Singlehanded Sailing Society | |
|
Mark Deppe on board Alchera |
Jim Tallet |
Tony Carr |
Lou Freeman |
Steve Wilson |
Jim Tallet, Zapped
As I sit down to write this I don’t know whether I’ll be first to finish or tail-end Charlie. Will find out sometime tomorrow or Saturday. In the meantime I thought I’d bring you the Cliff Notes version of the race..
6/15: After a so-so start Zapped manages to be the third boat out the gate, behind the J120 and the Hobie 33. After a reef and sail change I settled down for a quick nap and awoke to find a dozen or so dolphins cavorting at the bow, complete with full tail waggles! That’s as much sea life as I’d see the rest of the trip combined.
For dinner I "cooked" a batch of Macaroni and cheese, a favorite comfort food for the traditionally rough first night. It tasted much saltier than I remember and went to the sink to get some water. As I sucked down half a glass of salt water I looked out the port to see that the cap to the fresh water tank is missing and every dip of the rail is filling my tank with salt water. Fortunately this was my “luxury water”, as I had the required 15+ gallons in separate jugs on the weather rail. So much for my comfort dinner! And any regular fresh water rinses.
6/16: Spinnaker up since early morning in fairly confused sea. Zapped is heading farther south that any of the competitors based on advice from a couple of weather routers. Shortly before evening roll call a sudden refilling of the chute causes the cover to part on my new halyard – sending the filled chute out in front of the boat until it was brought up short by the cover bunching up. The resulting shock load rips the new external halyard plate from the top of the mast, and with it my wind instruments. Looks like a trip up the mast in the morning to retrieve the gear.
6/17: The trip up the mast was relatively uneventful (compared to later offerings). Unfortunately had major brain fart while at the top of the rig. I lowered the plate and brand new Harken Carbo Halyard blocks (very nice blocks) to the deck on their halyard. Then I dropped the tail of the halyard (the other end was still attached at the base of the mast – no problem). But no. The tail managed to find the water and slither over the side. As soon as it had straightened I saw why those blocks ran so free, as the plate and blocks leapt effortlessly into the water.
Later that afternoon I fashioned a new wind instrument platform from a boat hook and battens from my delivery main. Wind instruments back up and functioning before dinner.
6/18 - Day One of three days of demolition derby: Late Tuesday morning I decide to change down from the larger asymmetric spinnaker to the smaller one, as the autopilot is having trouble keep the boat on course. I got the new chute, all in its nice little spinnaker condom, up to the top of the mast when the halyard opened up and dropped the entire package into the water. Before I’m able to get everything back on board I’ve turned the spinnaker into several new car covers. Anyone interested?
Now I have a halyard stuck up at the top of the mast. Being the expert rigger and singlehanded sailor that I am I grabbed my gear and began the trip up the mast. Only this trip would be very different that yesterday’s. I was about 5 feet off the deck when the boat rolled and I lost my grip on the mast. I’m suddenly flying over the water some 30 feet from the side of the boat. Nice view but not how I was planning to spend my day. My major concern was that in less than a second I knew I’d be traveling back at the shrouds and mast at warp factor five. I managed to get my feet in front of me (and yes I was wearing shoes), pinballed off the shrouds and mast and went winging out the other side of the boat. Not wishing to spend my entire day playing pendulum, I managed to grab the reef lines at the back of the main and walk my way back down the boom to the deck. There I rationalized my need for three halyards. Two would work just fine right? Unfortunately n! o, so I went back up (tethered to the mast this time) and retrieved the halyard. Only took about an hour to get up and down, during which I got to experience what adding 200 pounds to the top of the mast does to the rolling characteristics of a J33. Literally kissed the deck when I got back down.
6/19 - Day Two: Woken at 6:30 by that all too familiar feeling and sound of Zapped hitting something other than a wave. Initial thought was I sure got to the islands in a hurry and when’s the next thud. Quickly ran topsides to see that I’d hit a whale feeding on the surface. Not the way either of us wanted to start our day.
6/20 - Day Three: Thursday morning roll call showed that I couldn’t get out on the SSB radio, although I could hear them. The issue was that by not reporting at least once each day we were subject to a daily time penalty (thought at the time to be 5 hours a day). So the day would be spent trying to get the radio online. Later in the morning I was working on deck when I watched the symmetric spinnaker blow apart at the clew (corner) taking the foot and luff tapes (edges) with it. Now I’m down to one large asymmetric which has proven thus far to be a very ineffective sail in the squirrelly wave conditions.
As the evening approached I was remounting the antennae for the SSB when I dropped the antennae coupler or connection over the side (an unfortunately recurring action during the race). I’m effectively out of communication with the fleet and out of the running for the race because of the penalties. Time to reconsider what I’m going to get out of this little adventure.
