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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Jul 15, 2012 - 09:37pm PT
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Susan!
I just now took note of this thread and read the whole thing.
How exciting!
So stoked ferret will finish safely and that you're able to join him for a nice cruise of the NEPac.
Amazing stuff.
MUCH respect,
{{{MUCH}}} respect.
RB says aloha.
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 16, 2012 - 06:18pm PT
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Thanks all. We are on the boat. I came out with the chase boat and got her anchored and stayed on. Music blaring in the cockpit Bali Hai off the stern ..will post pics later Right now SLEEP.
Some minor maintenance, clean up , reprovision and in about a week looks like we are Sitka bound.
Susan
Edit. Thanks for beta about the Farmers Market. I've heard others speak well about it
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Nohea
Trad climber
Living Outside the Statist Quo
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Jul 16, 2012 - 08:45pm PT
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Awesome and well done! Hang out awhile and have a great continuation to Alaska.
Aloha,
Will
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Jul 16, 2012 - 08:50pm PT
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Wonderful Michael and Susan and all that helped. Any news on Derk and his health and bateau?
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2012 - 02:57pm PT
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Single Handed Transpac finish, 8 hours after a middle of the night finish.
'Nuff Said
Bela Bartok, the ill skipper and abandoned boat; he will arrive in Oakland today, has been on antibiotic IVs and appears to be improving. He had a staph infection started on his arms traveled to his lungs and compromised his breathing. The Victoria to Maui (Vic-Maui) racers have been informed of his boat's last known position. That is a crewed race and should they encouter it they will try to board it. Bela Bartok is a Canadian boat so there is some nice motivation to help out a fellow Canadian. The Single Handed skippers are also checking out the chartering of a power boat here in Nawiliwili to attempt a rescue.
Susan
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Jul 18, 2012 - 02:03pm PT
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Hello everyone!!!
I have finally gotten my ass off the boat and am enjoying the plush delights of Susan's Condo up in Princeville. And also a real internet connection. Thanks to all those who followed the adventure and who have posted comments. I, of course was oblivious to it all, but it is very warming to read them now.
Mouton Noir is now anchored in Hanaleii Bay, on the north shore of Kauii. The gigantic anchors and chain finally being useful. As Susan mentioned, Mouton Noir is not a race boat, and was not prepared like one, having a lot of heavy gear for our trip to Alaska. It did, however, sail very well, but light following winds are not a fast point of sail for a boat like this. I sailed most of the race with two jibs poled out on either side of the boat (about 125% of J for the jibs) which with the mainsail was about 1540 square feet of sail.
The weather was quite unusual in my experience. The High was, as several have discussed and Guido has analysed, in a somewhat unusual place, forcing a more southerly route. For boats that are set up and designed to sail hot downwind angles, this is not such a big deal, but for boats that get only a small advantage from reaching up with a spinnaker, it meant extra miles, sloppy seas, and sailing deep downwind in light air. The squalls this year were also fairly weird. Rather than being smallish, dark nastiness that looks like a nuclear cloud in an otherwise clearish sky, the squalls this trip were huge (often several miles in diameter) darker globs in a very dark and overcast sky. They also packed quite a whallop, and caused a lot of damage to some of the boats. Mouton Noir was pretty unscathed, but we had a number of very fast rides with 10 to 11 knot boat speed for an hour or so and 30 knots or more of true wind from deep astern. For the boat junkies, Mouton Noir is a Garcia Passoa 47, and is designed and built for severe following seas and wind. It has a very broad after section, and has a retractable centerboard and daggerboard. The ballast is internal to the hull, welded into tanks. The centerboard gives about 8 feet draft when down, and when fully up the boat can sail in 3 1/2 feet of water. The daggerboard, which is just in front of the rudder (which is only 3 feet deep, and very low aspect ratio) can be extended to about 6 1/2 feet below the waterline. In following seas/running conditions, raising the centerboard and lowering the daggerboard makes the hull look like a surfboard. The Center of Lateral Resistance moves way aft, and the boat has very little tendency to broach. Other than the penalty due to the 35,000 pound displacement, MN can really haul off the wind. But it does take a bit to get it moving. It is VERY stable off the wind, though.
