This was our first big multi-night passage with only the two of us aboard. We’ve done overnights and they go fine though we are usually VERY tired at the end b/c no one sleeps well for the first night or two of a long passage. There is no time to get into any sort of a rhythm in such a short time. For a week prior we had run multiple Predict Wind models and routes right up to our departure day where there appeared to be a good window for passing lest we be stuck for another week or two in the USVI so we planned to make a jump despite there being a small iffy period on day 2. The forecast predicted a semi-calm first day with 15-18 kts of wind and 1-2 meter seas on the beam with seas and winds building into the 2nd day to 20+ kts with 2-3m waves on the stern quarter. Big but from behind, comfortable. The last days plus predicted to calm significantly as we complete the trip. Uncomfortable for a stretch perhaps, but shouldn’t be anything scary. Lesson learned! Let’s just say we did not make it through the passage with our boat fully intact.
Well That Escalated Quickly…
We headed out on an expectedly nice afternoon with about 15-18 kts of wind in one meter following seas. We had our first reef in the main and the jib out. We were cruising happily along at about 5-6 kts.
Historical side note : A first reef is really our only “full main” option at this point since all the battens below the first reef all snapped and the sail was sliced into by the reef line when we took a reef crossing the Atlantic (serious design flaw). Funny thing about that…the rig we had a 72’ mast, so our first reef is about the size of a normal main sail on the factory standard 65’ mast, so still PLENTY OF SAIL. (Or WAY too much.)
Up to this point the forecast is fairly accurate… Mother Nature, however doesn’t always abide to Predict[ed] Wind forecasts. As the sun rose on day 2…We ended up in some very angry larger seas (3-4m waves), gusty winds (20-28 kts). What followed was a day day of hand steering and good soakings. Our autopilot could not keep up with the steep ways so we would drive up and over the waves to keep our down wave surfing to a minimum…seeing up to 15 kts speed through the water on our way down the face. Uncomfortable and unnerving to say the least. It was scary at times…2 big rogue waves in particular crashed over the starboard aft quarter crating a good massive salt water wave covering everything on the back deck including soaking both of us. It was one of these and/or a strong gust that sadly took one of our new seat cushions with it. Replaceable but frustrating! Rookie mistake…we now take all cushions in when doing “exciting” crossings.
When Things Go Boom!
A few hours past noon, as we were exhausted contemplating the long night of hand steering and no sleep ahead of us if this continued, Kevin was at the helm finding a good course that the autopilot will hold, hopefully giving us a break now as the seas calmed and moved to large but steady rollers. I took a break and laid down in the saloon to rest after my last battle at the helm. 15 minutes in, I heard what sounded like a massive explosion. Leaping up to run out fearing something on the rig finally massively gave up with the cascading effect damaging the boat in it’s path. Kevin sitting calmly, albeit soaking wet, was surprised by my exasperation that something was seriously wrong. He said “it was just another big wave slamming into the beam again” having not heard anything in the howling wind. Uh oh… it was inside?! I ran down to look. One quick step down into the starboard hull revealed all…the shower door frame had shattered into a million pieces. Fun. Somehow the door lay tilted in the shower in one piece but there was safety glass scattered EVERYWHERE. Ugh, and we just got that toilet working again! Maybe the shower was feeling left out?! Now it’s a fun game of small white glass pieces around the boat… is it salt from the waves or glass from the shower.
