts to write it ...but it was the right thing to do and you did it with an obviously kind heart.


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## FishFinder (Feb 24, 2008)

With all due respect -- I am curious, what was George working on for so long (5 years?)? Boat must have been a mess if he spent so much time on it and never got around to fixing the tanks/engine/bulkheads/etc.

That lesson about checking the tanks I learned the hard way this year.


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## mccary (Feb 24, 2002)

Melrna said:


> I posted this here under some in trepidation. That being I don't want to see off hand remarks from some of the members. I posted it here so that some lessons can be learned by the sailing community at large.


This should be required reading for those considering an off shore cruise. In particular, the old thread on cruising with a Catalina 30 comes to mind. I sail a Catalina 27 and love my boat but this points to what can happen... Thanks for sharing and I am deeply sorry about your friend and his boat.


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## JagsBch (Jan 19, 2007)

What happens when you drop anchor in 20' sea's with 30 MPH winds?


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## CalebD (Jan 11, 2008)

*Anchoring or Sea Brake?*



JagsBch said:


> What happens when you drop anchor in 20' sea's with 30 MPH winds?


It mostly depends on the water depth, rode length and lee shores. 
If the water is 10' deep you will risk finding the bottom with the keel. If you are in deep water of 6000' it won't do much but drag through the water and slow the boat a little. This is why someone mentioned a Jordan Series drogue sea anchor as a possible tactical strategy.

Most of us coastal and inland sailors can only guess what George had to endure.

I think the lesson to be learned here is to know your boat and do some practice sails in rough weather before heading out there for distant shores to see how you and your boat handle the motion of the ocean. 
I have only been on 'blue water' for about 400 nm and in a calm sea state while sailing from Tortola to Turks & Caicos and even on a 50' sailboat the normal 'calm' (4-5' waves spaced far apart) ocean going downwind and it was surprising what movement that size boat took on in light conditions. As conditions deteriorate the situation could get exponentially bad as happened to George and '******' near Bermuda.

I can't second guess George's decisions as I was not there but he lived to write his log that we all read in an above post. I will say that everything Melrna has contributed to this thread says it all for me; people can develop a hubris or a 'must be done by such and such date' attitude that they just leave a bit unprepared for when the sea has an attitude of it's own. Most of us are lucky but we are not trying to cross great swaths of ocean from continent to continent.

I still hope that someone sights his boat before it hits the Bay of Biscay.


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## JagsBch (Jan 19, 2007)

I can't help but wonder why throwing an anchor out when he was near the reef was not an option. I mean if your in 75' of water or so an anchor to me seem's to be an option, my question is; is it?


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## svHyLyte (Nov 13, 2008)

> _George had no insurance on the boat. It would have never passed survey_. ... _George made every know error in seamanship. First he never did a shake down cruise. He never sailed this boat since he owned it. It was towed to the Marnia when he bought it. For 5 years it only left the dock less than a handful of times and all except one on the motor. Second, he lost his electronics 6 hours into the sail. We told him to turn back to fix them before continuing on. He refused..._
> _Here are the rest of the errors. _
> _Knew all the tanks were bad both __fuel__ and water. One water tank was inoperable. Never polished the __fuel__ before leaving. _
> _Unproven sailplan. All the __rigging__ and running __rigging__ was re-invented on this boat. _
> ...


While it is sad that "George" lost his boat, in view of the foregoing it seems to have been all but preordained--by George. How much sympathy does that really merit?


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## Vasco (Sep 24, 2006)

JagsBch said:


> I can't help but wonder why throwing an anchor out when he was near the reef was not an option. I mean if your in 75' of water or so an anchor to me seem's to be an option, my question is; is it?


Anchoring in rough weather can be very dangerous depending on the conditions, depth, bottom and seas. It can strip your windlass very quickly and even tear it out of the deck before you know it. Just going up forward in storm conditions is dangerous. In this instance I would think that the water would have been much too deep for anchoring.


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## JagsBch (Jan 19, 2007)

So anchoring in rough sea's is not an option even if your in water shallow enough to anchor properly? Where is the line drawn as to when and when not to anchor?

From what I gather, this scenerio epitomizes the cliche and quote from cool hand luke.. 

"What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."

******, IMO was a boat that screamed to the top of its lungs to an owner who clearly existed in a bubble being deaf dumb and blind to the reeling and writhing cries of ******. Like a new mother giving a pacifier to a baby with a crappy diaper inspite of the reaking air, a surgean putting a bandaide on a lump in a womans breast. 

Sailing to me is a spiritual endeavor aimed to slow us down and get us consciously connected to reality, to get in touch with seemingly inatimate aspects of reality in intimate way's. I can go out to my boat right now and she will start singing an opera to me regarding what give's her pleasure about our relationship, and what I need to do to get her from sounding like a bunch of screeming sheep. There have been countless nights where I stayed up counting sheep in regards to what is going to take to make them stop screaming. 

You dream of the day of going to her and have her entertain you with a choreography and of angelic proportions in the symphany of reality, but this requires you to pay attention to the point of being astutely attuned surgically remove the devil out of the details with a scalpel or even a chainsaw when necassary. 

Exponential, the term is a resinating mantra in this thread. The domino effect of being blockheaded to the nagging sound of sheep screaming from her, to the point where there was a complete disconnect in the relationship between the vessel and its host, helps us fully understand what happened here. 

This scenerio IMO was the result of ignoring of fatal exception error signals vessels resonate to us in sometimes what may appear as strange and mysterious way's to obvious way's that can force an individual to take a blind eye too things such as hair line crack's, that are clearly symptomatic of serious compromise of integrity or issues that can be ignored and written off as a symptom's of minor superficial aging... 

