The things that happen on an Ocean Passage--particularly a ROUGH one....
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19 05 N 65 27 W NOTE: I am hoping the formatting of this
account holds for presentation on the blogsite; if it doesn’t, I will
discover that once I get to an internet café in Fair warning: This is a long blog entry…..not
for the faint hearted, easily bored, blog aficionado…hope you can enjoy it
…if you read it ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I thought it would be a good time to jot
down a bit of an account of things that went wrong on this passage…always
an interesting aspect….especially for the ones that have to solve the
issue that presents itself….solve it in real time …solve it at sea……make
it work….and keep going …and keep the crew’s confidence that
all is well…despite some nonsense: -
Day 0 –
Nov 2 (Monday - Intended departure day); o
freezer compressor
raw water intake line blocks with biological junk…miniature mussels,
clams barnacles and the like. Clearing line (and protecting a totally full freezer
load of food)….. took the day….and caused departure to be pushed to
Tuesday. -
Day 1 –
Nov 3, Tuesday: o
for
some yet-undetermined reason, the on-board wireless network started to become
erratical and the troubleshooting….. in the wee hours of the morning as
we stepped out from the o
Lost
Radar, lost AIS (Automatic Identification System), and a mixture of failures/reboots
of 3 laptop computers that are either primary or back-up units for managing the
ship’s navigation, etc. Computers …can’t live with them…can’t
live without them! o
Finally,
problem solved for the passage by shutting down the wireless network as not
essential in any way to the boat’s operation…just a nice to….will
investigate and solve in -
Day 2 –
Nov 4, Wednesday: o
Lost Radar
Functionality; Could not determine whether problem was the Radar Unit, Data
transmission from Radar to charting application, or the actual Nobeltec navigation
software…??? o
Captain
noted that the reading on true and apparent wind speed on the B&G
instruments seemed to be erratic and did not seem to reflect the reality of the
wind speed being experienced. Suspicion of a problem had first surfaced on
passage from Bermuda to Newport in June but after a lot of subsequent
diagnostic work under direction of B&G, no problem could be found…..until
now when it seemed to be perhaps reappearing…..more later. Problem was
confirmed as attempts to engage wind controlled autopilot steering were
unsuccessful with faults indicating “Bad Wind Information”. Carried
on with compass controlled steering. o
In
middle of night, during a change from Port Tack to Starboard Tack with the wind
well behind us while we were on a RUN…wind 120 to 150 off the nose….the
novice wheelsman made a mistake in pushing buttons on the autopilot and caused the
steering to go way off intended direction ….. definitely a bit of a fire
drill as subsequent recovery to proper course had Sea Mist make some wild
changes in direction with resulting backing of sails (no damage)…before
course was reestablished in the St Thomas direction. o
In the
middle of the night, success came after several hours of troubleshooting: Radar
began working properly…..and did so for remainder of passage without any
adverse symptoms whatsoever -
Day 3 –
Nov 5 (Thursday) o
Just
after darkness prevailed, when unfurling the main from the in-mast cavity,
there appeared to be some problem causing a jam up in the unfurling action.
Captain was wary that there might be a serious problem with the sail or the
in-mast furler rotator/swivel. Investigation would require going aloft to the
top of the mast to inspect. Decision was to attempt inspection by stabilized
binoculars at first light in the morning….and then decide about going to
the mast top in a bosun’s chair. -
Day 4 –
Nov 6 (Friday) o
Captain
awoke at 3:30 am during his off-watch rest period and thought that he heard a
small change in the sounds coming from the autopilot electric drive
motor/hydraulic ram. Captain explained potential problems to on-watch crew and
went back to rest. o
At
daybreak, binocular inspection of mast furler/ head of sail was not successful
in ruling out a potential problem ….. nor did it confirm that a problem
existed. Captain’s opinion was that an inspection from aloft was
necessary. o
At 9 a.m
while considering climbing the mast, the Autopilot FAILED….and the fault
diagnosis pointed to a very premature wear out of the brushes in the electric
motor….which is buried/installed deep in the aft lazerette right up
against the hull on port side. Diagnosis and repair would entail unloading the
aft lazerette to gain access to the motor and the captain had a reasonably
founded guess that a repair might not be possible due to brush arcing with the
motor’s stator when the brush failed. However, the alternative would have
been to hand steer Sea Mist all the way to St Thomas ….or an alternate
destination perhaps in Florida to make it more achievable to do so with the
limited crew on-board….particularly given the now current forecast for
some heavy winds and seas. o
9:30
am - latest weather download showed increasing wind strength and sea
heights would develop in the next couple of hours and would be sustained for the
coming days. o
9:45 am–
With much angst, captain had the Admiral hoist him to the top of the mast to do
the deemed necessary inspection where he did his best to limit the occasions of
being swirled around like a tether ball at 75 feet above the deck/water ….as
the wind as seas quickly and steadily built towards 25 kts of true windspeed.
