Rivendell - Log 3: "Murphy's Law"

27 Nov 2012
In America we have a saying - that if it's going to go wrong, it will go
wrong (Murphy's Law). It was a beautiful day, it was very crowded as the
boats readied themselves for the start. A passing British racing yacht -
one of the ladies aboard shouted out "God bless the United States" we had a
great start - I was surprised we led the fleet out of the start out into the
Atlantic - we even were way ahead of the catamarans. At one point we were
hitting 13.4 knots - Rivendell has a huge rig and despite that we weigh 49
tons - it powers her well. Then it happened - a huge rouge wave that
engulfed the entire boat. Schaefer was waist deep, I was down below getting
ready to inspect the engine room and enter data into our ship's log which we
do every hour and a half. For a minute all I could see was water. It
appeared that our deck was under water - the sky was not visible. The force
of the wave had popped open the latch to our lazerette (the rear storage
compartment) we took on a fair amount of water and our emergency alarms went
off. We focused immediately on securing the hatch - we knew we weren't
sinking, but the alarm would not go off. Then we noticed a rip in the sail
- there was a rip on the seam about two feet (a bit less than a metre) that
would only get worse. So Ben (our skipper) sent Miles, Ian, and Beau to
shorten the sail and reef it in. All the time the alarn for too much water
in the bilge would not go off. We immediately realized that we could not
continue on to St Lucia with the damage to the sail, it would only get
worse. So we began heading into a port on the south of the island. Ben had
telephoned ahead and had a sailmaker waiting for us at the dock. So we tied
up and began the difficult task of taking the sail off the mast and boom.
We got it on the pier in front of a local inn and restaurant, folded it and
then all eight of us carried to the sailmaker's truck. Ben and Andy went
with the sailmaker because he needed help off-loading the sail when he got
back to the sail loft. Taryn went down the street and brought pizzas and
beer at about 10 pm for a late night snack. So ends our first day of
sailing. All week we have had great service and help from Oyster, they saw
that we had pulled into Puerto de Mogan (yes they are watching our "Yellow
Brick" too) and immediately offered assistance. Their service and attention
to detail has been second to none. I guess you could say - it might be
Schaefer's yacht, but they built it, and feel responsible for the owner
getting the maximum enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately everything is in the
hands of the sailmaker.
Cheers!



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