6/22: Reading an article on the Volvo Round the World Race, where Werner and Lowe had spent 18 hours repairing a spinnaker and would have it finished in another 12, inspired me to take another look at the symmetric spinnaker. The parts were mostly all there, and I had a whole roll of sticky back (sail repair tape). Maybe I can bring this beast back to life. Got the foot and clew back together before it got too humid (and dark) to continue.
Managed to raise one of the competitors on VHF radio - I’m checked in for the day!
6/23: Woken about 4:30 in the morning by an unusual quiet above decks. Went up to find the boom broken in half at the vang. After securing everything and setting up twin headsails I went back to bed to wait for light.
The rest of the day turned out to be one of the most satisfying of the trip. Spent the morning disassembling the boom and bow sprit, which I’d decided to use as an insert in the boom. The sprit was slightly larger in diameter than the inside of the boom so I had to split the boom sections down their length, pound the sprit into the sections, and then bolt the whole thing together. By dinner I had a boat full of metal shavings, the boom and mainsail back where they belonged, and a grin from ear to ear. I was extremely pleased with myself.
On top of that I was able to get a position to a competitor. I might still be in this race after all.
6/24: Completed repairs to the "Frankenkite". Question was would it hold together. Only way to find out was fly it. So I did. And it worked (thank god, as it’s turned out to be the sail I’ve had flying ever since – with a couple of exceptions). It even survived a wrap around the headstay (spinnaker decides to take a few laps around the forward mast support in a death hug). This would require a trip up the mast to untangle the mess. But it works.
Checked in again with Seabird, and got impression they had no wind or were searching for wind. I’m racing again. I dive south in search of more wind myself.
6/25: Early morning (read very dark) trip back up the mast to clear another wrap. This is getting old quick. The process involves getting to the top of the mast (no small feat in itself), disconnecting the halyard from the sail and letting the upper part of the wrap unwind itself (without getting wrapped in the kite yourself), and then lowering oneself down the headstay to the second section of wrap to hopefully push the knot down to where you can work from the deck, or more likely have to hang off the headstay and unwrap the chute in mid air. And remember the boat’s not tied to anything!
Less than an hour after getting the chute back up it wraps again. I REALLY don’t want to go back up again. Three trips in about 12 hours is more than enough. But I don’t see any other volunteers so back up I go. This session requires two trips up the mast as I just couldn’t wait out a squall while hanging between the mast and the headstay. A lovely way to spend a few hours. Starting to wonder if having the chute up is really worth it.
No check-in today - add five hours.
6/26: Not again!!! Wake up in the night to find the chute wrapped again! Real mental battle to convince myself I had to go back up. At least found a way this time to go up that minimized the banging and mast separations. Later that morning the chute decides to hug the rig one more time. I ignore it for a while and let us sail under main and wisps of spinnaker alone. Knot gods punish me by really tying things up once I get around to cleaning the mess up. In retaliation I decide to leave the chute below and set the jibtop, only to have it go over the side and get wrapped under the boat. OK, I give up. I reset the chute.
As I’m getting close to the finish I started going over the sailing instructions again, and discover that the race chair spoke incorrectly when he said there would be a 5 hour penalty for missed check-ins. The penalty is actually 15 minutes!! I’m back in the race. 15 hours has become 45 minutes. I can live with 45 minutes easy. I hope.
Got through to Coast Guard Honolulu, who say they’ll relay my position. Hope they do.
As evening approaches Sammy (my shark buddy) and I have a talk with the boys (AJ the autopilot, Z the boat, and Frankenkite). We reach an understanding where they’ll behave if I promise to take them to the movies when we get to Hawaii. Anyone know of a Sail-In Movie in Kauai?
Finally have a clear night and actually take the helm for about an hour under an almost full moon. Incredibly beautiful evening. Almost wrapped the chute – wouldn’t that have been embarrassing! Managed to make it through the night with no problems (knock wood).
6/27: Just passed 200 miles to go to the finish. Should arrive sometime Friday. Will continue the story after the finish!
Didn’t quite make it through the night without killing Frankenkite. In a futile attempt to avoid another wrap I dropped the halyard too far and got the kite under the boat. By the time I got him back up the lower two feet were in tatters. He gave his all for us, and probably made the difference between just finishing the race, and doing well. Thank you Frankenkite.
6/28: Took remnants of bow sprit and fashioned mini-sprit. Attempted to set the entirely misnamed Stomper and promptly was set on my ear – to the point where I was walking on the side of the cabin house as a horizontal surface. After about a half hour of thrashing I tried to take it down only to have the kite get sucked into the prop. Result, one seldom used collection of blue and white napkins.
Finished the race at approximately midnight PDT Friday, second boat to finish, first displacement to finish. There’s one boat that can finish as late as Monday night and still beat me, but otherwise I think we will end up doing OK!
Final indignity - After finishing and having the race committee inspect and remove the shaft seal I went to start the engine and the starter refused to engage. I had just ran the engine an hour before the finish to recharge the battery and for some reason no start. Ended up being towed by the dinghy into the harbor. Perfect ending to the demolition derby of a race!
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