With all the components a vessel possesses the last thing you want to do is get into an exponential fatal exception error while being slammed with the many many crash tests that result from voyages into the frontier of blue. 

The reality test of the blue will prove whether you have been paying attention or not. It is hard enough to pass the reality crash test the frontier of the blue has to offer, even when your paying boocoo attention. 

The moral of this story: you can either pay the proper attention before you make any voyage or you can and more often than not will wind up paying more than you dreamed of bargaining for... You have to pay to play... Now does it make sense or even cent's to position yourself to pay more than you bargained for to the point of forcing yourself and others to paying the ultimate price for your sheer and utter blockheaded disconnect with not only your vessel but reality?

Angels of grace will fly to our rescue, but when we cross the line to the point where find ourselves in the position of being in a place where even angels fo grace fear to tread, well we have no one to blame but ourselves when we allow the devil to be in the details due to ignoring the screaming sheep who are signalling the wolf in sheeps clothing lurking like rats on our vessel feasting on the stinking cheese of ignorance. :hothead 

Signed, 
Monday morning QB...


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## painkiller (Dec 20, 2006)

This thread just got weird.


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## JagsBch (Jan 19, 2007)

This has me thinking, maybe I ought to name my boat fring...  

The pain relief resulting from the pill of wanten ignorance, can and all too often result in the pain's being relieved by the pill's to mutate the symptoms to the point of allowing them to being transformed into an alien like creature that is delivered like child without any anethesia whatsoever. What is worst is seeing the alien demon child consume your life in order to sustain its existence. :hothead Buhaha

There have been more than a 1000 episodes of way's to die as a result of putting off the hurt that comes from addressing the screaming issues on a vessel until your underway... You can either hurt now or later, the latter mind you can not only be more painful but lethel. That is not wierd that is for real.


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## pauld56 (Jul 29, 2008)

The lesson I learned from this is that even though we sail alone, our actions affect others. When we don’t prepare properly because of whatever personal reasons, we give more reason for more rules to keep us safe. The people with good intentions, making the rules can make put serious roadblocks in the way of those of us that take responsibility for ourselves. Our local hero Zac Sunderland made it around the world before his 18th birthday last week and I hear lots of people suggesting that his parents are irresponsible to have let him go. The same people allow their 16 year olds to drive on the freeway. Unfortunately some of these people make the rules for the rest of us.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

svHyLyte said:


> While it is sad that "George" lost his boat, in view of the foregoing it seems to have been all but preordained--by George. How much sympathy does that really merit?


I don't think it's sympathy so much. It's why hammer a guy when he's down?


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## NCC320 (Dec 23, 2008)

Thanks for posting the log of the ****** and Melrna's valuable commentary. These two postings should be required reading and re-reading for a good many newbies and inexperienced (in offshore) people that read and post on these forums. Again and again, we see people with a dream, but no/little experience in boat repair and sailing, say I've got $2K, or $10K, or $30K to spend on my first boat, which I intend to sail to the islands or around the world. Not to dash the dream, but like everything else in life, one needs to prepare properly for executing the dream. It takes lots of time and money, and all those junker boats that people substitute Home Depot materials in half-vast upgrades (repairs) just don't make it when the oceans turn mean. I'm not a offshore sailor, don't even want to be, but I spent a few years in the Navy at sea, and when those storms come, it's not pretty even on a ship. Also, newbies might spend some time looking at some of those storms posted on You Tube. And, when they come, you can't just turn them off when you get tired or something breaks. Here we had an experienced sailor and a large, "bluewater" type boat and it still when wrong. Great thread.


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## LookingForCruiser (Feb 7, 2007)

Jags, you're talking about motoring around in a keelboat sans keel in another thread... just sayin'...


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

pauld56 said:


> Our local hero Zac Sunderland....


quick note: Zac is much more than a *local* hero.
It's hard to look at a guy like that and not feel a complete underachiever.


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## JagsBch (Jan 19, 2007)

LookingForCruiser said:


> Jags, you're talking about motoring around in a keelboat sans keel in another thread... just sayin'...


I am talking about being in the water. Having drink listening to some tunes while watching a sunset with my 2 favorite girls with a fishing line out in the water, all the meanwhile my sailboat is being upgraded...

You can't handle the truth

I was born into a world you... might not understand


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## Guest (Jul 22, 2009)

...


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Part cautionary tale, part horrible example. Thanks for posting. As a sailor prepping for a world cruise, I think I'll print this out and tape it to a bulkhead.

George obviously had _some _sailing experience, but the fact that he had dirty tanks, a half-dead battery in his EPIRB and a few other very dodgy bits of logic make me think that in some critical ways he was woefully unprepared for this trip. He doesn't mention (or I skipped it) his self-steering (whether vane or AP) or whether he could get weather data easily that might have put his boat in less destructive conditions.

Still, I am feeling regret for any sailor who tries to do a big trip and has failures of this cascading sort.


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## captbillc (Jul 31, 2008)

*lost===Vagabond 42*

thanks for posting this . it really makes you stop and think. i crossed from spain to gibralter to canarys to antigua on a vagabond 42 in november 1990. we were 6 seasoned seamen. even so, we had some moments of concern. the 20 ft swells from the north with lots of smaller waves between them were enough to cause us to broach a couple of times when the rudder came out of the water with what the owner called a drifter up with 14kn of apparent wind on the stbd quarter @ we are making 7 1/2 kn. we had jerry cans lashed to the rails also. the water fill to the tanks came from the port side on deck to a Y by the port tank & then to the stbd tank. with the constant roll to the port the water in the stbd tank was emptying into the port tank. we were drawing water from the port tank & did not realize the stbd one was draining.we ran out of water a couple days before antigua but had the jerry cans. we were careful of our water use on the trip. i washed up with a mug of water once a day. don't try to cook spaghetti in sea water, it tastes terrible. we had other exciting moments also as anyone on a long voyage will. the autopilot went out the first day out of the canarys 7 we hand steered for 22 days.


