So the work on Sjelle’s boat has progressed at a pretty good click over the past 2 weeks or so that I’d been here in Rio. After taking care of several issues with the mast, the mainsail, and other things, the “LF Ase” was ready for a test sail. After some final rig tuning by Luigi, we made way for El Golfete, which is a fairly large lake that lies in the course of the Rio Dulce. We spent the afternoon testing out the sails and motor, and remarkably all worked ok. After a couple more small tweaks, Sjelle made the determination that it was finally time to try to get her boat out of the Rio Dulce for the first time in about 2 years.
The weather was in our favor for a good sail over to Utila. The plan was to go there for a few days, and then head into La Ceiba so Sjelle can meet up with a friend of hers from Denmark that was flying in. Then we would head east to Roatan and Guanaja, and then south to Panama via a few islands on the way. So we definitely wanted to get to Honduras as soon as possible to give us the most time to prepare for the rest of the trip.
We made our way down to Livingston last Wednesday, which was a nice motor down the Rio Dulce. Once we got to Livingston, we rafted up close to the harbor, ate lunch and made some final preparations for the trip out. We had to wait for high tide, which was going to be that afternoon. Once high tide was close, I pulled up my anchor, and we made our way out into open sea, Sjelle and I both kept close touch via VHF radio.
We got out over the shallow bar without any issues. Once I was clear of the sea buoy, I raised my sails and proceeded to head north towards Punta Manabique. That’s where you take a hard right and then head east to get to Utila, which is less than a day away from there. Sjelle raised her sails not long after me, and we were both sailing towards Utila. Because Andiamo is significantly larger than Sjelle’s, it’s considerably faster. So I had to keep Andiamo reined in pretty tight in relation to the wind in order for me to not get too far in front of her. Sjelle did get her boat to a very respectable 5.5 to 6 knots, so I didn’t have to hold back too much. It was nice to finally see her boat sailing on bluewater after all the work and preparation she did. Andiamo didn’t mind being back out there either.
We made it around the point in great time. As the sun set, we adjusted our course more and more to the north/northeast so we can better point to Utila. We were not able to go as much northeast as we would have liked, so we kept the best easterly course we could, knowing that we were going to have to tack north sometime the next 30 miles. This was fine if doing that was going to let us sail most of the way to Utila (a rarity due to the prevailing easterly winds).
A little after 8pm, Sjelle called me on the radio and told me that one of the turnbuckles on her aft shroud (this is one of the several cables that supports the mast and keeps it upright and tuned with the sails). I became concerned, that is not a good thing to happen. Particularly since the all the rigging work was newly done. By this time, the winds were over 20 knots and the seas had kicked up pretty good. This was just due to local weather systems, however. Overall, the weather was still pretty good for the sail over to Utila.
A few minutes later, she said she was able to secure the loose cable by tying it down with a line as tightly as she could, but part of the turnbuckle was gone. I told her that I thought the best thing for us to do would be to turn around, head back to inside the point and anchor. There, we can see the situation in calmer waters and safe conditions. If anything can be fixed, it can be done there.
By this time, the winds had kicked up to over 20 knots, and the seas were getting fairly high. Sjelle said ok, and turned the boat around, although still under sail. I suggested to her that she take the sails down and motor the few miles to get around the point, since it wasn’t a good idea to put any load on the mast with such a critical shroud out of the equation. She said that the boat seemed to go ok with the sails, so she would leave them up for now.
I also had to turn my boat around. Which is a real pain doing a 180 degree turnabout while singlehanding. So I ended up having a few pratfalls while I did my best to safely turn the boat and head the other way in such strong winds and heavy seas. I managed to resolve everything and get the boat going back towards Sjelle and the point.
About the time I finished my last turnabout and the unwanted jibes that resulted from it, Sjelle called me on the radio again. This time she said, and I couldn’t believe it, that her mast had just come down! I asked her to repeat, and she did. According to Sjelle, she was in the cockpit holding the tiller, keeping course, and in a second, the boom was in the cockpit, missing her, and the mast was in two pieces, dangling in the water. She said it made no sound or anything until the boom slammed into the cockpit.
I could NOT believe it, this is every sailor’s worst nightmare. I got Sjelle’s position (which I had been doing about every hour or so), and found that we were only about 2 miles apart. I told her I’d be right there, and off I went pointing to her position she stated on the radio. I was absolutely flabbergasted that her mast just broke or fell off like that, but I was also glad that she wasn’t hurt. If a mast falls on you, it will probably kill you.