With much difficulty, a reasonable inspection was made of the condition of the
head of the main sail and of the in-mast swivel furling mechanism. All
was determined OK….no worries for the rest of the passage on this front….but
still the captain had to get back down to the deck….and success with that…phew!!....almost
but no malade de mer but as close as it can be. o
10:30 am
– captain heads for the aft lazerette with new brushes and essential
tools in hand. Crew member Vincent again flawlessly steered Sea Mist so that
lazerette could be emptied without taking in seawater or losing gear overboard….and
captain could access autopilot…..and SURPRISE > successfully removed
old brushes and installed new ones…..and reloaded lazerette….without
any water in or any items lost. Autopilot now operational and that worry was
removed from the concerns list. The cause of the premature brush failure is
known and will be addressed in the o
4:00 pm
After winds have picked up considerably, the wind instruments then appeared to
be accurately measuring the existing conditions > tried wind control of
autopilot and SUCCESS !!...All working fine. Now the crew can relax and just
monitor cross track error as Sea Mist just follows the wind which was remaining
fairly stable in its direction at 060 > 070 degrees magnetic ….allowing
us to steer approximately 70 – 80 degrees magnetic off the wind and keep
our 165 degrees magnetic course to St Thomas. Autopilot steering worked
flawlessly for remainder of passage. o
6:00 pm
Started generator to recharge house batteries. Discovered Mastervolt 24V/100 Am
charger was faulting out….would not start and was giving a fault alarm
that did not make sense in terms of something one could address without expert
help from Mastervolt come business hours on Monday, Amsterdam time…..what
about all the hours in between over the weekend.. Had to switch to using the
main engine with its 150 Amp Hi-Output alternator installed on the Perkins…..diagnosis/repair
to the Mastervolt charger that runs off the Westerbeke Genset would have to
wait for the coming week. o
During
dark hours just before midnight, while Autopilot was steering by wind control,
captain forgot to flip control over to compass control before making a VHF
radio call to a passing Cargo Ship….AND…autopilot steering was
disengaged by the RF (Radio Frequency) Signal noise with immediate warning being
a uncontrolled change in direction. A scramble by the captain from the nav
center to the wheel enabled recovery without any serious problem. (This
interference of RF with wind control of steering is a well known/documented problem:
you just have to remember to not touch the VHF microphone without disengaging
the wind controlled steering….captain now puts warning tape across each hand
held microphone so that this won’t happen again….as long as the
practice of applying the warning tape is kept up when a shift to
wind-controlled steering is made. -
Day 5 –
Nov 7 (Saturday): o
12 noon…mysteriously,
the Mastervolt charger started up without faulting out….all has remained
well for the duration of the passage. Will have to follow up with Mastervolt’s
technical experts in -
Day 6 - Nov
8 (Sunday): o
Peaceful
day….no problems….if you ignore the atrocious seas that were making
it untenable to move around Sea Mist other than to carry out essentials like
toilet and on-watch / off-watch climbing up the stairs to the cockpit -
Day 7 –
Nov 9 (Monday): o
3 pm
> heard loud snap > could see that the dinghy had changed its orientation
where it hangs on the stern davits. Investigation found that one of the aft
through hull eye bolts, by which the dinghy is attached to the davit cables, had
spontaneously severed at the floor of the dinghy. ……luckily the
belly straps that independently support the underside of the dinghy had taken
the resulting load when the davit hanger suddenly failed. Using some short
lines and the passerelle halyard, the dinghy was successfully resecured. -
Day 8 –
Nov 10 (Tuesday): o
6:00 am
discovered that the forward head has something caught in the macerator flush
mechanism making for wild noisy flushing…..have had crew resort to aft
head for remainder of passage. At this late stage in the trip, no need to
effect inspection/repair while underway…..will handle once at anchor in And that my friends is the way to think
about Ocean Passages as being something less than idyllic wanderings all the
time……but certainly great when it is just that….like today…watching
whales blow off our starboard quarter, watching a dolphin play around at the
port side for a brief encounter even if not a full show….and all in all
soaking up what sailing is really all about…..and quickly forgetting the
nonsense that is recorded in this blog…..as that would not be fun
memories so why keep them….but maybe worthwhile to record them for
prosperity as they are forgotten from active memory. Crew of Sea Mist Now less than 60 nm from dropping anchor
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