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

I will try to answer some of the questions here.

Valiente.
He had a bullet proof wind vane on the boat that attached to his rudder. He also had an electric one as well. He had a SSB with weather fax on the boat but lost his electronics 6 hours into the sail. Like I said, we told him on VHF to put into Ft Lauderdale to get it fix or back to us in Miami. 
As far as all of us are concerned he did have considerable sea time. More than most sailors. He sailed from Calif to Mexico, to the South Pacific and back in a Catalina 38. 
_Fishfinder - I am curious, what was George working on for so long (5 years?)? Boat must have been a mess if he spent so much time on it and never got around to fixing the tanks/engine/bulkheads/etc._
As I wrote the boat was a mess when he bought for practically nothing. It was towed into the marina. He spent the first 6 months working on getting the engine working. The entire deck was redone, ripped out the old teak and fiberglassed the decked. Cap rail, new rigging including chainplates. Redid the mast, mizzen, jib and staysail. Built storage boxes on deck to keep all the stuff he had. During the haul-out had the bottom stripped and redone. Sides were re-gelcoated. I believe he rebuilt the rudder as well. 
Entire electrical system both AC and DC was rewired and new. Installed all new electronics. New ports. Built the dinghy davits and windvave. The list goes on and on. He did all the work himself and alone except for an occasion hand when needed. It was practically a new boat. But not completed. Like we see there were still some items that needed attention. Critical items for which those of us said get it done before leaving. 
For those of you who have never stepped on a Vagabond, it is a solid boat. Big and heavy. Looks like a pirate boat too!  The difference between this 42 boat and a production boat of the same size is not in the same world. It feels like it would take a force 6 wind just to get it moving. The fiberglass lay up is over 4 inches I believe. I say this for a reason. 
I can only guess that this boat gave George over confidence/false sense in sailing all over the world compared to his Catalina 38. Most of us start out with a light weight production boats and move up to a traditional bluewater boat. Anyone with this kind of traditional heavy displacement boat probably bought this boat thinking it would take care of crew and boat in any weather conditions. "It's a safe boat, all the experts say so!" Being a ketch, with a windvane, one can sail in almost any wind conditions other than dead calm. Most of the items that needed attention George's said could be handled while sailing or in some bay or harbor. He practically had an entire machine shop on this boat and parts to fix anything. He also had the skill to do so. 
The second factor was he had over confidence in his sailing ability I believe. Sailors are like pilots. The first few 100 hours we are learning and cautious. The next 300 hours we are safe while perfecting our craft. It is the 500-1500 hours where we become complacent, over confident and accidents happen. I call this bullet proof syndrome; "Nothing can hurt us and I can get out of any situation"! When one survives this phase we become safe again as experience once again shows us we are fallible. I would put George in the 500-1500 hour group in his thought process of seamanship.
The third fault here in what I call the "T" factor. Simply put "testosterone factor". It is that male BS machismo and/or ego. George was single and from South American ancestry. I see it in pilots, sailors and even here on this forum. I am not male bashing per se but seeing it from a female point of view. I have lost to many friends needlessly in my profession (20 year military pilot and commercial pilot). I am tired of going to funerals. I have seen too many sailboat crashes when I raced. I have seen to many male sailors whine because their wife's/girlfriends won't sail with them due to the many reasons stated here on Sailnet and other forums. After reading tons of sailing blogs, it is the admiral who takes the caution approach to things *most* of the times and says lets wait until things are proper or the wx gets better. There is a difference in thought process when one is solo vs crew onboard especially when it comes to safety. Furthermore two heads are better than one when problems arise. I say this because those of you planning such a voyage either single or with someone else there is a lesson here. 
Mother nature and Murphy's Law play by their own rules. We as humans try to conquer or minimize those with knowledge, experience, common sense and a little bit of luck every now and than. If one is going out into the world make sure you take as much of above items as you can. May each of you have fair winds, love in your hearts, enjoy each sunrise and sunset for each day is unique.
Melissa


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## camaraderie (May 22, 2002)

Good post Mel. 
You are right about the solid feel of a V42...but when the bulkheads are disintegrating and the hull is flexing...it doesn't matter much how thick the glass is. There's more to construction quality than thick hulls.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Melrna said:


> I will try to answer some of the questions here.
> 
> Valiente.
> He had a bullet proof wind vane on the boat that attached to his rudder. He also had an electric one as well. He had a SSB with weather fax on the boat but lost his electronics 6 hours into the sail. Like I said, we told him on VHF to put into Ft Lauderdale to get it fix or back to us in Miami.
> ...


Thanks for the clarification, Melissa. The loss (I presume it was unexplained) of the electronics was indeed in my view a sign to turn back and find out what shook loose in that short time, but sailors are no less, and perhaps more, prone to the "goal-oriented" aspects of sailing, rather than seeing it as a process whereby you accept that things fall apart, but are prepared to fix them faster...an aspect of this of course is keeping stuff both robust and simple.

I'm glad he survived, even though it's a hell of a loss. I wonder what _he_ is taking from these experiences?


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## lancelot9898 (Dec 30, 2008)

I think the story once again shows that the weakest link in most offshore diasters is the human aboard. Poor judgement in not turning back into port after losing electronics after only 6 hours into the adventure was one of several and not scuttling the boat after rescue was maybe the worse considering Murphy's Law. Even a poorly found boat seems to survive even severe storm conditions in spite of all efforts of crew and captain to "save it".


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Judging by the video of the rescue - she was in very bad shape after the cruise ship ran over her. The video shows the mizzen mast (?) snapping and the stern being pushed under water with lots of crunching noise.

