An unexpected incident saw us turn Hawkeye around in the middle of the night and head to help another ARC yacht which was in distress over 100 miles away, drifting out of control with a jammed rudder.
This wasn't just a rude awakening for the crew – Richard was removing his latest fresh bread from the oven when the Iridium phone came to life with an urgent message - but the temporary loss of the entire ethos so far this voyage of uber-comfortable trade wind sailing, as, suddenly, Hawkeye had to head directly into the wind. Turning into three metre waves, a near gale force apparent wind and a contrary current of up to one knot was extremely unpleasant – but entirely necessary.
Gone were warm sunny days with a gentle breeze over the decks – replaced with all sails furled and motoring with both engines at high speeds of over 6 knots straight into the surfing waves. Hawkeye turned into a bit of a flying machine, launching herself off the tops of waves and sometimes landing with an un-cat-like bump at the bottom. Averaging over 6 knots in such conditions was impressive - and Hawkeye carries enough fuel to endure this for many days if necessary.
Our much beloved and inhabited foredeck hammock was instantly furled away – as the bows erupted into tonnes of sea water drenching Hawkeye from stems to sterns. Some tricky navigation was required to work out the drift of the other yacht, to ensure we ended up in the same part of the ocean at the same time, as well as keeping ARC Rally Control fully updated with progress on both yachts.
Hawkeye is lucky enough to carry a piece of safety equipment called a drogue, which is essentially a massively strong parachute of around 1 metre diameter, which is put into the sea behind the yacht. Using ropes on either port or starboard aft deck cleats a degree of steering can be obtained, which can control the yachts course. We practised using this drogue (although as Hawkeye has twin rudders either of which can control her, its use in practice seems unlikely) as part of our sea trials in Las Palmas before we left the Canaries on the ARC, and also using the much larger sea anchor which is deployed over the bow, so Hawkeye’s crew is familiar with its operation.
Just as Hawkeye approached the other yacht they managed to unjam their rudder, which was quite a remarkable feat - very impressive - and we are now turned back downwind again, phew, and pleasant trade wind sailing has resumed; we will shadow them all the way to St Lucia in case their problem recurs.
We are now exactly 300 miles from the lovely welcome greeting in Rodney Bay Marina from the ARC, which is a welcoming tray of rum punches for the crew.
Providing the yacht we are shadowing doesn’t slow us up too much we should arrive in St Lucia by the end of this weekend.
No doubt the hammock will reappear with the dawn tomorrow.
Team Hawkeye