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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Tue May 09 2006 - 12:06:43 EDT
In a message dated 09/05/2006 16:14:03 GMT Daylight Time,
writes:
I don't remember where, but I read an article about a couple recently who
had to throw out a parasail on a 40 or so ft Catamaran, and eventually needed
to be rescued.
I wish I remembered the details. WHne I read it, they were looking for their
boat. It was somewhere close to the GOlf of Mexico ?
It happened a few months ago Anybody remembers ?
Ahmet
www.sailnomad.com
Richard Woods
January 2006
Many of you will have read or heard in the papers or television about
Richard Woods dramatic rescue from the Eclipse, here below is the true report from
Richard himself, having just been rescued by the US Navy.
Richard and Jetti aboard the frigate
"As some of you probably now know, we are no longer on board Eclipse but on
navy frigate USS Ford where, apart from saving our lives, everyone has been
really friendly and welcoming.
We left Nicaragua on Friday 13th, which probably didn’t help matters, and had
a very frustrating sail along the coast of El Salvador and then Guatemala.
Frustrating, as the weather was really changeable. For example we went from
motoring to sailing under reefed genoa alone in under 2 minutes. But we did
have some nice sailing for a couple of hours each day – then followed by several
hours of motoring. So it was taking longer than we wanted to get to Mexico
and we were both getting tired, but Jetti, as always, was preparing good food.
There was a time constraint as we knew there would be a bad gale coming
through the Gulf of Tehuantepec on Wednesday afternoon, and we had wanted to get
past that area by then. Sadly we didn’t quite make it.
The wind got up very quickly from south 7-10 knots to north west 30. As we
got away from land the wind increased more. There are several proven, accepted,
techniques for handling bad weather in a catamaran. If the wave and wind are
not too severe, one can just heave to or take down all sail and lie ahull.
But as the wind increases and especially as the wave height increases, this is
no longer a safe option. So the next stage is either to run before a gale
towing warps, or to lie to a sea anchor. The problems with the former are that
a) you are going with the weather system so you stay in it longer b) if the
wind increases you eventually cannot go slowly enough so you begin to surf and
overtake the waves ahead c) you end up a long way downwind, at say 50 miles
a day d) it would mean that I would be hand steering all the time, as Jetti
is not experienced (or in the event as we found later, strong enough) to steer
in big seas. So I have always preferred the sea anchor streamed from the
bows. However, in 45 years of sailing and around 70,000 of offshore sailing, I
have never had to stop sailing because of bad weather. So it had all been
theory for me, until now.
Anyway, at 8pm we decided to stop sailing and use our parachute sea anchor. I
had first got this when we did the Azores race in Banshee in 1987, but had
only ever used it for practice. This was the first time for real. It took
sometime to sort out the bridle so that the boat would stay head to waves. It
tended to swing 40 degrees each way and was scary (or so I thought at the time)
when we got near-abeam of the waves. Also, from time to time the parachute
would collapse, and we’d drift backwards until it reset, which was even more
worrying.
We spent the night like that, with no sleep of course. Next morning the wind
and sea was much worse. Certainly a full gale, but not so bad that I thought
the Eclipse was in real danger. Tests, theory and practice have shown that a
catamaran can only capsize if it beam onto waves that are as high as the beam
of the boat. So we are 100% OK in waves under 20 feet high, and these were
10 feet.
I kept checking the warps and bridles but as the boat swung, the loads on the
bridles were very high and eventually first one and then the other 12mm
anchor warp bridle broke. Apart from holding the boat into waves the bridle also
spreads the load onto 3 wear points. Now, all the load was on one bow roller
and the parachute warp was beginning to chafe. I rigged up a second line with
rolling hitches, which was rather wet to do on the foredeck. At some stage
the forward trampoline started to tear but was still useable with care. (I had
planned to get a new one this year as they have about a 5 year life). The
wind and sea state had been steadily increasing. Every hour we said, “It can’t
get windier can it?” By now it was probably a steady 40 knots and 10-15 foot
seas breaking over the boat every 10 minutes or so. Our safety depended on
our parachute sea anchor holding. But in case it failed, I set up the 2 main
anchors to be used as drogues behind the boat.