I don't know if this was intentional by the cruise ship captain to scuttle the boat or if it was an accident - but it sure looked like she was taking on water after that.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Ugh...it gave me the willies, that video.


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## Yado (Jan 3, 2004)

*Where's the Video?*

"Judging by the video of the rescue ".....

Do you have a link for that video?


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Yado said:


> "Judging by the video of the rescue ".....
> Do you have a link for that video?


It's in the first post.

Rescue 1 Video


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## snider (Jun 26, 2006)

*Sick to my stomach!*

The thought of having to handle sails that size and alone in those conditions make me queasy.

I was out in the stream racing a 38 footer in force 5 from the ESE and had some uneasy moments with three others on deck let alone by myself. That just reinforces my own opinion of go small, simple and safe. Smaller is better, especially when you encounter conditions like that.

The average sailor could handle a 40 footer in nice calm conditions, its the rough weather that makes or breaks you.

I read a lot of people here looking for the "Best Cruising Boat" My number one must have is a boat that sails well to weather in the heavy stuff and heaves to well, speed is relative. Glad this guy got out alive or this would be a totally different thread. Good luck turning it around sailor.

P.S. Its interesting the famous sailors you read about, the Pardeys have sailed a lifetime and never lost a boat, then Moitessier losses 3. Single handing played a big part in the first two. Joshua was a different story. I'd be interested in the stats from those who've spent a lifetime cruising, how many boats and lives lost.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

In my view, the biggest issue with a 40 footer is not sailing, it's knowing when to _stop _sailing. Oftentimes, one's desire to reach the destination trumps the better course, which is to radically slow the boat or to heave-to to avoid the sort of sequential damage a steady diet of getting beat up by the sea can do.


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## davidpm (Oct 22, 2007)

In the website design business customers want:

1. Every hot new feature they can dream up.
2. It has to be completed in one week, they are in a hurry.
3. It has to be very cost effective (read cheap)

The saying is that they can't have all three but can have any two.

For blue water sailors maybe it's similar.

1. I want the biggest possible boat with the most features.
2. I have a limited time to get it fitted out.
3. It has to be cheap

If I go for all three I get slapped down and loose my boat at best, or die or kill someone else at worse.

If I give up one of the three I might make it.

If I take my time with a good sized budget and fit out a smaller simpler boat I'm golden.

One of may favorite sailing quotes is:
We all start sailing with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. 
The goal is to fill up the bag of experience before the bag of luck is empty.


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## wind_magic (Jun 6, 2006)

I'm going to do a little more monday morning QB'ing here, and what is worse is I don't have any experience to speak of, so I really should keep my mouth shut!  With that said ...

Two things strike me about this story and some of the others ..

1) It always seems to end when the sailor gets exhausted and finally has to throw in the towel. The more of these stories I read and hear about the more it sounds like making it through a storm or other bad conditions is as much about controlling fatigue as anything else. It seems like once you get exhausted you start running out of options, it is like getting hypothermia or something, once you've taken it to that point you start getting into trouble and things quickly go from bad to really really bad. Sometimes it seems like sailors are nicer to their boats than they are to themselves.

And that leads right into number 2 ...

2) It seems like a lot of these stories could have happier endings sometimes if the sailor can just take a breath, heave to, and just calm down for a while, get some rest, eat a few bowls of soup in peace, and go with the flow a little bit. I'm not saying this sailor didn't do that, from the writing it sounds like he was doing a good job of trying to keep his options open, etc, but there is a difference between the necessity of having to claw off of a lee shore (which you have no choice about) and having to get to Bermuda (which is just a choice), right ?


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Number two is the lost art of heaving to. George seemed fixed on getting to Bermuda and thus was committed to keeping a course. He didn't mention just stopping (via heaving to) and letting the heavy weather (not a storm, but at 35 knots, the milder sort of gale) pass him by.

I don't know why, because a ketch with intact steering should have been able to heave to pretty easily. He instead chose to drive the boat with compromised sails and a flexing hull. I don't know why he chose this, as even a damaged hull would've done better in a calmer sea.


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## imagine2frolic (Aug 7, 2008)

I am not trying to kick the man while he is down, but his decision making while things are going amuk. They do not give the sound of experience. 5 years of work, and the integrity of the boat itself is in question?

The boat is a big boat, but when you look down on the deck. It looks more like storage alongside a garage? I can not for the life of me figure out why the dinghy would be in the water? I am sure by the time the rescue boat arrived that things had calmed down.

With plenty of sea room. It's time to hove to, get some sleep, replenish yourself, possibly get fresh water, and other necessities while the big boat is there. I wasn't there, and I don't know the owner, but it seems to me a lot of his problems were preventable from the beginning? Preperation is a huge factor in success..........*i2f*


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

A story like this makes me glad I jumped ship in the Bahamas on a delivery from Fla to PR, it wasn't long after we shoved off that it became evident that neither skipper nor boat were ready for the intended passage.
Prior to agreeing to go he had told me he crewed on one of the windjammer boats for 2 years after college. It wasn't until we were underway that I found out his position on the ship was trombone player in the band.
At least the poor fellow is alive to tell the story.


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## imagine2frolic (Aug 7, 2008)

SS,

Thanks for the belly laugh. Good decision to jump ship.....hahahahahaha......*i2f*


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## NCC320 (Dec 23, 2008)

Never have done it first hand, so others who have might be better qualified to comment, but having seen/been in some bad storms on ships when in the Navy years ago, I think that most people just don't understand how rough it can get, and how that's going to slam the boat and crew around relentlessly for hours on hours, going into days on days in bad storms. It's all nice to say heave too and eat a sanwich and soup, and get some sleep. How the heck are you going to do that when you are getting slammed around every minute?
When it gets like that, it's all you can do to hang on, and I dare say most of us won't be able to keep that sandwich down in any case. It all looks nice in the movies, a little like riding a roller coaster, but you can't get off after a short ride. All of the above having been said, my take on the log was that while the boat was experiencing bad weather, it was still somewhat mild compared to what it can get to be. Take a long look at some of those large ships in storms on You Tube. Now visuallize what a 30-40 ft. boat is going to be doing in those same waves and winds.


