April 21, 2008

Windswept
Last weekend we sailed to Aur for their Liberation Day Festivities. The village of Tabal had invited the yachts to come up to help them celebrate. There were 7 of us in the lagoon (Sequester, Holokai, Waikkirri, Moonbird, Ursa Minor, Chameleon and Hai Yun). Windswept also planned to come up. They tried to get crew, but were unable to, so they sailed up alone.
We arrived in Aur (Tabal village) on Friday morning, having left Thursday at dusk and sailing all night. Windswept had planned to do the same, but didn’t get out of the harbor that night, so left on Friday morning. On Friday evening at 2300 Ted received a VHF call from Richard on Windswept, stating that they were about 5 miles outside the west pass and couldn’t get the engine started. They suspected a fuel pump failure. Richard said they would hang out off the atoll all night and Ted stated that we would find a boat to tow them into the pass in the morning.
The next morning, Bonnie on Moonbird had a very brief VHF contact with Chris on Windswept, maybe 15 seconds. Then Spike on Holokai, Ted, and Dave from Chameleon decided to take Holokai out the west pass to look for Windswept. They spent most of the morning out there, looking with the radar and making many radio calls for Windswept. Nothing was seen or heard. We informed the fleet back in Majuro that we suspected Windswept may have turned around and sailed back there. Bonnie thought to send Windswept an email to tell them to contact us on 8.173 if they could.
The next morning, just at the end of the “Rag of the Air” net, Richard came up and said they were still hanging out west of Aur, now about 45 miles out. They had put out a drogue and had spent most of the 24 hours trying to get the engine going. We set up an hourly schedule on 8.173 and Ken on Moonbird sat by the radio while the rest of us went in to church.
At 1440, just as we returned to the boat, Chris put out a “mayday” call and stated that the mast had just come down. She and Richard were okay, and they were going to try to cut the mast loose, as it was crashing up and down on the boat. Patricia on Chameleon put out a mayday relay, and within 15 minutes stations from New Zealand to Hawaii, including Majuro, had been informed. Ted, Spike and Ken were preparing to go out to Windswept on the MINRA boat, which was in Tabal at the time, having brought up the officials for the Liberation Day ceremonies. They heard from Majuro that the Lomar from Majuro was going to go out. It was a much larger boat, faster, and could tow Windswept if it had to. We maintained an hourly schedule with Windswept on 8.173. Ted and Ken stayed by the radio all night long to talk to Richard and Chris.
The Lomar arrived at dawn on Monday, put 2 engineers aboard, and had the motor running in short order (bled the fuel lines and hand-pumped the fuel from the tank). One of the engineers stayed on board for the ride back to Majuro and had to bleed the system a couple more times en route. They arrived back in Majuro at first light Tuesday morning. They had spent 4 nights at sea.
Richard and Chris are okay, and in remarkably good spirits considering. The headstay pulled out from the deck, just as they were about to set the jib. They were both standing up there next to it, Richard looking down at the base of the jib and Chris looking at the mast. All of a sudden Richard said “the headstay is coming up” and Chris said “the mast is going down”. It all happened in a second, but neither was hurt because they were standing forward of it. The mast landed on the cabin top and was banging up and down. They tied down the base of the mast and the mast then broke in two. They saved the boom and mainsail, and the bottom part of the mast, but lost the jib and the rest of the mast when they pulled the pins to cut her loose. They also lost one wind generator and one solar panel. But Richard had installed an inverted V antenna, so we had radio communication with them throughout.
There was very little damage to the boat from the mast crashing down on it. The cabin top crunched a little and broke the window, but all the living accommodations are intact. Ted has suggested to Richard building a Gougeon wing mast and Richard is very keen to explore that possibility. That would be the cheapest option by far. They still plan to sell the boat, but are in no hurry to do that, as they had already decided that they could live on it here cheaper than living ashore in a house in Hawaii. Plus, they like the community here and have easy access to stores, etc.
You can see a short write-up of the adventure in the latest newspaper. Everything else is fine here. We’ve eliminated the cockroaches from the inside of Irish Melody, but they moved outside, so we are dealing with getting the ones in the cockpit. As soon as I put the roach cookies down they were into it, so I expect I’ll find a lot of dead ones.
Hope all is well with you. Love, Karen