16 MArch 2011
Last night was a huge improvement from the night before. The wind settled into the north east and we were bowling along averaging 7knots in a probable 15 to 20knot breeze, and no rain! As John remarked "if the last two days were the only sailing you had ever done you would not do any more"! Time heals and it already has. Just after midnight I caught a glimpse of the Southern Cross. It was the first time since leaving Brazil that I had seen any night sky and curiously enough the only constellation visible. It was as if it had come out especially for my benefit and so reassuring to see that it was still there. I watched it for a full five minutes before once more it became enveloped in a thick blanket of cloud. David gave me some extra hours. I slept soundly.
An early morning visit from a beautiful white- tailed tropic bird seemed a good omen for the day ahead. He looked so graceful with his long tail streaming out behind him. Our next present was the welcome sight of a little bit of blue sky peeping through the clouds and we even had an occasional bout of sunshine. Were we at last emerging from the jaws of the ITCZ? Not a bit of it. Once more the air around us became heavy and oppressive, as the all too familiar ominous gun metal grey clouds on the horizon signalled the approach of another batch of squalls. A big three to four metre swell left over from the previous day's blow was knocking us around but nothing that our girl and this one cannot handle. Time to batten down the hatches again.....
Collision!
This morning on the 9am SSB radio net came the terrible news that Basia, the Canadian flagged catamaran had been in a collision with a ship. They lost the mast and rig. They were lucky not to lose their lives. Graham on Eowyn heard their mayday and issued a mayday relay and requested any yachts in the area to head for their reported position. There was Tucanon, Destiny and Jeannius with Ariane some way behind. Why the ship did not respond is a mystery. In addition to the loss of the mast and rig she was holed on both port and starboard hulls. When Tucanon arrived at the scene they launched their tender and took Mike from Eowyn over who patched the hull with a special epoxy. Also all the yachts transferred all their spare fuel in jerrycans so that they had enough to motor to try to reach Grenada. The boat could not be jury rigged, there was nothing left on the deck! Now, twenty four hours later they are still under way, albeit slowly, managing to control the leak, and being shadowed by Eowyn and Tucanon. They have set up a three hourly SSB contact between them.
On my list, collision at sea is the second worst catastrophe to a yacht. Man overboard comes of course at the top, with fire onboard a close third. Last night I imagine we were all that little bit extra vigilant in keeping a good lookout. Having once had a very close encounter off the coast of south west Portugal crossing the TSS, on a yacht that did not have radar, not ours, David and I realised how vital a piece of equipment it is to have, and we vowed that we would never sail without one. In fact I would say it is essential, especially these days when merchant ships employ fewer people to man the bridge. David and I check the radar every ten to fifteen minutes, we also have AIS overlay on our electronic chart and we still look out over the side. We have never ever relied on AIS. While it is a very useful tool to have aboard we have had several instances where we have seen a ship but have not received their signal. Neither do we trust any ship to keep out of our way or even to see us, in spite of having the SeeMe radar enhancer and a Firdell radar reflector.
In all the poor visibility of the past few days during the frequent squalls, the radar signal of some of our yachts may be very hard to indentify amongst all the sea clutter and that is assuming that the officer on watch is looking at the screen! We certainly NEVER assume that the watch keeper is watching and awake! We are all keeping our fingers crossed and praying that Basia and her crew will reach Grenada in safety. Meanwhile we keep watching and looking.....
Susan Mackay