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## imagine2frolic (Aug 7, 2008)

NC,

As you said you have never done it, and I have. When you are hove to. It's like a duck on a pond. Everything changes...example

I am motoring against 30+knots close on the wind in a thirty ftr with a tiny jib, and a dbl reefed main. I am getting low on fuel, so I hove to. I let the decks dry out, and easily walk forward with can in hand to pour in fuel. Before I have to it was nearly all hell broke loose with water coming over the bow.

You can cook, sleep, and basically just hang out with a calm motion. All the while there is the weather still going on. It has nothing to do with movies it is reality, and some boats do it better than others. A big difference with a small sailing vessel hove to, and a huge ship on the same waves. Once again just imagine a cork bobbing on the lake as compared to the ski boats bouncing around.........*i2f*


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## Cruisingdad (Jul 21, 2006)

Ok, here is the part that I did not understand (did not understand... not criticizing): Why couldn't he fall off or heave to, let the storm pass, then resume to Bermuda? So what if he missed it the first time, he could sail to weather, right? Why was it Bermuda or nothing?

Again, not criticizing, I just did not understand.

- CD


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## NCC320 (Dec 23, 2008)

I understand, (and know in milder conditions first hand) that heaving too settles down things tremedously, almost unbelieveably so. Also, it seems to me that this would have been the best tactic here also...why beat youself and boat to death trying to fight the storm making little or no headway when you could loose ground but save boat and your own energy. Still I believe that people totally underestimate what the sea can and will do at times.

Of course we are all different...if I were going, I wouldn't buy what seems to have been a junker (but bluewater boat in its original new or near new condition) and spend five years getting ready to go over getting one that was basically sound and near ready to go from the start, refuse to turn back for repairs when I loose my electronics just a few days out, and then decide to keep going while the storm is wrecking me and the boat when heaving to is an option. So, in the end, I'm here on the shore/near shore safe and sound (still have my boat too), and he has a first hand adventure story that I can never match, but lost his boat.


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

He could not heave-to. He had no main or mizzen. What he did do was fore-reaching. It is the only choice with just the jib working. Fore-reaching in a lot cases is the best way to go to get out of the storm and ride it out. If heave-to or deploying a chute/drogue drifts you further into the storm than fore-reaching is one's only choice. The problem with fore-reaching is it usually requires someone at the helm at all times. The reason is to ride the front and back of the waves at the proper angle so as not to roll, turtle, slip down backwards damaging the rudder or capsizing the boat. This is the danger of single handling a boat during gale conditions. Since George had only a wind vane working, he was fore reaching (beating) into the wind at around 45 degrees off the wind. A wind vane works great in this scenario better than an electric autopilot in most cases. It is a rough ride but very doable. 
I believe George was exhausted both mentally and physically, dehydrated, and seasick. The seas around him were in an angry state. He went from an euphoria high of finally leaving on the cruise of his dreams with the endorphins pumping through his body to a total breakdown. With the boat breaking down around him from the beginning added fuel to the body breakdown. In the end he realize both the boat and he was not ready to continue for which he wisely stepped off the boat.


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## ramminjammin (Sep 17, 2007)

Melnra

In your previous post you mentioned that george did not polish his fuel before he left, what does "polish the fuel " mean ?

thanks


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## davidpm (Oct 22, 2007)

You run the fuel through some filters that remove the water and other impurities. There are commercial services that will do this for you. You can polish yourself with a pump and some filters.
There are even permenent systems that can be installed on the boat that can do the job but they are usually found on larger commercial power vehicles.
When in foreign ports the quality of the fuel is suspect. Also if the fuel sits for a long time it can grow things and pickup water.


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## davidpm (Oct 22, 2007)

If the boat was breaking up can we surmise that the original survey (even if it was a self survey) missed something important. I would expect that a well found blue water boat will not have the bulkheads separate from the hull in a storm. I can see the rudder getting snapped off or the rig broken but bulkheads separating is either a design flaw or prior damage that was not rectified.


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## SEMIJim (Jun 9, 2007)

Melrna said:


> The third fault here in what I call the "T" factor. Simply put "testosterone factor". It is that male BS machismo and/or ego.
> ...
> After reading tons of sailing blogs, it is the admiral who takes the caution approach to things *most* of the times and says lets wait until things are proper or the wx gets better.


Mea culpa. More than once The Admiral has vetoed the #1 or insisted on a reef, and each time it turned out she was right.

Melrna, my sincere condolences to your friend and his boat. I hope he can someday find himself another worthy boat and again pursue his dream, hopefully a wiser sailor, and that ****** is found and rescued by somebody who will love her.

It's easy to sit here in my easy chair and say I cannot imagine setting-out on a voyage such as that planned by your friend without a series of incrementally longer, and more difficult, sea trials - not-to-mention setting out knowing some things needed immediate attention and other things were in an unknown state, but I also readily admit I've committed my share of foolish acts in my life, so I'll withhold judgment and criticism.

Finally: Thanks for sharing the lesson.

Jim


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## Undine (Jan 26, 2008)

Semi,

I think you found the key:
"a series of incrementally long, and more difficult, sea trials"

For almost 10 years now I have been reading the blogs of folks who were starting on an open ended cruise to try to find the secret for success. I found that most new "open ended" cruisers made a series of mistakes, rarely serious, that were of a predictable nature. It didn't matter if they had blue-water experience, or had vacationed on their boat the last 5 years, or were complete newbs. No matter what you have done before, all voyages are different. And the best way is to ease gradually into your new adventure and always have a Plan B.


