Log: April 17, 2003—Skipper Rich Wilson

Replacing the Float Switch
More maintenance yesterday afternoon during my off watch. After three days of crashing around, we have a lot of water up forward in the forepeak. I lifted the float switch on the automatic bilge pump to get the pump running—nothing happened. Rich bailed the afternoon before, and so yesterday I found our backup float switch and went forward to wire it in. The bilge pump is wired directly to the batteries, not through the switch panel, so wiring it without shocking myself was the challenge, especially since the forepeak still had water in the bilge, and a film of water over every surface. I put on rubber seaboots and a T-shirt for insulation despite the heat and humidity in there.

As the breeze came up and we went faster, the boat was leaping off waves. I was up in the bow trying to tin the ends of the switch leads and pump leads with solder using my reading glasses and a headlamp. Ninety minutes later, I had the switch installed and it worked. I tried to be tidy, but that will need Brian Harris' final inspection and approval as to whether I did a good enough job!


Excitement on Watch
On the midnight-to-4 a.m. watch I had a problem. I had the jib up and one reef in mainsail, and there was a big cloud coming our way. I rolled up the jib and rolled out the staysail in advance—a good move. I waited a bit as the last part of the cloud passed over. The cloud looked bad, and with the full moon out I could see its edges pretty well, even at 2 a.m. Suddenly I could feel the edge, and I knew I needed to get the #2 reef in the mainsail RIGHT AWAY.

I eased the mainsheet to twist the mainsail (that always takes the load off immediately), but it didn’t seem to have any effect. I eased the sheet some more, and then noticed that the it was not running through the jammer, even though the jammer was open. OH NO! The boat was taking off, with our speed climbing through the teens very rapidly.

I worked the lever on the jammer back and forth, then eased the sheet again—nothing. I winched the sheet in a bit and then opened the lever again to see if that would free it—again nothing. Now the boat was rocketing out of control down the seas. I dove for the traveler to let it out. I knew that would help slow us down, but it wouldn’t completely solve the problem. I got it down a ways, then dove for the halyard and started to let the mainsail down. The sail flapped mightily in the wind and torrential rain, and with the blinding speed of the boat, waves were just rolling down the deck into the cockpit.

I jumped on deck and raced to the mast, tied in the new tack for #2 reef, lurched back down the deck to the cockpit, winched up the main halyard, and started to pull in the #2 reef line. I got it in and under control, and by this time the boat’s speed had slowed to 10-14 knots. I climbed onto the boom and crawled out to the end to snap in the safety (this is a maneuver that is reasonably safe, but it looks deadly to landlubbers: hanging off the end of the boom, in the middle of the night with the boat rocketing along and spray flying. Still, one slip and ….well we don’t talk about it too much). Got the safety clipped in, then climbed back into the cockpit. The squall had spent itself by now. Went to get WD-40 lubricant and a hammer, sprayed a ton of lubricant into the jammer, gave it a few good whacks, worked the lever, and finally got it to open. Did same with main halyard winch. We’ll move the mainsheet to another jammer.

Rumor has it that Captain Waterman used to padlock his sheets so his officers and crew wouldn't take sail down when he slept. Having that mainsheet stuck like that was a nightmare. There was too much sail up, and I couldn't control it. It was very scary.