I biked down to GANNET Sunday and found her as I left her, except for a few cups of water in the bilge. Not even any bird droppings on deck.
The water comes in from above, not below, and not at present from around the hatches. There are two holes for the back stay which cannot be completely sealed. One where it goes below deck near the stern, another where the line adjusting it comes back above deck in the mid-cockpit pedestal. And water comes in somewhere around the bow. I know not where and I have been searching for years.
GANNET is presently tied stern in. I was sitting below when a man called to me. I stood in the companionway and he asked what kind of boat GANNET is. I told him and we got to talking. He is I judge to be of what is called retirement age, though a good deal younger than I. As we talked I came to understand that he is an experienced sailor. He mentioned Jordan drogues and even once deployed one. I asked about retrieval. The boat he was on had several crew and powered winches, which made retrieval slow but not difficult.
At one point he said, “I have only been overdue once” and proceeded to tell the following story which I find interesting enough to share, though it is incomplete and there are details I do not know.
He and three other men, including the owner, went to Hinkley’s boat yard in Maine to take the owner’s boat which was about 50’ to Duxbury, Massachusetts in mid-winter. This should be only an overnight sail. Leave one morning and be in before the following evening. They had what seemed to be a good weather forecast and set out. But an unexpected storm developed and they were driven offshore.
Unknown to them a crate holding a long and heavy length of chain had been stowed in the stern. In the rough conditions it rubbed against a through hull fitting and sawed it off. Water began pouring into the boat from the crew knew not where. They tried to keep ahead of it, but failed. Water came up over the floorboards and shorted out the entire electrical system. They lost the powered bilge pump and any way to call for help.
Sometime during this the sails blew out.
They streamed lines from the stern which were not as efficient as a Jordan drogue, but helped.
One of the crew crawled aft and found the sawed off through hull. Working in water just above freezing temperature, he managed to block the hole in the hull, but became hypothermic, almost paralyzed from the waist down. The other men got him out of the stern and wrapped him in a sleeping bag.
Shortly thereafter the owner of the boat went berserk, running around screaming “We are all going to die!” The two other men finally held him down, duct taped him in a sleeping bag, and carried him to the forepeak. They shut the door to quell his screams.
When the storm finally eased, they transformed a bimini into a sail and slowly made their way west.
As they later learned the Coast Guard had been searching for them without success.
Eventually they reached land. I assume they got a tow into port.
When the man relating the story got home—I know his name but am not giving it for reasons or privacy—his wife said, “I thought you were dead.” And she had even already collected the insurance money.
I said, “That is grounds for divorce.”
He replied, “Yes. It was.”
He is now traveling with his second wife in a Grand Banks trawler,
I thank Carlton for a link to a reflection he presented on what he calls ‘Bach’s Sea Story’, Bach’s Cantata BWV 92. I am not sure I hear all that Carlton does in the cantata, but then I have no musical talent. I find it interesting and know that at least a few of you will too.
https://bachtalk.substack.com/p/bachs-sea-story
Here is a link to a performance of the cantata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vjp2hGvDA
I watched last sunset while sipping a glass of sauvignon blanc on the screened porch, the first time since my return I’ve had a drink out there. Rather nice for February.
I thank Glenn for bringing Tom Robinson, who is attempting to become the youngest to row across the Pacific, to my attention. He has reached Penrhyn Island, more than 5,000 nautical miles from his start in Peru. I am not usually interested in ‘youngest’ records which almost invariably mean that some child has been given a boat. However, Glenn says that Tom may have built his own.
He was at sea for 160 days. I calculate that he made good roughly 30-35 miles a day. Of that part would have come from prevailing wind and currents. When I was adrift in a 9’ inflatable after CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE pitchpoled we drifted at one knot tied to the swamped CT which certainly slowed us.
Here is a link to his most recent post:
https://www.tomrobinsonboats.com/blog/6kf70hh7u9sjp8ud3x2uuwv4ocbuqz
He looks incredibly young to me, but then at my age almost everyone is and does.
And I think him unduly harsh to the woman in Peru and his own family.
But then I am not just old, but a much married monk.
I have lost my legs. They are still attached to my body, but have become unexpectedly and unacceptably weak. Carol had a car when she was here over Christmas so we decadently drove everywhere, and when I was with her in Lake Forest, it was too cold to walk much. I did make it to the lake once and to the Skokie River once, both round trips of more than two miles, and I have done my usual workouts, but I have been too sedentary for too long as was proven yesterday when I biked to the supermarket four miles away and found myself struggling on the way home. How quickly unused muscles weaken. So it is bike or walk every day from now on except in pouring rain. I need to get my legs back before I sail for a few weeks in March and lose them again.
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