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## ramminjammin (Sep 17, 2007)

I have been thinking about this event a little, as i plan to someday make a similar journey. Bought the old Tartan 30 two years ago , to learn to sail for 5 years till I retire. This mis-adventure gives me "food for thought". 
I find that to have wired a boat with a "single wire going to each load" to be a warning sign that there were many potential things amiss ? 

Reading Joshua Slocum's tale of circiumnavigation, when he couldn't make his planned route he saild back around part of a continent ,and took about another month or so to recover his position.


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## JungleJim (May 16, 2009)

*Always a helpful read*

Lin and Larry Pardey write about their frist trip where they fly in from England, hop in their newly purchased boat sight unseen, sail out of Rhode Island and head for Bermuda. To this day, the scariest sailing experience for both. Only difference - they made it. What would have happened to their sailing careers if their innaugural trip ended the same as George? Regardless, my wife and I are picking up our new home in Honolulu in 3 weeks for the sail (with 3 experienced additional crew) for the trip to San Diego. I've been devouring all ocean crossing sailing material I can find, including the horror stories. This experience of George has me yet again double/triple checkeng my pre-sail list. Two good points reinforced this thread; avoid "macho-****e-headism" and fatigue. Thanks again Mel.


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Keep us posted on your trip Jungle. Sounds like it'll be a great one.

Fair winds, dude!


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## capngil (Oct 20, 2009)

*Comments on a lost boat*

Hey all, just found this thread through a search (and another forum) while we were speaking about George our long lost friend. Yes, I know George, I know of the situation and I also know the boat very well as I helped him with a few projects every now and then, but mostly I pondered his choices on many others projects. Now please don't get me wrong I am not knocking a friend, but in reading this thread I see that learning is (and should be) of utmost importance here.

That said, I am dissapointed in George and I'm sure that he is aware of it. He is a difficult man that wears heavy duty earplugs and extremly narrow blinders, but he none the less is a good man. I am sure that he is very aware of his errors and is trying real hard to accept his mistakes.

So what can we learn from this event:

Loose the pride and listen to truth when it is made apparent by many many many others. 

Take action when issues are minor and are managable; you may be the only person who can keep them from becoming unmanagable and at some point it will be just that. 

Shake down cruises are not to be taken lightly; I make it a habbit to stress a boat enough until I break three substancial components. This doesn't gaurantee that something else won't go wrong, but by doing so you are some much more savy about your boat and what it can do. 

Know your abilities and confine yourself to remaining just beyond those limitations; this could be either or a combination of technical, physical, mental, experience, etc. 

Have an alternative plan available, if not feasible, then reach out as soon as you deem it necessary; in this case there was some 900 plus miles of habital coast line to the port where timely repairs could have been made. 

Timing is everything especially with weather, don't try and cheat, compress, expand, manipulate, ignore or overmanage time; especially on a sailboat, if you do, you had better be prepaired to pay a price for your efforts. 

To those new coastal and/or blue water cruiser out there:

Know your abilities and that of the vessel that you are sailing; make it a goal to push the limits when you can so that you are better prepaired to react when you have to. Because it's not a matter of "if you need be ready" but a case of "when you need be ready". That said I'm not simply speaking about bad wheather off shore on your way to Bermuda in a boat that is having multiple failures.

Gil

PS... Hey Melissa, wasss up neighbor, have you tried the Whisker Pole yet?


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

+1.


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi Gil.
Welcome to Sailnet.. Saw you on the cam yesterday. Will try out the whisker pole next trip out when the winds allow it. Thanks for everything you are the best!. Still looking for a trip down to visit George. Next boat project, battery relocation. Will need the table saw when I start that project.
A brief intro into a modest great friend Gill. He is the on extraordinary master craftsman, none I have never seen in my life. He has rebuilt his boat an Alden 57 ( I hope I have that one right Gill) from the ground up. His engineering skills are remarkable. I hope he continues his expertise here to answer questions on boat systems from those simple minded mortals lost in the sea of boat repairs. I cannot thank Gill enough for all the advise and help he has given me on my boat, sailing techniques and genuine friendship.


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## wind_magic (Jun 6, 2006)

capngil said:


> So what can we learn from this event:
> 
> Loose the pride and listen to truth when it is made apparent by many many many others.


I have mixed feelings on this one.

Obviously you want to be objective, in as much as that is possible, and see what the truth is, but a lot of times many many many others are wrong about what the truth is and can give you bad advice!  I think what you are after is a mindset where you are able to be resolute, yet objective, two things that aren't always easy to "be" in one person! I have to say, though, that if someone is contemplating sailing around the world I think if they had to choose between one or the other, I'd rather see someone who was sure of themselves even if they were wrong than I would someone who wasn't sure of themselves but was objective. Being pig headed is highly under-rated in the modern world.  I just don't think anyone could ever do something like sail around the world if they just listened to what everybody said, because in the end the vast majority of people wouldn't go.

Edit - Nothing ever gets done by committee.


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## Melrna (Apr 6, 2004)

Wind_Magic: In this case I would have to disagree with you. The man and boat wasn't' ready for such an adventure and the results speak for themselves. The lessons here are many and important for anyone considering sailing a boat in true bluewater conditions. Since Gill and I know the man and the boat personally he didn't listen to us or anyone else for that matter on his great adventure. There are many other factors which I didn't speak of and will remain silent on for it is not important for discussion here. What is important is when someone speaks about safety for boat and crew, one should at least consider the advise. George did not. He lost two boats during his sailing career. That says a few things about the seamanship and metal of the man. 
You said that if every one listens to advise than many shouldn't go. Having read countless blogs, many shouldn't go in the first place. They place themselves and crew in grave danger. At times they place other boats in danger as well trying to rescue them from their own stupidity or lack of preparedness. It is a fine line when a sailor decides to set sail into the blue planet for preparedness of both man and boat. The lessons learned on this tragic sail are presented here so everyone can learn from; to make the decision themselves on when to cut the docklines.