There were a few hiccups and adventures this race (as most boats have them). The first was when about 500 miles from San Francisco. We were screaming along in heavy air on a close reach in 25 to 30 knots of wind. The boat was heeled WAY over and I still entertained delusions of grandeur about beating people, so we were pushing hard. It was around 2 am when the bilge alarm went off. MN has very small bilges, as the internal hull is full of welded in tankage, and there is no internal "V" spaces to have as a conventional bilge. There is a rectangular bilge in the engine area, and it was this alarm that went off. I got the hatch over the engine space (actually, the companionway stairs) off and saw to my horror that there was a lot of water slopping around in there. MN is usually totally dry, and there is dust and cobwebs under the floorboards usually. As I stared at the sloshing water, I started looking for where it was coming from. Aft of the engine, there is a watertight bulkhead about 18 inches high, before the lazarettes and the rudder area. I looked aft and saw to my horror that this entire region was a huge churning lake! The autopilots were just above water, and were in real danger of flooding.
I ran outside and started unpacking the port (leeward) lazarette. Frantically throwing sea anchors, spare line, spare anchoring gear, buckets, flares, and all sorts of carefully packed stuff not needed for the sail over to Hawaii into the cockpit, which was being inundated with waves breaking over the after sections of the boat from the speed and the sea state. The entire lazarette was full of water!! I grabbed a manual bilge pump and started pumping. and pumping, and pumping, and pumping until the water had gone down enough to get in there and find the leak. I had had fears that the rudder was going, but that was ok. After a few minutes of desperate searching I found the culprit- a series of holes about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter in the after bulkhead (although more slots than round) near the deck level. This bulkhead is the last wall between the end of the boat and the water. It might be called the transom on some boats. MN has a swim platform and two big lockers on the stern. The lockers are wet lockers, and have drains. Because of the heavy seas, big heel, and very high stern wave due to the speed (9-10 knots), the entire stern quarter was under water, and the leeward (port) locker was completely submerged. The holes in the aft bulkhead, previously mentioned, had been placed there during the build of the boat and allowed a propane line (not used anymore) and some conduits to get into the locker. The high water on the other side allowed HUGE amounts of water to enter the interior of the boat through these holes. The conduits and copper propane line penetrated the holes, but did not fill them up, and made sealing the gaps impossible, not to mention that they were in an exceedingly awkward place to get at.
I got a chisel and hammer, and finally managed to cut the conduits and copper propane line (which no longer had any connection to the propane system), and to yank them out of the holes. Now a LOT more water could get in! A wooden tapered plug pounded in filled one hole, but the irregular hole was very hard to seal. I remembered buying a special foam plug, that looks for all the world, a lot like Locker's blue butt plug, except bigger and red. I sawed off a big hunk of this foam obscenity and eventually convinced it to seal the hole.
With the ingress of water stopped, I then started pumping all the water out of the boat again. An hour or so, and hundreds of gallons later, I took a break and allowed myself a smile of satisfaction. While I was looking at the nice dry engine area, I began to be aware of a sloshing noise from another compartment. I yanked up a floorboard and to my horror found that the ENTIRE leeward side of the hull was FULL of water, and that it had run almost to the front of the boat. This was VERY serious, as because of the heel and shallow bilges, the water could slosh quite high on the side of the boat and was threatening to take out the refrigeration (expensive but not necessary) and the high power circuit breaker panel (absolutely critical for the boat to operate). I ran for the big emergency manual pump, an Edson gallon per stroke monster, and threw a hose out the companionway and started pumping like a madman. Because of the shallow bilge, the flat internal floors of the boat due to interior tankage, and the broad beam, the normal electric and manual pumps (located on the centerline) could not pump out this water- food for thought and some modifications to the pumpout scheme in the near future...). Many of the spaces were not easy to pump with the big pump, and I resorted to a series of smaller manual pumps, skinny hoses, and buckets. I would be head down in an obnoxious position, with the boat bucking and thrashing around, pumping into the bucket, and then staggering down the cabin desperately trying not to spill the bucket onto the cabin sole and back in the bilge to dump the water into the galley sink. This went on for hours, but I finally got the job done. No more water into the boat through the holes, and no more in the boat threatening the systems.
