Hello from the middle of nowhere in the vast Pacific Ocean. As of this writing it is about four hours into our eleventh day at sea. With the exception of the sea state, which at times has been quite confused with steep short period waves making it less comfortable on board, the conditions have been quite amazing. This westward sailing super highway we are on called the south east trade winds have been extremely steady and reliable in the mid teens to low twenty knot range. Our points of sail have been either beam reaching or running the majority of which has been the former.
As I write this we are beam reaching in 16 knots of wind making about 6.5 knots over the ground. So the journey has been quite amazing so far with one exception that we experienced yesterday.
It was late afternoon and we decided the conditions looked nice to start running wing on wing for the rest of the day and night. After we rigged the pole, set the jib to port and adjusted the hydrovane to keep the wind aft of the beam on the port side we took our nightly showers in the cockpit and started heating up dinner. The sun was just going down and we were excited to enjoy our meal while watching a beautiful Pacific Ocean sunset.
The problem was that we wanted to maintain as much of a westward course as possible which required us to set the hydrovane to keep the wind very close to just aft of the beam.
The hydrovane, which is a self steering device that uses the angle of the wind with respect to the boat to steer a course, has been such an amazingly reliant piece of gear since we left California that we have developed tremendous confidence in it’s abilities. In fact we are trying to come up with a name for him/her because it is like having an extra crew member on board. The first two possible options I have come up with are either Rocky or Mo Cushla (not sure about the spelling of the second one which is from the film Million Dollar Baby and means “My Darling”). Katie thought we needed a French name since we are going to French islands, but she liked Rocky too. If you are so inclined, leave us a comment with any suggestion you might have for a name. It would be fun to hear what others come up with.
Anyway, back to the story of our first calamity at sea. The makers of the hydrovane say that the boat must not be over powered for it to steer a proper course. We have experienced this in the past. We’ll have the vane and the sails set to steer the course we want according to the current strength and direction of the wind, then the wind increases in strength and the game starts to struggle to hold the course. Then an adjustment or combination of adjustments must be made to correct the issue.
Usually we have some time to make the adjustment when this happens and it’s not a big deal. In this case, we had a double whammy. The wind gusted suddenly to 25 knots and veered up higher on the nose at the same time. As a result, because we set the hydrovane to keep the wind very close to just aft of the beam, this sudden change caused the wind to move just forward of the beam so quickly neither we nor the hydrovane, because it became suddenly over powered, were able to react in time and the jib was back winded. This caused the spinnaker pole to snap in two very quickly and the jib to begin flapping angrily in the wind. Our wonderful sunset dinner plans had been destroyed in an instant.
I was devastated because this meant that we no longer had an effective way to sail with the wind aft of the beam without setting the spinnaker which I only use in light wind situations that we weren’t likely to have. Crippling our down wind sailing options could add days to our crossing which wouldn’t be the end of the world I guess, but I also really enjoy down wind sailing. Its the reason people always wish sailors “Fair winds and following seas”.
It took taking the time to have some dinner and reflect before I came up with an idea that might enable us to still use the pole and resurrect our down wind sailing abilities. Our spinnaker pole is telescoping which means it’s length can be adjusted. When it broke we had it adjusted out almost as far as it would go and it broke very near the telescoping end. So I decided to use the hack saw I had on board to cut out the broken portion and then re-insert the remaining portion of the telescoping end back into the pole. We wouldn’t be able to extend it as far but it could still work. By this time it was dark and my repair job would have to wait for daylight.
Daylight came, and with a bit of work with a c-clamp used to correct the out of round condition of the damaged end, I was able to re-insert the telescoping end back into the pole. By the way, Katie always says that I have too many tools on board the boat. This time I think she was glad that I had a c-clamp on board. After the repair, the only thing left to do was try it out. We put it up and it worked perfectly to about 90% of it’s previous capacity. What an incredible relief it was to have our down wind sailing options resurrected.
Lesson learned. Don’t sail so close to calamity without someone at the helm ready to react within seconds.
In the end, the price we paid for a bad decision wasn’t too bad after all.
Mike.
WOW!!!!
I’m glad you were able to #%^*+ rig the pole.
Thank goodness a little ingenuity and common sense was on board and was able to figure out a Plan B.
I’m trying to chart y’alls position and I have you approximately 1765 nautical miles from where you left in Equador right slap dab in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean.
As long as you stay close to 8 degrees South, you can’t miss Marquesas.
Take care and smooth sailing.
Rick and Dana
I know how you feel Mike. I have the same problem w Pegasus. Steady she goes, Mattie!