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## wind_magic (Jun 6, 2006)

I can't really argue against your point Melrna, I'm against the 13 year old going!


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

It seems rather odd that in 5 years of retrofitting the boat, the primary boat systems were apparently not touched or retrofitted, i.e. pull and clean/replace all tanks, complete engine overhaul or service, replace all hoses and lines, thruhulls, seacocks, etc., replace/rebed all hardware, etc., etc., etc.
It does little good to do 5 years worth of cosmetic fixes and stocking up, and yet barely bother with the primary boat system components that your life (and the boat's life) depends upon...particularly when prepping for a circumnavigation.

With that said, just about every sailing magazine that you pick up has tales of sailors buying boats and 'just go(ing) for it' with little to no preparation or shakedown trips....so its no wonder readers of these magazines would follow suit. Look at the current issue of 'Good Old Boat' for instance (Sept/Oct 2009, pg 28), Part of it may be the romance that sells the magazines and the lifestyle, I don't know.


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## goboatingnow (Oct 10, 2008)

I have experience of some nasty weather and long sails, though not singlehanded. Heres my tuppence on a very interesting thread

I wouldnt be so hard on Geogre, You have to be somewhat bullheaded and stubborn just to undertake this type of adventure. If he had succeeded he would be lauded as a right old salt etc.

I dontn think the condition of the boat was terminal , far from it. It may have preyed on Geoges mind, if you fix things yourself and then they all fail, thats tends to knock the self-confidence out of you.

The primary error was one to keep heading for a destination whatever the reason. When you are in a survival storm ( whatever that is will depend on your circumstances), you need to protect the boat *no matter what*, Insisting on sailing to Bermuda cost him the boat, whereas he could have sailed out of the storm or at least sailed on a more comfortable direction. SO what you end up away from your "destination", youre alive , the boats ok etc, Thats what important. "land is teh sailors enemy".


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## capngil (Oct 20, 2009)

*Lost and Found at sea?*

Goboatingnow, Exactly 900 miles of coastline, pleanty of opportunity but sadly fixed on only one destination (blinders).

As for the boat being terminal (sinking); we feel it became terminal within two weeks of abandonment (if someone hasn't salvaged it) for she was taking on a lot of water through the suffing box and the batteries/pumps would give out by then.

In later discussion with George he made a comment that the bulkheads and attachment points were most likely OK. So for you Vagabond owners out there fear not, the Vagabond should still be considered a fine blue water boat for its class of build. The noises he heard and his concerns were from things being tossed about below. I guess I could imagine one thinking all hell and hull is breaking loose under such duress and the mental conditions he was in.

I wonder if someone went after the boat? If so, I can tell you that the boat had almost every possible system (all new) on it, not to mention countless thousands in tools. I'm thinking salvage on the vessel was made later, because of all the catter on Bermuda radio, but I haven't heard any news to back it up. Does anyone know how to search for information on lost vessels? It would be great to be able to provide George with some info on his boat.

Gil


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Gil - in one of the videos - the boat seems to get run over by the cruise ship. There's a lot of crunching sound and the masts shudder like the shrouds were breaking. Was the cruise ship captain trying to intentionally scuttle her? Even if not, it sure seemed to do a lot of damage - and the boat seems to be low at the stern after that.


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## ericread (Feb 23, 2009)

Smacky;

Where can I access the video? I was unable to find it in perusing this thread... 

Thanks.

Eric


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## capngil (Oct 20, 2009)

*How increase a boats performance*

Smackdaddy; not sure if the captain was intentionally trying to sink her, but you are right she did get a bit of a beating. I don't think that the contact you hear and see would have done so much damage to that boat, it was pretty stout, but I could be wrong. As Melissa stated earlier and I agree, the boat was a tank, it felt solid under your feet and had very little movement to it. Of course this could be due to the following.......

As for the bootline depth, well you have a good eye. It's funny that you mention this as it has always been one of our funny comments with George and ******. The man had the boat loaded up with soo much stuff (tools, materials, dive gear, extra parts, supplies, etc, etc, etc....) that the top of the bootline sat a good 4 inches below the water while in the slip.

I often joke about how he secretly and knowingly was making his boat a better performing sailboat; we sailors know that there are many way to make a boat perorm better of which two are to reduce our lateral windage or area from water line to the deck and secondly we could increase Keel depth. That said, doesn't overloading a boat enought to sink her by 16" decrease the windage and increase the keel depth by the same amount.... If you agree and/or you are laughing, you now know how we loved to and will continue to joke with our friend George.

On a serious educations note: I made a comment to a few friends including George about how overloading a boat by so much could affect the roll frequency of the boat. It seems to me that the wave influence on the boat would not be in time with the motion or movement of the boat. Or in other words the boat would be traveling, lets say to port from a previous wave and linger in its motion so long that the next wave would hit it ackwardly. I also feel that the boat would plow through a wave rather than float up over it, which is may be why his deck was constantly awash. I'm no nautical engineer, but I'm sure that a boats boyancy is important and altering it by so much may affect its performance if not safety. Again, this is only my opinion, I may be wrong and if so someone please do not hesitate to educate me on this matter.

Gil


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## sailhog (Dec 11, 2006)

Makes you think about the effect a sailor's personality has on his or her boat and their ability to make safe passage. A big part of seamanship would seem to be the ability to master your unseamanlike impulses. Note to self: when at sea, think first and foremost of my ship's well-being. Heave-to and drink rainwater for a few days. Make for Spain when my boat tells me she wants to go to Spain.

