Blaine2Maine Achieves Adventure Status
Yvon Chouinard, Yosemite big wall climbing pioneer, alpinist and the founder of Black Diamond Equipment and Patagonia, is attributed to one of my favorite quotes: "It's not an adventure until something goes wrong."
On February 7, Blaine2Maine officially became an adventure.
We had successfully completed our Panama Canal transit on 2/4 and spent the next two days at Shelter Bay Marina, which is the only marina at the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal. For two days we checked through a list of boat tasks in preparation for our next destination, the San Blas Islands.
Our original plan had been to haul out at Shelter Bay to inspect and maintain Traveler's hull below water line. However, plans changed when Bill, who had flown in from Homer, Alaska to help us as a line handler, was able to make arrangements to stay several days longer, enticed by our suggestion of delaying the haul-out to Cartagena, Colombia so that we could all enjoy sailing the San Blas Islands together.
So, on the morning of 2/7, we were all looking forward to motoring out of the marina, crossing the Panama Canal shipping lanes, raising sails and heading for San Blas.
We made our way past the breakwater and began evaluating our sailing options. The waves were choppy and the wind was coming from the same direction as our preferred heading. As we discussed our best options for navigating a course that would require tacking through a maze of anchored cargo ships, we continued to motor in order to gain a more comfortable distance from the shipping lanes and a pair of tanker ships that were exiting the canal in our direction. This brief, anxious moment suddenly turned into an adventure.
(Insert your best impression of a high-pitched, rapidly increasing engine RPM sound here).
However accurate your impression may be, it's never a good sound. We lost our forward motion as the racing engine demanded to be pulled back to idle. Ned eased the throttle to neutral as I ran down below to open the engine compartment and diagnose what the problem may be.
The tanker ships continued on course, looming larger by the minute.
From the engine compartment, I could see that the driveshaft coupling was responding appropriately to forward and reverse, but the propeller driveshaft itself was not spinning in either direction. We had lost the ability for engine propulsion. The "drip rate" of incoming water at the propeller shaft thru-hull was also increasing.
The tanker ships kept coming.
With an increased heart rate and my head still in the engine compartment, I was realizing that there was not going to be a diagnosis and repair that could outpace the approaching ships.
Meanwhile, up on deck, a flurry of well-directed and well-orchestrated activity was unfolding. Bill made a distress call on the handheld VHF radio, alerting ships and other boats of our circumstance. Lisa ran to the foredeck to begin the process of raising sails. Ned, Lisa and Bill managed halyards and sheet lines in what appeared to be record time. When I emerged from below, Ice-in-his-veins Ned appeared calm at the tiller. The sails had been raised and Traveler was sailing in the opposite direction from which she had been headed when I first went below.
I could see that we were headed in the right direction for a return to the security of the interior breakwater; however, I could also see the smaller font on the bow of the LPG tanker ship that was quickly approaching us! The challenge was to thread the needle under slow sail in choppy seas between two ships while also staying far enough left to avoid the waves that were crashing against the inside edge of the breakwater. The angle seemed questionable at best.
Crew: "Do you think we should jibe to port?"
Ned: "No, I think we will make it."
The tanker ship clearance continues to close in.
"Maybe we should jibe to port."
A puff of wind blows from starboard.
"Wait, I think we can make it."
We did.
We slowly sailed back inside the breakwater, got to the edge of the channel, found 30' of water and dropped anchor. Eventually, two dinghy pilots emerged from the marina. With one dinghy tied to starboard and the other to port, we were ushered back into Shelter Bay and guided directly under the travel lift.
We are now living "on the hard" while we complete boat tasks, attend to bottom paint and await a new cutlass bearing to assist our repair. What we know is that both set screws on the propeller shaft coupling sheared and the cutlass bearing near the propeller spun free.
In some ways, if feels as if this circumstance has elevated our status to true sailors. Although we would have never dared to say such a thing out loud, it would have been hard to imagine a 7,500-mile sailing trip without the need for a repair along the way. It seems that everyone we meet has a break-down story, and now we've officially joined the club.
We've also discovered the breadth and kindness of the cruising community. The desire and willingness to help crosses cultures and language. While the availability of parts are limited and timely shipping a challenge, the offers of assistance have been plentiful. For one project, Nate and Nina on Poppycock offered the use of their drill press, miter saw and table saw - and they live on a sailboat!
Bill left for Colorado after thanking us for a great 30 minutes of sailing. Hopefully, our replacement parts will be arriving this Tuesday and Ned, Lisa and I will be able to complete repairs and be under way again soon. Our plans remain to head northeast with a couple stops in the San Blas Islands before making our way to Cartagena and Santa Marta, Columbia.
As always, thanks for following us. We're hoping that the next few posts will be boring stories about fair winds and following seas!
I appreciate your framing of this experience as propelling you into adventure status. And I sense the trust you had in one another in that moment of anxiety. Beautiful writing also. Thanks for continuing to share the adventure with us!
Wow. Sounds very intense! Never gave it much thought on having mechanical problems. I guess second adventures begin. My crew home from Jamaica. Happy sailing again soon.