Passage back to the USA … and the Tale of the “Aunt T” … Monday 28th May – Friday 1st June 2018

Passage back to the USA   …   and the Tale of the “Aunt T” …  Monday 28^th May – Friday 1^st June 2018

We are happy to report that we made it safely back to the USA and that this is one passage that we’ll remember with (mostly) fond memories!

We had been monitoring a number of weather sources very carefully in order to pick a decent weather window between Alberto moving north and a possible low pressure system moving in later in the week. On Monday and Tuesday the Gulf Stream was still likely to be rough after the storm, but was due to be settled by Wednesday morning. So we decided to use those days to make progress across the Little Bahamas bank and position ourselves to jump off-shore. We left Green Turtle Club Marina at 8am on Monday morning and had a good sail up to an anchorage behind Crab Cay about 20 miles to the north. We had stayed here in 2013 when Gloria’s brother Paul joined us on the passage from Lake Worth to Marsh Harbor. On that trip the anchorage was dead flat calm. This time it couldn’t have been more different with the winds still blowing steadily at 20 knots from the south-east. Tuesday again brought fine sailing as we made our way to Great Sale Key about 35 miles to the north west. We anchored at about 1pm on the northern side of the island to get protection from the wind and waves and then spent the afternoon eating and resting in preparation for an early evening departure across the banks. We did get in a last quick swim, which felt marvelous, if a little bumpy!

When 6pm rolled around the skies were still looking threatening and we could hear thunder in the distance, but we decided to trust in the forecasts that improvements were imminent and pulled up the anchor and headed west. Our plan was sail 50 miles to the Matanilla shoals at the north-west edge of the Little Bahamas bank and then head off-shore to deep water in the early morning. From this point it would only be about 15 miles to the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream and we hoped to ride it all the way to North Carolina and make landfall at the Cape Fear River inlet.

Basically, that’s exactly what happened. The first night across the banks was a little choppy but fairly comfortable. We had already crossed into deeper water by the time the sun came up on Wednesday. As we headed north-west it was obvious when we entered the Gulf Stream as our course over the ground started to deviate to a more northerly direction and our speed accelerated. We keep a hourly log which includes our average speed for the previous hour and for 30 consecutive hours we logged average speeds between 9.5 and 10.8 knots over the ground. It was awesome progress! On the whole the conditions were reasonably comfortable on Wednesday, although we still saw some squalls. During the night on Wednesday the winds started to drop and we did some motor sailing and then on Thursday morning it poured down. It was still raining when Gloria arrived up in the cockpit … just as the engine died. I switched out the water separator and replaced the fuel filter but still couldn’t get the engine re-started and we suspected some tar-like crap was clogging the lines. By disconnecting the diesel hoses and blowing down them I was able to get them clear and with much effort manually pumping the lift-pump we were able to clear air from the lines and get the engine re-started, which was a huge relief. (There is no doubt that we need to get our diesel tanks cleaned. I have done this before on two occasions by emptying the contents and wiping out the muck by hand. The problem is that the tanks are baffled and you can’t access much of the interior surfaces. I may need to bight the bullet and fork out $s for a professional fuel polishing, where they use pressure hoses to stir up the dirt and suck out all the diesel and filter it.) Anyway, by this point I was soaking from the rain and filthy from the engine work … not a pretty sight! It turns out we didn’t need to motor much more as the wind filled in and became pretty steady out of the south-west. Around this time that the Gulf-Stream became a lot bumpier and we started to go through sections of “meringue – like” waves, short and steep with whitecaps everywhere. It was somewhat unnerving and we decided the time had come to make our break from the Gulf-Stream and head direct to the Cape Fear inlet. It’s hard to leave behind 2-4 knots of beneficial current but when it’s no longer taking you in the right direction it’s no longer beneficial!

Thursday night was memorable in so many ways. It was night three of our passage and we were all tired. We had cut out of the Gulf Stream in the middle of the afternoon with the expectation of calmer waters. Indeed the afternoon was pretty mellow and we caught a Mahi-Mahi that we cooked up for dinner. But by sunset the seas were seriously bumpy. There seemed to be two distinct wave directions that were causing confusion, but the dominant direction was from our stern quarter and every so often a bigger set would roll through and cause the boat to roll violently. We were seriously concerned we might bury the end of the boom on the leeward side and this contributed to our decision to put a reef in the main – helping to lift the boom a little. We spent the night holding on tight, watching distant lightening and trying to catch at least some sleep. At one point I dozed off in the cockpit whilst sitting across from Gloria who was on watch behind the wheel. A large wave hit the side of the boat and just as I startled awake I was thrown across the cockpit seat into Gloria’s side. Thankfully she wasn’t injured. It reinforced why it is that we wear harnesses and clip in with tethers to the boat. But if we thought we were having a bad night, we were about to realize that others had it much worse. Just before midnight we picked up the first of a long sequence of VHF radio messages that painted a horrifying, yet fascinating story that was unfolding thirty miles to the north of us, directly on our path. I’ll try and lay it out as bullet points to emphasize how the radio messages fleshed out the events.