Surprisingly it was not the warp that broke, but the parachute. This was a
10ft cargo-style parachute specially made for use as a yacht sea anchor. I
pulled it on board, the boat drifting beam on at this stage, and on quick
inspection found it had shredded and that several parachute lines had pulled out.
As I said earlier, I had only used the sea anchor in calmer conditions for an
hour or so, just to practice. It seemed an excellent idea, the boat would
just bob up and down, just like being on a conventional anchor, but in a real
gale the loads were much worse, and the boat was being pulled and jerked as the
waves passed. I didn’t like it, and I don’t think I would recommend a sea
anchor again.
We threw the anchors over the stern and also added the shredded sea anchor.
It was very difficult to steer, but eventually I got the boat moving downwind.
We were sailing at 5-6 knots despite the drogues. We let out more warp which
helped slow us to 3-4. I think that might have still meant surfing down some
of the bigger waves which would have the potential for a disastrous broach.
However the real problem was now the following waves could catch us up and
break into the cockpit. For the first time ever on any catamaran I’ve sailed we
had to close the companionway door. The first wave broke into the cockpit.
The second wave was much bigger and swamped the cockpit. Even worse it filled
the dinghy which we keep in davits. The water weight broke some of the
straps, and we had to cut the dinghy loose and so lost it. Clearly running downwind
was not an option.
So we now decided to try towing the anchors from one stern. This would allow
the boat to lie at a 45 degree angle to the waves. Despite this temporary
arrangement it actually seemed to work better than the sea anchor had done. Of
course all the time the wind was increasing. We went below again to recover
and see how the boat was handling the conditions. An hour later the wind
suddenly got up even more. It was now screeching and the rig began vibrating which
I had only noticed once before, when tied up in a marina during a 70 knot
gale. The waves were now often over 20 feet so it was definitely getting to the
dangerous, life threatening stage. We began to discuss the option of
abandoning ship. Unfortunately our Raymarine wind speed indicator was obviously only
designed for inshore sailing because it was still reading 32 knots. So I don’
t know how windy it really was.
By 1pm the waves were now consistently over 20 feet, maybe occasionally 30
feet. I know I tend to underestimate wave heights, partly because everyone
normally over estimates. For example when sailing in Alaska in the summer I
thought we were in 2-3 ft waves, but our skipper wrote 6ft waves in the log. It
was getting more and more serious as there didn’t seem to be any limit to how
high the wind and waves could get. By 1.30pm the wind really got up. The sea
state changed and the whole surface was covered in flying spume, all the wave
tops were blown off. It was much the worse conditions I have ever seen, even
when standing on a beach looking out at 100 knot winter gales. When I went
outside I couldn’t stand up except by holding to a tether line. I could feel
the skin on my face distorting in the wind. I guess there is a known wind speed
when that happens, but I’d never felt it before.
That was when we decided to send out a Mayday, as we knew it would be several
hours before any chance of rescue. Of course it was particularly hard for me
as Eclipse is not insured. And of course no one likes the idea of abandoning
a boat – usually boats are picked up later undamaged. I can always build
another boat, and I had earlier said to Jetti that we might not survive.
Accordingly we set off our EPIRB but also called Pip using our satellite phone. He
gave us the UK’s Falmouth Coastguard phone number, and we called the
Coastguard direct. We called back every hour to check on progress and to give a
weather update and position check. We heard that Mexico was sending out a launch to
stand by.
By 6pm it was dark so we could no longer see the waves. We could still hear
them crashing onto the boat, but so far, apart from the lost dinghy and torn
but useable trampoline there was no other damage. The inside was beginning to
become a mess. Normally on a catamaran one can leave cups on the table; there
is no need for fiddle rails, etc. Now everything was being thrown around.
There seemed little point in putting everything back in place, so most just
stayed on the floor or was put on the bunks. The inside stayed dry though, no
water had got below except for the one wave when we were running downwind and
lost the dinghy. So it was dry and warm below.