I collapsed in a heap and gave Susan a call on the Iridium phone. I have never been so discouraged, except possibly when I lost all electrical power and had to rewind an alternator at sea on a return trip from Hawaii once. But that is another story...
Anyway, I almost chucked it and headed home, but I was too tired to go on deck and change course, and by the time I got some Gatorade in me and a bite to eat, I was in better spirits and continued. One of the pending jobs is to permanently plug the holes. It is hard to believe that they never caused problems before, as the boat has almost 80,000 miles and several oceans behind her, but she may never have been sailed as hard and as fast in the sort of conditions as we were in. One would NEVER guess that these holes would have allowed water into the hull, but they did.
Well, the roosters are crowing here outside the condo, and the sun has just come up, so I have to get moving. A lot to do today, schlepping fuel and water out to the boat. I had a few more adventures which i will detail if there is interest. I do wish to say thank to all the ST gang and especially Susan and Guido, who came to the boat in Tiburon to see me off, and helped so much with all the last minute jobs.
We hope to keep the tracker for the trip to Alaska, and to be able to post some updates of out adventures. I will post the details of this as soon as we get them finalized.
All the best
Michael
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jul 18, 2012 - 02:16pm PT
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Now THAT's a scary story. I'll bet you're glad you found the errant holes in the transom before you got to the Gulf of Alaska! At least you were pumping warmish water.
It really is amazing when you're on a long passage and you find a previous owner's screwup the hard way.
Well Done Michael. Are you and Susan going to start an "Alaska Cruise" thread?
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murcy
Gym climber
sanfrancisco
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Jul 18, 2012 - 02:41pm PT
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Wow. Congrats, Michael, and yes, please type more when you get the time.
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Jul 18, 2012 - 02:43pm PT
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hip hip hooray! what a story ... can only imagine how one would train to ferret out such a leak
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labrat
Trad climber
Nevada City, CA
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Jul 18, 2012 - 02:49pm PT
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Great fun following your adventures!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 18, 2012 - 03:15pm PT
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Just when did Locker sail with you? You don't have to answer.
Nice story - man, that Murphy bloke sure gets around, eh? And to spring such
a well thought out wee prank with such a deferred gratification. He is a pro.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Trad climber
Will know soon
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Jul 18, 2012 - 10:54pm PT
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Susan, this is worse than back in the day when your man attempted El Cap or another knarly, live on the ledges route. Love you both. Prayers with you both. Lynne
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 18, 2012 - 11:52pm PT
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congrats Ferretlegger!
good show!!
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Jul 19, 2012 - 02:25am PT
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Hi all,
I just got back from the daily meeting of all the competitors at the "Tree" on the beach at Hanaleii Bay. We drink beer, swap tales, and generally get to know each other. it is a long standing tradition and one of the really satisfying aspects of the race. Family and loved ones and supporters attend, and lifelong friendships are forged. A little like Facelift.
Anyway, for those who are interested, there is an update on the fate of "Bela Bartok", the boat which had to be abandoned when the owner,Derk, came down with a life threatening staph infection which had spread from his hand to his lungs. He had to abandon the race, set off his EPIRB, and was picked up by a container ship and was due to reach Oakland, CA today. They had put him on massive IV antibiotics, and from all accounts this saved his life. His boat, Bela bartok, has been his home, and in abandoning her, he lost pretty much all he had.
Anyway, the SingleHanded Sailing Society and his fellow racers have been trying to find a way to help. When Derk left the boat, he had furled the mainsail, set a small jib and the self steering to track towards Kauii, down the trade winds, and left the satellite tracker aboard. As a result, the Race COmittee has been able to determine the position of the boat at all times. Anyway, one generous racer has funded a rescue attempt for the boat, and this evening, two other racers have boarded a powerboat leaving from Mauii to attempt to recover the boat. At this moment, we do not know if it will be successful, but the odds are pretty good. If the boat can be boarded and sailed back to Oahu, it will be placed in a slip and when Derk is better, he can return to his floating home.
I will try to update this as the status of the recovery attempt proceeds. We should know within 48 hours if it will succeed.