I got closer, and saw Sjelle waving her flashlight at me. Remarkably, despite the fact that her VHF’s antenna was mounted on the top of her mast, which was now sinking to the bottom of the Bay of Honduras, I was still able to keep radio contact with her. I had already brought in my sails, and proceeded to circle around her boat to review the overall damage. I can see part of the mast hanging over her starboard side, the end of it was smacking her hull pretty good. There were rigging cables dangling everywhere around her in the water.
Sjelle was on the deck trying to make sense of it all, and thankfully, she didn’t appear to be injured. I told her to get back to her radio. She had already tried to run her motor, but it stalled out. More than likely because something was fouling her prop, I thought. I told her we’d have to try to tow her back in around the point. Her boat appeared to be stationary despite the strong seas and winds. My theory was that her boat was being “anchored” by the fallen mast and boom. Both of which were still connected to her boat with the rigging cables.
I told her that she was going to have to cut away the rigging cables, so everything would be freed up from the boat. Then it would be safe for me to tow her boat. I knew she had a pair of massive bolt cutters aboard. So as I watched, she proceeded to go around the deck to all the rigging cables and cut them away with relative ease. After she was done, she went back to the radio to let me know.
I then told her what I thought would be the best way to get a tow line aboard Andiamo so we can see about towing her boat in. She had a very long anchor rode on the foredeck, and I told her to use that as the tow line, securing one half of its length to each bow cleat, and then preparing a long leader line at the other end, that would make it easier to get the ends of the tow line onto the boat. After Sjelle prepared the line, I instructed her to go midship, and I would bring Andiamo’s bow up to the boat so she can grab on and get aboard.
That operation went well, Sjelle grabbed on while the bow was fairly close to her boat, she jump on and started walking the leader line aft towards to the cockpit. When she got there however, we found that that the tow line had become twisted and tangled all over her bow hardware and anchor windlass. Even though we knew that the leader line was not strong enough to tow her boat, we tried to cleat it and and tow her boat anyway. It didn’t hold for more than a minute.
Now, we had to act fast to try to save Sjelle’s boat. We were both getting drawn closer and closer to the shore of Cabo Tres Puntas. That are was not accurately surveyed or charted, thus we had no idea what the depths and bottom conditions were like along that shore. This started making me rather nervous.
We made a couple more passes around the bow to try to see if we can still grab the tow line that was dangling off the bow. No luck. I kept circling the boat as we tried to strategize the next attempt to try to get a tow line connected. The seas were still quite rough, and the counter currents were starting to confuse the seas. For a good while, the winds and currents were acting with inertia on Sjelle’s boat and kept it stuck in one position. It didn’t move much from one point for quite a long time.
I tightened the circle pattern that I was doing around her boat with Andiamo as we attempted to back Andiamo towards stern-to. The idea was that I can keep a safe distance from the boat while Sjelle tried to grab the tow line that was in the water. During one attempt, she did manage to grab the line, but by this time it was badly twisted and tangled around itself. We did get one good end of the leader line, and I tried to hang on to it long enough to get it on the cleat. The force on that line was unbelievable, and I couldn’t hold it long enough to secure it. So we proceeded to circle the boat again to figure something else out.
We were running out of time, because the boats were getting dangerously close to shore. Just about then, while I was maintaining the circle pattern, keeping Sjelle’s boat to Andiamo’s starboard side, the boat shot off into one direction in a flash and got right in front of Andiamo. It caught me by total surprise, and there was no time to react. Andiamo hit Sjelle’s boat broadside, making a horrible sound. Sjelle went forward to review the damage and to see if our boats were locked up. Luckily we were not, and I was able to back away. But Sjelle’s boat did get significantly damaged by the impact. Luckily though, all the damage was above the waterline. So the boat stayed afloat.
But now, according to my gps position, we were only about a third of a mile off the shore. This was just much too close, and I was afraid at any time, that the depths were going to pop up to horribly shallow, and we would run aground, or worse. I told Sjelle that we may have to leave the boat until morning, and head back to inside the point, where we can anchor. Everything Sjelle had was on her boat, including her money and passport, which neither of us thought for her to take with her when she got aboard Andiamo, just in case. So leaving the boat was hard to do. I told her, that with some luck, we can get back to the boat in the morning, and hopefully all her stuff would still be there, even if it was washed up on the beach.