But all the time a wave/wind squall could have our name on it. We wouldn’t
survive a capsize. We were still expecting the Mexican coastguard to call up on
the VHF to say they were enroute. So it was a great surprise to hear a
female American voice at 11pm saying she was in a helicopter and 10 miles from us.
This was the first we knew that the US was involved. We kept in radio
contact as they flew in and then set off a flare and made visual contact, although
I suspect the pilot had seen us long before through their night vision
equipment.
The last book I had read was Perfect Storm, so I knew all about the skills
and training of naval rescue personnel. We had earlier prepared some dry bags
which we filled with passports, money, ship papers. All those can be replaced,
so what else? What I really wanted to take was my computer with all my work
on it. But I felt it was too big. So Jetti took her makeup bag, I took our CD’
s. In hindsight we could have taken more. We tied the bags to each other and
put on shoes and inflated our lifejackets.
The US navy helicopters have a SAR (search and rescue) swimmer who jumps out
of the helicopter and swims to the stricken vessel with a lifting strop. It
looked very scary to me. A brave man. Eclipse was still moving around quite
violently in the seas, but the conditions were fortunately not nearly as bad as
they had been when we put out the Mayday. Ironically we probably were over
the worst of the gale. Jetti was the first to jump into the sea and into the
swimmer’s waiting arms. Five minutes later it was my turn. As I was hoisted
out, I looked down and back at Eclipse and hoped I would see it again.
I had not flown in a helicopter before. They look big on the outside, but are
cramped inside and very noisy. Our flight back to the USS Ford lasted about
10 minutes. We watched the in-flight movie: the night vision viewer of the
frigate as we approached was fantastic. Jetti was shown the weather radar and
saw that Eclipse was right in the centre of the storm.
We landed on the ship and faced a welcoming party of apparently the whole
ship’s company, despite it now being 3 in the morning. A quick debrief, medical
check, shower, and then into a set of navy issue jumpsuits. Next, a massive
breakfast. We are not sure if it was put in front of us as a test, but it was
the biggest meal I’ve ever eaten. Jetti finished her plates as well. But then
neither of us had eaten anything for 36 hours except a few slices of bread.
Then a 3 hour sleep.
In the morning we had discussions with the crew. The helicopter pilot said
she had great difficulty controlling her helicopter as she was flying at 50
knots to stay in position and going up and down 20ft to stay with the waves.
Independent confirmation that it was still a full gale, if not F9. Even so, it
was far less severe than earlier in the day. She also said it was her first
real sea rescue. She, like the swimmer, had only done simulations in weather
this severe. She also admitted that her helicopter had not been airworthy the
day before as the rotor blades were being changed. We met the captain who said
he had been steaming his frigate away from the area to keep away from the
bad weather. He considers this area worse than sailing round Cape Horn. Even
now as I write on board USS Ford, it’s hard to keep in my chair as the ship is
rolling and pitching. Yet, looking outside, the sea state looks relatively
flat compared to what we had been in yesterday.
We have 24 hours before getting to port. We are desperate to see if we can
salvage Eclipse. It is undamaged and will probably float for ever. Currently it
is only 50 miles from a big fishing harbour, and we hope to find a salvage
operator there to tow Eclipse in.
Despite all that happened, I was very impressed with the seaworthiness of
Eclipse. No real damage (we didn’t like our dinghy anyway), and the boat had
survived a major storm without capsizing. Certainly life would have been much
more uncomfortable on a monohull, and ultimately I think had we been on one, we
would still have put out a Mayday, as did the yacht in the Perfect Storm.
I’ll finish this by thanking all the crew on USS Ford. There will be more
about them later.
We don’t know what the future holds now. In a few days we will know about
Eclipse. If it is salvaged, clearly we have to sort that out. If not, we will
fly home.
That’s it for now.
Richard and Jetti, no longer on board Eclipse"
one more
_http://www.news4jax.com/news/8594374/detail.html_
(http://www.news4jax.com/news/8594374/detail.html)
regards
David
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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