A few hours past noon, as we were exhausted contemplating the long night of hand steering and no sleep ahead of us if this continued, Kevin was at the helm finding a good course that the autopilot will hold, hopefully giving us a break now as the seas calmed and moved to large but steady rollers. I took a break and laid down in the saloon to rest after my last battle at the helm. 15 minutes in, I heard what sounded like a massive explosion. Leaping up to run out fearing something on the rig finally massively gave up with the cascading effect damaging the boat in it’s path. Kevin sitting calmly, albeit soaking wet, was surprised by my exasperation that something was seriously wrong. He said “it was just another big wave slamming into the beam again” having not heard anything in the howling wind. Uh oh… it was inside?! I ran down to look. One quick step down into the starboard hull revealed all…the shower door frame had shattered into a million pieces. Fun. Somehow the door lay tilted in the shower in one piece but there was safety glass scattered EVERYWHERE. Ugh, and we just got that toilet working again! Maybe the shower was feeling left out?! Now it’s a fun game of small white glass pieces around the boat… is it salt from the waves or glass from the shower.
Once we got to Gran Turk and were able to do forensics and talk to other Vision owners, we believe the problem was the upper hinges holding the glass were not secured tightly enough and therefore the flex caused by the bigger waves hitting the side of the hull caused vibrations that eventually led to the glass shattering. Have a better theory? We’d love to hear it. No other Vision has suffered such a fate. Lucky us?
So what we thought would be a slightly uncomfortable sail at start the trip had turned into a very sleepless first 36 hours as we dealt with rain, crazy wind gusts and regular 4m fairly steep with occasional breaking waves. Thankfully, overnight as we took turns “napping”, the wind and the sea state calmed and while still bigger than expected it was now a nice steady roll vice steep and choppy moving slowly behind us.
But Wait! There’s more…
Now that we had day light again on day 3 and were able to get around the boat to check on everything, we noticed our already deteriorating sails did not love the high gusty winds an constant sea spray. Our main is on its last leg with a reef line, our last great hope, which Kevin had to climb up and tie off (again) in these heavy seas. Not a comfortable or particularly safe evolution even after we took ever possible precaution. And our poor Jib was in questionable shape being that we could see daylight through a vast majority of the sail itself. So we pulled it down and applied several “bandaids.”
[yet another] Historical side note; Our sails were made of a aramid/carbon blend laminated sail material; So, basically racing sails. Very pretty but not very durable and/or designed for a cruising sailboat. These sails would normally would be taken off a boat and stored properly once a day’s race was complete. So as you can imagine, a cruising boat sitting in the Mediterranean sun full time…well let’s just say it was another not bright idea by our investor/seller pair and a huge [expensive] lesson learned for us, they were already showing signs rapid degradation even as we attempted to “baby” them the past few months. Back in Valencia, Spain, before we embarked on this crazy trip, we had a Quantum sails rep over to look over the sails before we left. When they saw our sails their exact comment was “it’ll make it across the Atlantic, but I doubt not much more.” [super…]
Conversations with North Sails S. Africa, had already begun to outfit replacements for our new factory spec Sparcraft rig we ordered during the crossing. Hopefully both rig and sails will meet us in Fort Lauderdale, Florida upon our arrival in May. For now…come on guys, we just need about 700 more miles! Living on borrowed time already according the sail experts! In order to make that happen we did a little arts and crafts with our sail tape. I think we did a pretty good job. We’ll see how the next 500 miles go.
The remainder of the trip went fairly uneventful with the last day being almost champagne sailing. It can’t always be sunshine and rainbows out here… but we’ve had plenty of both of those on this trip too 🙂 The winds were still pushing us along much faster than expected. We were absolutely flying along averaging 9-10 kts. We’d planned for 6-7 kts. We actually kept removing sail to slow us down ending up with only our small jib out and we still showed up off the coast of Gran Turk at 2 am vice mid-morning as planned. Since we were already tired and cranky, we pulled the sails down and literally drifted back and forth until the sun rose.
UP NEXT: Turks & Caicos: The most beautiful water we’ve ever seen ????
428 NM and 66 hours later, we dropped anchor. Finally. Once safe and sound, anchored in, cleaned up and a LONG nap…it was time to get us checked in and go exploring! This island is both new (Gran Turk) & been there done that for me (Provo), but these types of stops where are surrounded by gorgeous blue water and island life are what makes those painful sails worth it!