All the best,
Michael
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 19, 2012 - 10:29am PT
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Godspeed to the salvors!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Jul 19, 2012 - 12:31pm PT
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Michael-Thanks for the wonderful and enlightening writeup on your passage. Never a dull moment on a passage. I am sure the solo adventure gave you an opportunity to dial in the boat a lot more.
Looks like you will have time for a little R&R and then back on track to Alaska. Godsend that you don't have time to begin all the new "changes" that result from any passage. Save it for Ca in the winter. Now that the Admiral is on board things will be a lot smoother.
Best of luck to the crew with Derk's boat and the recovery. Hopefully the two will be united again soon. Keep us posted if you can.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jul 19, 2012 - 12:34pm PT
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As we learned when cruising, if someone gets into trouble of nearly any legal sort far from home, the community comes together to help out. Good luck retrieving the boat.
Michael, thanks for keeping us armchair sailors posted. Hugs to Susan
Fred
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jul 19, 2012 - 07:16pm PT
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Silver
there've been weirder 'round the world sailing relationships.
Not that they all work out.
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Jul 20, 2012 - 02:29pm PT
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Hello everyone,
An update on Bela Bartok recovery. Roman Gabriel and Ronnie Simpson have recovered the boat abd sailed it to the Waikiki Yacht club in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Derk, the sailor who had to abandon after a life threatening staph infection got into his lungs, seems to be doing much better, and is under a doctor's care in Oakland, CA. He may be able to fly out to Hawaii in a few days to reunite with his beloved boat. All of us competitors are pretty stoked that this happened, and that we were able to look out for one of our own. My hat is off to Roman and Ronnie and also the othere members of the Singlehanded Sailing Society who made the recovery possible.
As I mentioned previously, I had a few interesting speed bumps along the way to Hanaleii Bay. One of the scariest was having the boom detach from the mast when the pin holding it to the mast fell out. This is a pretty unlikely situation, but it happened. At the time, I had about 25 to 30 knots true wind speed (about 20 over the deck) and was running deep with twin jibs poled poled out on either side of the boat, and a single reef in the main. The boom was secured to the boat by the mainsail, the rigid topping lift, a preventer forward, and the main sheet. The forces on the boom were pretty large, and left to itself, the detached boom was a lethal wrecking ball, which was capable of destroying the dodger and other fixed objects or anyone who was in the way when the boat rolled (which it was doing in spades at that time). Below I am pasting in the unedited note I sent Susan after dealing with it. Sitting at a desk onshore in Princeville, the intensity and urgency are somewhat muted, but at the time, I was pretty pumped and frightened. So with no further ado, here is the story of the world famous Mouton Noir Boom Fiasco as sent to Susan at the time:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I looked forward as it became light and saw that the end of the boom was displaced about 8 inches to the side of the mast. At the time I had a single reef in and the main was tightly prevented by a line from the mainsheet attachment point to a spot on the rail near the shrouds. This stabilized the boom for swings across the boat and I think helped keep more damage from occurring. When I investigated, I found that the pin holding the gooseneck to the mast had fallen out. This pin is about 14 mm diameter and had a threaded end on each end. The nut on top (a Nylock) had somehow unthreaded itself and the pin (about 10 inches long!!) worked its way down until it fell out the bottom, leaving the boom disconnected from the mast. The butt end of the gooseneck had been banging on the mast fitting for a while, though, as is evident from a lot of abrasion and deformed metal on both parts. The mast fitting is a set of tangs which extend horizontally from a big piece of aluminum rivetted to the mast. The tangs are perhaps 3/4" thick, and there are three of them. Between the top two is a captive fitting for the tack of the mainsail, and between the bottom two is a space for a universal joint adaptor to the boom. The pin runs through the three tangs, securing the tack fitting and also the universal joint.
Fortunately, All the parts were lying in the well at the foot of the mast!! The problem was how to get the gooseneck fitting into the tangs and lined up so the pin would secure it. At the time we were doing 7 to 8 knots in extremely turbulent seas, and rolling about 30 degrees to each side. I had two jibs on poles, wing and wing, and the main guyed to leeward. The boom was supported with the mainsail clew and tack, the rigid boom vang, and held by the mainsheet and preventer. There were many hundreds of pounds if not thousand or so on each of these lines, and the rolling and twisting motion of the boat made the surge loads quite high. The boom was twisted by the asymetrical loading of the mainsail, which put the axis of the gooseneck at about 20degrees to the axis of the pin.