I have to add that George's story is one hell of a good read. He seems rather modest as he tells the story.


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## bashmaki (Oct 21, 2009)

About the original thread:

I am a newbie. As one poster said, "This SHOULD be required reading." It is very sobering from all directions; both the log and the commentary by Melrna.
I am sure many of us have made the same decisions about an event as George at some point in lives. George merely chose this event. It was dramatic. 
Thanks George and also Melrna, It was both inspiring as well as tragic. It was real!

gus


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

ericread said:


> Smacky;
> 
> Where can I access the video? I was unable to find it in perusing this thread...
> 
> ...


Eric - see the first post for the links to the videos.

Gil - another thing that struck me in all this was the comment that at hearing all the banging below during the storm that George felt that the boat was coming apart.

This mental aspect of single-handing in bad conditions is very interesting I can just imagine that kind of tricks your mind plays on you when you're on high alert 24 hours a day with little sleep and little control over your situation.

I think I dig the idea of crew. As you can see, I need my beauty sleep.

Great write up Gil - thanks for the insight.


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## genieskip (Jan 1, 2008)

A boat that is weighted down too much (and 4" below the bootop qualifies) is just not going to react properly to the waves and will begin a chain of events that is not headed in the right direction. 

I completely agree with the train of thought that states that the most dangerous thing on a boat is a schedule. While being stubborn and strongheaded can get you out of some problems it probably serves to get you into a whole bunch of others. I feel bad for George and the end of the dream he worked so hard for, but......


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## ROSA (Oct 22, 2009)

I too feel very deeply for George and his loss. He is a hell of a man IMHO. It is quite a feat to singlehand a 42 footer under ideal conditions. 

No second guessing here, I was not there either and have never had to deal with his situation. If we sail long enough our turn will come, through lack of perfection, illness, weather, system failures, or some combination of those.

Walk a mile in my shoes comes to mind. And when my time comes, and it will, I know George and ****** will come to mind.


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## capngil (Oct 20, 2009)

*Found at Sea*

Hello all, I wanted to share some further details on the subject. First and foremost, the Vagabond now rates higher in my books as good off shore sailing vessel. The reason I say this is because we have just recieved information from the US Coast Gaurd that the E-pirb on ****** activated and was located at 33-12.8N & 055-22.4W at approx 1900z on the 1st of November 09. In communicating with George he stated that "the E-pirb was placed in a duffel bag and left on the cabin floor when he was about to abandon ship" he left it there because the rescue team did not allow him to take anything but critical documents and paperwork. It's in Georges opinion that the boat is still taking on water and the water has reached the floor boards where he left the duffel bag with the E-pirb and it self activated.

As for my primary purpose and question; does anyone know of the cost and feasibility in rescuing a vessel some 525 miles ENE of Bermuda. It would be great to offer some real information as to the possibilty of recovering Georges boat. I understand that this is far reaching to say the least but I have to ask.

As for logistics, well water evacuation (gas pump) and a tow would be the quickest answer but with the weather off shore in these waters I don't think it's possible. If anyone has any input please share it. I will update later with detailed information as it's made available. Until then lets learn from our mistakes.

Gil


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## KeelHaulin (Mar 7, 2006)

If there is water above the floorboards; she might be gone before you get there. It's closer to 550 miles due east of Bermuda (~80deg bearing) so the best possible way would be to fly to Bermuda and then hire a salver to go retrieve it. But that is all at the discretion of the salvage company as it was when he was trying to get in to Bermuda to begin with.

For the most part I think the vessel is lost; unless it turns up off the coast of the Azores in a few months.

Sorry to hear this story; but it does serve as a reminder that the devil is in the details when it comes to going out across oceans and into unknown ports.


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## capngil (Oct 20, 2009)

*Timming*

I agree that time is running out. I know the boat well and I am actualy amazed that its been out there this long and hasn't gone under yet. That said, if the water just got to the floor boards after 4 months it will be another month before the main house battery bank will be under water; from there its all over. Im sure that motoring it anywhere is out of the question as the starter and aux bank are gone by now. Anyways, in speaking with george he's pretty much had it with ****** and has said his farewell. If anybodys know of somebody out there, re-direct them to the boat as there's plenty of goods on booard. Im sure George would be happier if somebody got something rather than the abyss. If done maybe they culd send him his photo album (family photos and stuff) as a thanks....

gil


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## osirissail (Oct 27, 2009)

I could not find in a quick scan of this thread - where and when he bought the boat. If it was in the time frame 2005 to 2007 and in the southern/eastern USA or the Caribbean, it is likely that the boat was a Hurricane Ivan boat. 
- - It is very important when searching for a boat to get the history of where the boat was during its life. Over 600 boats were wrecked on Grenada during Hurricane Ivan. More than half were in boatyards and simply fell off their jackstands. Being there in the aftermath of the Hurricane I saw up close and personal how just falling off jackstands can severely damage the insides of a boat. The most typical damage was fractured tabbing on all the bulkheads. Even when the outside hull looked intact the insides were a mess.
- - These boats were declared total losses and then packed onboard DYT and taken up island or motored down to Trinidad or other places. A few were locally repaired but most went back to the USA for sale to companies specializing in cleaning up the boat cosmetically and selling the boat, as is, where is at very attractive prices. Even the locally repaired and other repaired boats were not correctly repaired and thus were candidates for future disasters should they encounter large seas. 
- - So add to your list when considering buying a used boat - what is its history? Get a legally binding clause in the sales contract that it was not a hurricane wrecked/damaged boat. Make your surveyor check bulkheads and other damage hidden inside if you suspect the boat was ever in a hurricane zone.


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