Sailors tend to be a superstitious bunch and one of those superstitions is that starting a voyage on Friday is very bad luck. We thought of that as we pulled out of Dog River into Mobile Bay on Friday morning. Of course all that superstitious stuff was just silliness, but it is a big ocean out there and to be honest if we had had the option of waiting a day we probably would have. But we had a six day window of good weather in which to make a six day trip so cool rationality won the day. Other than being Friday, it was a beautiful day to start the trip. We had light winds and calm seas as we motored down Mobile Bay. Because the bay is so large, it took us six hours before we came to the last buoy marking the end of the Mobile Ship Channel. Now we were officially in the Gulf. As soon as we cleared the last buoy, we hoisted the sails and shut off the motor. In the light winds the speed soon dropped from the 5 knots that Stap Isi was making under motor to under 3 knots. That simply was not going to do. Because of time constraints we really needed to average 5 knots or about 120 miles a day to make our window. So down came the genoa (a large foresail) and we fired up the motor again. The rest of the afternoon was spent making final preparations for the first night. Kyle ran jacklines from a bow cleat to heavy stern cleats. With harnesses and tethers, these jacklines allowed us to remain tied to the boat at night and in heavy weather. We have a rule that anyone on deck by themselves, at night, or in heavy weather clips onto a jackline. By dusk, the boat was squared away and we were ready for our first night on the Gulf. The winds were still light and we were still motoring. With our fuel on board Stap Isi could make about 450 miles so there was no concern about running out of fuel on this leg. Kathy took the first watch of 6 PM to midnight. Kyle dragged his sleeping bag up on deck and got a few hours sleep while the boat gently rolled and the motor droned. At midnight Kathy went below and Kyle settled in for the midnight to 6 AM shift. There were a million stars and the boat was moving well a over 5 knots. Night watch is a great time to sit and think and pray. A couple times dolphins would come by and swim along with the boat, their presence detectable in the darkness by the splashes when they jumped. It was a beautiful night and a wonderful way to start the journey back to PNG.
A little after midnight the wind started to pick up and we were soon in 10 knots of wind. The seas also picked up to 2-4 feet. Kyle was thinking about raising the genoa again and proceeding under sail but did not want to wake Kathy. (We have another rule that no one goes forward at night without getting the other person up on deck. Our biggest fear is for one of us to wake up one morning alone on the boat.) At 3 AM, though, the quiet of the night was broken by the beeping of an alarm. At first Kyle thought it was the autopilot acting up again. It had stopped working earlier in the day and he had been able to fix it. After a couple of minutes of hitting all the buttons on the autopilot to no avail, he realized the beeping was an engine alarm. He checked the control panel and found the low oil pressure light blinking and beeping. At first this was not a concern. The alarm had gone off one time before while coming down the river and it turned out to be a loose wire. Kyle went down below and checked the connections but the alarm continued. By this time Kathy was on deck and she shut down the engine so Kyle could check the oil. The dip stick came up completely dry. Suddenly it looked like we had a situation. Where would three quarts of oil disappear to? At first there was no evidence of a leak, and the engine had not been smoking excessively. Finally Kyle found oil sprayed on some fittings and it became clear what had happened. The raw water strainer (the device that filters seaweed and debris out of the engine cooling water) had broken off its mount, fallen and punched a hole in the oil filter. At first it did not appear that this would be a big problem. Our biggest concern is that we had run the motor for several minutes after the alarm started sounding before we identified the source. Hopefully the engine was not damaged. We had spare filters and more oil so it should be a simple matter to put on a new filter and refill the crank case. The raw water strainer, however, proved to be another thing entirely. There was no way to secure the heavy brass filter without getting into the battery compartment and removing one or more of the 50 lb deep-cycle batteries. By now the wind and seas were up and the idea of working on the motor while loose batteries galloped around interior of the cabin was not a pleasant prospect. In addition to that, the close work on the engine in the heavier seas had given Kyle a roaring case of sea sickness. So the work on the motor was punctuated by mad dashes to the rail. Finally at about 4:30 AM, Kyle gave up the fight and crawled up to the cockpit, covered himself with the sleeping bag, and tried to get a grip on his stomach. We had left the main sail up and with the better winds the boat was still making 3-4 knots. Kathy kept an eye on things while Kyle tried to recover from the sea sickness. Finally at about 6:30 AM with the sun rising he felt a bit better and was able to tackle the strainer again. But he still could not find a good way to secure it. It was OK just sitting there, but if seas really got heavy there was the potential that it would start banging around in there and damage something else. Finally with nothing else to be done, he positioned the strainer as well as possible, closed up the engine compartment, and went on deck to get the genoa back up. We figured that if we had fairly gentle seas (under 5 feet or so) for the duration of the trip, we could make it Isla Mujeres and make the repairs there. But if it looked like the weather was going to deteriorate it made better sense to return to Mobile for repairs. So our trip all depended on the 1 PM weather briefing we had scheduled with Eric Esbensen at the National Weather Service office in Mobile. He had been watching our weather window for us and would let us know how things looked further south. It was a beautiful day for sailing and the boat was making 5-6 knots under sail alone. The sun was out and it was picture perfect. We enjoyed napping in the cockpit or reading while we waited for 1 PM. Finally Kyle called Eric on the satellite phone and got the briefing. It looked like we were going to soon encounter 20 knot south winds that would continue for a day or so. With those winds we could expect at least 5-7 feet seas and a lot of pounding as we proceeded to windward. That was not the news we had hoped to hear. When Kyle told Eric about our engine problems, he recommended that we abort the trip and return to Mobile. There would be another weather window later on. So 100 miles into the Gulf, we turned the boat around and plotted a course that would take us back to Mobile. The wind vane (a kind of autopilot that works by wind power) was steering the boat and the conditions were great for sailing. During the day the wind continued to strengthen as it slowly veered around to the North.
As dusk approached we squared everything away and got ready for the night. Again Kathy would take the early watch and Kyle the late one. As the wind continued to veer we had to sail closer and closer to the wind in order to make our course. That meant a rougher ride as we beat into the waves. Spray was blowing over the boat and the occasional wave would wash over the bow. Finally the wind shifted to where we had to make a decision. We could either start tacking under sail to maintain our course or we could lower the genoa and start up the motor. We decided to go with the motor so Kyle clipped onto the jack line and carefully moved up to the bow. Kathy lowered the halyard while Kyle wrestled the sail to the deck. With the waves washing over the bow he got the sail down and tied securely to the deck.
The rest of the night was not a comfortable ride. We pounded into the waves with the wind directly on the nose. Kathy went below to try unsuccessfully to get some sleep. It was good to see that the motor was doing well and that it apparently had not been damaged by running with low oil pressure. Finally light began to appear in the east and soon, just as we were approaching the entrance to Mobile Bay we were treated to an absolutely stupendous sunrise.
Entering Mobile Bay we were out of the larger waves. It was a pleasant six hour trip up the ship channel to Dog River. Kathy got out the camera and took a bunch of pictures of lighthouses and fishing boats. Soon the channel markers appeared that indicated the channel into Dog River. We radioed ahead to the marina to inform them we were coming and they were ready to help us get tied up when we arrived. The first order of business was to get the boat squared away. Because of all the spray, everything was coated with salt crystals. So we took the hose and gave the boat a fresh water bath. Then it was time for a hot shower and a rest. Just before dinner, Greg and Gloria, some friends we had met here in Mobile stopped by to invite us out for dinner. After dinner we went to bed and slept for 14 hours. Right now we are working on the boat and waiting for another weather window. It looks like it could be the third week of March before it is safe to try it again. |