At first, I tried to twist the boom with a pry bar and push by hand to align with the pin. I quickly gave this up as an excellent way to lose some fingers or teeth as my face was right in line with the end of the boom and if anything shifted, it could surge into my face. Also, the forces on the system were quite large and there was no free play to be gotten.
I tried to lower the main a bit, and things started to go out of control fast. as the balance of forces changed, the boom (which weighs over 100 pounds and is about 18 feet long) with the weight and leverage of the 500 square foot, fully battened mainsail, started to become a wrecking ball. I tried loosening the mainsheet and supporting things with the lazy jacks, which are made of spectra, thank god, but every adjustment made things worse, and it was becoming very dangerous to be near the thing. I finally got the mainsail down with the boom supported by the lazy jacks, and let off a lot of slack in the outhaul and reefing lines. The boom was still trying to sweep the decks clear with the big rolls, but I was able to stabilize it with a variety of lines tied around to various hard points. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find a balance of forces that would allow me to move the boom into alignment, but it proved impossible, The rigid boom vang made a pivot point that would not let me adjust things correctly. So I had to get the vang off. This is not easy at the dock, but using a combination of tension on the lazy jacks, lifting with the spare main halyard, and careful adjustment of the spiderweb of restraining lines, I was able to get the pin out of the vang rod and to tie it off on deck. Then I could slowly lower the outboard end of the boom to the lifelines, and managed to get it between the lower and upper lifelines and secured with some sail ties. Mouton Noir has solid tubing life lines, which made this a lot easier. With the end of the boom secured, but able to slide in and out, I was able to lift the butt end of the boom with the spare halyard and to position the universal joint into alignment with the pin, and to get the pin in.
I retightened the nuts on the pin, and considered how to get the boom horizontal again. Lifting straight up would not work, as the boom would immediately swing over and take out the dodger. So began a very tedious, inch by inch lifting of the boom using the apare main halyard as a topping lift at the outboard end of the boom, and the main sheet, preventer, and other lines to keep it from swinging. I must have made about 20 trips to the cockpit to adjust the mainsheet and preventer, while slowly raising the boom end with the spare halyard. Eventually, I had the boom level and well secured. At this point, I pulled the vang rod tight (fully retracted) and locked it, and then using some lines to hold it close to the desired point, i adjusted the boom up and down until I could get the pin into the vang fitting. I was, frankly, astonished that I was able to do it, as there are really no loose tolerances on this operation.
The mainsail was still lying on the deck (it is HUGE and very stiff and heavy) and trying to blow in the water. I started using the outhaul and reefing lines to coax it onto the boom, and adjusting the lazy jacks to hold it in place. After a struggle, the mainsail was back on the boom and held there. I then raised it to the second reef and secured that. And that is how it sits now: all lines properly led, and a nice flat 2nd reef in. Using twin jibs, close to dead downwind (165 degree apparent wind angle), the mainsail is more of an annoyance than help, so I am leaving it like this for a while.
It took 6 hours to put one silly pin back in, but I think this was the most dangerous and difficult thing I have ever done at sea. As far as I can see, in spite of all the forces and misalignments, there is no damage to the gooseneck structure, although it does look like it has seen better times. I got off with no injuries, but was quite wasted afterwards. I had gotten dehydrated, and overdosed with adrenaline. I feel much better today.
The race so far has been characterized by very awkward wind angles, lots of light air (death to a heavy boat like Mouton Noir), lumpy seas with conflicting swell direction (which makes light air sailing even harder), lots of really vicious squalls, and a Pacific High that was in a bizarre and difficult location. Now that the fleet is nearing Hawaii, the wind has improved, but the wind direction is directly towards the finish (exactly!), and there is a cross swell that makes life a bit like being in a paint shaker. We will all be very happy to finish this!!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Life at sea- hours and hours of tedium followed by moments of STARK TERROR!
all the best,
Michael
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the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
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Jul 20, 2012 - 04:06pm PT
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very cool..
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