So, with enormous regret and apprehension, we shifted Andiamo’s course to head back to the inside of the point. We would anchor off Punta Manabique for the night. By this time, we also realized how banged up and exhausted we were after the whole ordeal, particularly Sjelle. It didn’t take long for us to get around the point, and drop anchor. Luckily, the anchor was still able to work despite the anchor tray and roller being banged up and bent from the impact with Sjelle’s boat. We were set in no time, and within a matter of minutes, we were dead asleep from total exhaustion.
The next morning, we tried to figure out the best way to go retrieve the boat. I suggested we call Inga, a dutch girl we know back in Rio Dulce, who had a guatemalan boyfriend in Livingston. He owned a shrimp boat, so maybe he can come out with it, and help us go retrieve Sjelle’s boat and tow it back. I managed to reach her, but she was not able to reach her boyfriend by cel phone. She did put the word out on the radio net back in Rio Dulce, however. The next move was for Sjelle to call from friends she had back in Rio Dulce to see if they can arrange for a lancha to come out to us. They were able to secure a lancha, and told us that they would be out to the point in about an hour and a half. So now all we could do was wait.
The lancha did show up in good time, and within minutes we were on our way to the position where we left Sjelle’s boat. My theory was that the boat was a bit to the east of that position, and either aground close to shore or on the beach. We were really hoping it was aground, because that would make it fairly easy to get her freed up and towed back to where Andiamo was.
Within 10 minutes of leaving Andiamo, we caught site of Sjelle’s boat. It was still floating less than a quarter mile off the beach. But it was actually closer to us than we anticipated. More than likely she caught a countercurrent as she drifted that managed to keep her off the beach and moving west, instead of east with the prevailing current.
As we got closer, we also noticed that there was a lancha tied up to Sjelle’s boat, it looked like it was trying to tow the boat. There was one guy on the lancha, and had one line attached to the stern of sjelle’s boat. When we got there, we told him that the boat was hers, and we were there to retrieve it, and for him to release the boat. Sjelle jumped onboard to check if anything had been taken, and thankfully, the boat had not yet been picked clean. The lancha left in a hurry back to the beach. We then prepared a tow line on the lancha to get the boat taken back. In daylight, it was easy to see just how close to the beach we really were when trying to recover the boat. We really couldn’t get that much closer without running aground somewhere, I think.
As we were towing the boat back around the point, another lancha came alongside, and there was a military policeman onboard. He told the lanchero to stop the boat, and proceeded to question us about everything that happened. After a good 20 minutes or so of checking Sjelle’s papers (whose permit for Guatemala was LONG expired), he let us proceed. We were relieved, because when officials get involved, you have to be ready to expect anything to happen.
We were also relieved to have the boat back in Sjelle’s possession, along with all her stuff onboard. We got the boat back to where Andiamo was anchored, and rafted her up alongside. After that, we proceeded to figure out what to do next, but most of all, just rest and recover. We were exhausted.
After several hours of sleep, we woke up and made some cel calls. We called Luigi, who as always was very helpful. He offered to let Sjelle keep her boat in his creek off Rio Dulce while we figured out what to do next. We had already decided that Sjelle would come aboard Andiamo, and we would sail on to Honduras to at least get some sailing in this season. Maybe make a go for Panama, who knows? It was clear that Sjelle needed a break from her boat, and the Rio Dulce. We do have to secure Sjelle’s boat for the time being, and at the very least try to find a mast so we can get her repaired and operational again down the road. If not in Rio Dulce, then elsewhere.
Fast forward a few days, we are back in Rio Dulce after checking in at Livingston. The officials there were more than gracious enough to give Sjelle a pass for having a permit that expired almost 2 years ago, and for me not actually having checked into Guatemala at all from Honduras yet (remember that I never checked out of Honduras when I left?). So we were both official and legal again, much to my relief.
We are now anchored off Luigi’s house, trying to get Sjelle’s boat squared away, and to locate a mast somewhere here on the river if possible. There are a few prospects, and we hope to nail down a mast soon. We will also build a structure around the damage on Sjelle’s boat to keep her boat dry inside until we get the repair work started on her, which could be several months from now. Sjelle has a friend flying in from Denmark at the end of the month in La Ceiba, so that forces us to get Andiamo out there to get some exterior repair work done, and to meet up with her friend. After that, we’ll do some fun sailing, hopefully to somewhere new and interesting.
Which, trust me, is overdue.
Comment from: Mick [Visitor]
Never a dull moment. Glad to see you got through this one OK. In the process of making plans to bring my boat down to Rio early June for the season. Cheers Mick
2006-03-16 @ 21:07