•       US Coast Guard tries to contact “Aunt T” four times in rapid succession on the hailing / emergency channel 16  (unusual)
•       USCG calls sailing vessel “Entitled”, which they believe is in the same vicinity, and asks them to call “Aunt T”. No success.
•       USCG informs “Entitled” that they received an EPIRB alert from their exact location and asks them to confirm that this is not their EPIRB incorrectly registered to another user. It is not. (EPIRB = emergency position indicating radio beacon that sends a satellite message to USCG)
•       USCG send out a pan-pan message to all vessels and informs “Entitled” that they have information that a small fishing boat, “Aunt T”, was struck by a large cargo ship and sunk and that three crew members have evacuated to a life raft. They provide coordinates and request “Entitled” to go the location and look for the life-raft.
•       Whilst “Entitled” is on route, USCG radios “Maersk Weymouth” and informs them they are reported to have hit and sunk a small fishing vessel. “Maersk Weymouth” are blissfully unaware of any problems and deny that this happened. After private discussions by telephone with USCG they agree to turn around and provide support as needed.
•       Once “Entitled” arrives at the coordinates provided, USCG reveals that the three shipwrecked crew-members have a satellite phone with them and can communicate directly with rescue services. USCG instructs them to fire off a flare to help “Entitled” find them. It turns out the life-raft has drifted from it’s original location but “Entitled” sees the flares and is able to meet up.
•       A helicopter and a rescue boat have already been dispatched and when it becomes clear that one of the crew members has been injured they decide to evacuate all three by helicopter. We gather they dropped a “swimmer” just like you see in films and on TV.
•       “Entitled” radios status updates to USCG and once the rescue is complete USCG asks if “Entitled” can recover the life-raft. He graciously declines and for the first time reveals that he is in fact on his own, single handed and emphasizes how bumpy the seas are. He does agree to wait around and lead the USCG boat to the abandoned raft.
•       USCG radios “Maersk Weymouth” and informs them they are free to proceed on their planned journey (to Warsaw) and they promise to be in touch.

We listened to this story unfold in real time with all the uncertainties around the situation and challenges of VHF radio communication. We were 30 miles south of the location and heading in the right direction, but it would have taken us 5 hours or so to get there. When all was said and done we could see the AIS beacon for “Maersk Weymouth” departing eastwards. We have several reactions. Being hit by another boat is the stuff of nightmares.  It is only fair that we acknowledge we don’t know how this incident arose – we only heard the radio calls that followed. There most certainly will be an enquiry. In particular, AIS (automatic identification system) is fantastic – it make you really visible to other vessels and when a ship is bearing down you can call them by name on the radio and discuss who’s going to do what. Did “Aunt T” have AIS? What was happening on the bridge of "Maersk Weymouth"? How come they never saw anything? Were "Aunt T" lights working properly? Did she call “Maersk Weymouth”? In any event it must have been a horrific experience for the crew on "Aunt T". The fact that they had a life raft, EPIRB and Satellite phone meant that they were rescued within an hour or so of abandoning ship, which is incredible. The USCG were impressive and did a great job coordinating. The captain of “Entitled” was amazing. If I am ever in that position I hope I can be as calm, collected and resourceful as he was … and he did it all whilst sailing his boat single-handed.

So these are the tales from our passage. Once we left Great Sale we covered 500 nautical miles in 65 hours for an average of 7.7 knots. We arrived at Cape Fear inlet about 9 am on Friday and after some telephone calls to US Customs and Immigration we headed up to a dock at Deep Point Marina near Southport. We were so happy to be there and the border patrol guy came and inspected us. This went fine except he confiscated all our fresh fruit, which was a bummer. We spent the rest of Friday hanging out, relaxing, eating and drinking. In the evening we tried watching a DVD borrowed from the marina, but we fell asleep and gave up! It’s fair to say we were all happy but a very tired!

Rod has promised write up a “guest blog” of his impressions – so watch this space!

Rod hand steering on the "banks" ... he's really good at this!

Squalls and T-storms are all around as we leave Great Sale Cay - but they do clear out

Dramatic skies out in the Gulf-Stream

Self-portrait - Mike on watch on Wednesday night

It was an amazing moonrise on Wednesday night - it seemed so bright but not enough to get an un-blurred photo

Cockpit of Cotinga at night

Cotinga motoring at night - we took the sail down at this point because it was flogging so badly in teh light winds Wednesday night

Abstract - cotinga at night - blue = chart plotter, pink / purple = instrument gauges, green = autopilot control

Abstract - cotinga at night - blue = chart plotter, pink / purple = instrument gauges, green = autopilot control

Mahi-Mahi on Wednesday afternoon - we cooked it with ginger, lime and butter - delicious!

Sunset Wednesday night

Sunrise Thursday morning