Thursday 12.22.05 906am
13° 25.444 N 55° 29.981 W
237nm E of Barbados
All hell breaks loose in the hours of darkness. You can quote me on that.
Around 4-5 this morning I was woken up by rain coming in thru my roof hatch. I struggled to get it closed but not before getting wet. While lying there I listened to the rain and the general noises of the boat. I knew John was on watch and figured it was ok. I heard the Genoa popping and going back and forth over the bow and then I heard the engine start. Immediately I felt a vibration in the hull that was out of the ordinary and thought a motor mount had broken or we picked up a fishing net. This kept up at a low rpm for a couple minutes. Then I heard throttle applied yet it would not get up to speed. I heard it throttled back and forth and then shut down. Then I smelled a new smell. I started to get up. Then John yelled for Alan. Uhm, Alan doesn’t like to be yelled at.
I walked into the galley and saw John looking down at the doors to the engine room. I looked and saw vapor coming thru the slotted vented doors. He told me that we just went thru a squall and the wind went from east to south. The wind then calmed down and he wanted to start the engine and motor. But, the engine would not go over 1,200 rpm and then he smelled and saw the vapor. That’s when I came in. Without opening the engine room doors he speculated that he thought something fell on the motor and it was due to Alan scrounging around this boat and working on things and leaving unfinished projects all over.
He told me to put up the staysail and sail the boat while he investigated. I got the staysail up and a little later John put up the main. Around this time Alan walked into the galley full of vapor. Luckily, the wind was back to coming out of the east and I was able to get us on a heading straight to Barbados doing about 5 knots. With my flashlight I began to investigate. It didn’t take too long to figure out what happened. When the Genoa flogged in the squall it drew the lazy sheet on starboard forward while twisting them together. The lazy sheet was not secured but it did have a stopper knot. After the lazy sheet was drawn out it was dragged under the boat by the forward movement of the boat. The lazy sheet wrapped on the prop and somehow drew the active sheet in with it. I saw one sheet on port that was connected to the Genoa and the prop; the lazy sheet on starboard broke about 10’ from the clue; the lazy sheet went to the prop.
At this point it was obvious what happened outside and we needed to know what happened below. We deduced that the transmission clutch slipped causing the oil to heat up and vaporize. The vapor did not smell like burned oil or radiator fluid. It appears the engine and transmission are not damaged, just the clutch. It took quite a while to ventilate the engine room with a fan and subsequently the interior of the boat. We won’t know if the engine is damaged until I cut the line away and we start the engine and put it in gear.
Thursday 12.22.05 344pm
13° 26.091 N 56° 13.380 W
195 E of Barbados
I have been pretty out of sorts today due to lack of sleep and am now getting around to finishing this morning’s events.
And of course, the seas were building. Last night at the end of my watch the seas were
1-2’ and smooth; the wind was a generous 15-20 from the east. We were doing great on the final stretch.
When there was enough light out (sun not up yet) John started looking for spare lines for the Genoa. We had none for this particular issue. While they were digging around I gathered the long sheet that was on deck on port. I re-rigged it and ran it forward to the line that was attached to the Genoa and wound tight to the prop. I had them come forward and each held the active sheet and I cut it. I then bent on the scrap sheet. But, the knot was too close to the gib car and we could not draw it back far enough. Prior to this I had gone to the forestay with John and I cut away the strips of sail that were torn from the sail and wrapped in the sheets. We needed to get rid of this stuff and sort out the twisted sheets. I then bent on a scrap line and ran that down starboard. Eventually, we used the line on starboard for the port side and the knot where the bend was worked out fine.
We now had the Genoa flying in 15-20 knots of wind and of all things wind out of the east. But, the seas had built to the 8-10’ swells and sloppy, choppy wind waves and it was miserable again. We are still dealing with large seas and occasional sets that knock us around a lot. This stuff takes all your energy away and you just want to do nothing.
At 9 when Alan’s watch ended he goes to John and asks why can’t we motor because he is uncomfortable. I am in the cockpit eavesdropping and I hear John say he didn’t care if he was uncomfortable. This was leading somewhere. Alan kept pushing John about putting a diver in the water and cut the line. I said we have wind; we are sailing as fast as we would motor and that it was far too dangerous to put a body under the boat. John and I had to explain in detail how the boat moves and the diver doesn’t even though the diver is holding on to the prop. And then the boat comes back down and hits the diver. He just couldn’t understand this concept. And kept arguing. He has obviously never been in the water. He just wanted off the boat as soon as possible. He even worded a statement saying that the Genoa did not fail because of fatigue but because of operator error. John had to explain that I was, “Damn near a professional diver more than qualified to do the job and he won’t get in the water”. He then said we’d cut it when we get to safer water. Moping Alan goes to bed.
Later he corners John in the library and takes up the same diver argument. John then flushes out the real problem. John laid into Alan and I went above. Apparently Alan did not like that John yelled at him for not closing the hatches during the previous squall and has been moping about it since. John laughed at him and said that he was juvenile and get over it. He pointed out that he asked him if the hatches were closed and twice he responded with yes. John told him he was pissed because his laptop got wet.
Before that conversation I was convinced that Alan was going to walk after hitting land. Now, I think he’s not going to depart the vessel. He does know that I think he is incompetent and he has not said very much to me since the window incident.
We probably won’t make the port on 12/23 like we thought. Nancy did some fancy work to get us in. She wanted to get us in the deep-water port but it is commercial. So, she got an agent and told them that we just made an Atlantic crossing and they are going to let us stay overnight whenever we get there. I think we’ll get there about mid-night. But, we have to visually inspect the line on the prop first before we start the engine. That has to be done in calm water. We are talking about going to an anchorage and staying the night to dive it the next morning. The only option we have is for me to cut away the trailing line and motor in with it wrapped. I’ll decide that after I see it.
While in Barbados we are going to get fuel, water and passengers and head to Martinique. If I want to dive I have to dive that first day. We will probably stay in Martinique for 10 days to get the sail repaired and some other things fixed. We need to rest and provision, too. I’m looking forward to being on land. John and I talk about food all the time: Tony Roma’s, KFC, and Denny’s….
In closing, Alan and I have had 2 ‘discussions’ about him closing the door that separates the forward berths and head from the rest of the boat. I insisted that as long as I am forward of that door it remain open. I want to know of all the activity onboard and do not want to be the last one to hear an all hands on deck. He has a door to his berth and religiously closes it. He was the last one to witness the vapor in the engine room even though John yelled for him from the lower helm.
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