Dear SHTP'ers
In answer to some questions raised on a different Forum:
What WILDFLOWER was doing out there was what she was designed and built for. In this day and age of bigger is better, in 1975, influenced by the stories and my sailing aboard solid little ships like SOPRANINO, TREKKA, SPIRIT, RENEGADE, and JESTER, I decided to build a small, safe, and cost effective performance cruiser. Like many dreamers in those days, I wanted to voyage.
Over the next 34 years, WF and I voyaged over 100K miles around the Pacific Rim, as far south as NZ and far north as AK, including 6 times to Hawaii and return. We regularly sailed together in the Gulf of the Farallones and off Santa Cruz, one of the West Coast's roughest patches of ocean.
Wind speed is not an issue for a well found boat. It is the height, period, and steepness of breaking waves that can damage.
When I left my ship, despite being swept for three days by the tops of cresting and breaking waves I estimated to be upwards of 30-35 feet in height, WILDFLOWER was in one piece. The bilge was dry, the rig and sails intact, the batteries charged, the engine available.
That was one thing that made it such a difficult decision: why leave my home when she was floating and undamaged? It would have been an easier call had we been broken.
WILDFLOWER and I were a strong team together. As I purposely built her with extra layups and thicknesses, stringers, oversize mast and rigging, full skeg, dacron sails, etc. she did exactly what I had hoped: was stronger than I am. I've been sailing all my life (63), racing offshore for 54 of those years, including Fastnets, Hobarts, 28 Transpacs, etc. I know what a broken boat looks like.
Nevertheless, every time I go to sea, I learn something new. GRIB files and QUIKSCAT are not infallible, and predicted windspeeds and direction can be off by as much as 25% . Diffuse wave trains can combine.
For years, I carried a 12' diameter parachute sea anchor, as well as three drogues and tire. What I learned by practicing with the sea anchor during those years: it is wave and boat specific. The sea anchor is better suited in gale and storm conditions for a heavy displacement, full keel, deeper forefoot such as TALEISIN as she makes slow leeway 45 degrees off the wind. For a fin keel half tonner like WILDFLOWER, a parachute sea anchor proved more dangerous in practice than effective.
As we celebrate WILDFLOWER, her legacy will be what we can learn and share with each other. The power of the ocean can be an awesome thing.
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Hi Bob (Johnson,)
You are correct that an above decks tiller pilot is vulnerable. Like you, I had a full length rudder tube, and no intention of cutting that to install a below decks unit.
Nor did I have the power to supply a more robust below decks unit. For 30 years I had always used the SAIL-O-MAT windvane in windspeeds above 10 knots and boatspeeds above 4 knots, where it was very powerful.
It was a new experience for me that the windvane would not steer well under bare poles in a breaking sea. But I did know that the windvane oar would potentially foul a drogue line.
Using my little Auto Helm 1000+ tiller pilot in these conditions was not originally intended. That it steered for three days in these conditions is a real credit to modern technology. Would the tiller pilot have continued to steer for another three days in those conditions? I don't know, and you have hit the crux or possible weakness in my setup.
I don't know the answer to your question for a small boat. POLAR BEAR and others seemed to have robust setups. Maybe someone else can offer their opinion.
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There was no ultimate deciding factor in leaving WILDFLOWER. It was a combination of growing mental and physical fatigue; knowledge that if/when things went south, they would do so in a very short time with little chance of rescue. Also, as mentioned, it was not just my life that was on the line. Our family situation back at home dictated that I not go missing at sea.
If there was one thing that tipped the scales, it was the potential for disaster that would be the result of one of the truly massive waves breaking onto WILDFLOWER in a direct hit, if she were stopped in a broached situation with a compromised tiller pilot. The result would certainly have been either 1) the boat would have been rolled, and if I was on deck, I would have either been washed off to the end of my tether, or drowned while the boat was upside down. And/or 2) the weight and force of the wave crashing onto the boat would have crushed the deck in, as happened to DAISY.
As I half seriously told my partner, the thought of drowning in cold water was not appealing at the time. Better to drown in warm, tropical seas.
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Sailing into the area of a forecast gale certainly takes some confidence and preparation. I had previously been in many gales and storms at sea, including the '79 Fastnet Race storm as skipper of IMP.
In six previous return trips from Hawaii with WILDFLOWER, I had encountered similar gales in the same area I call "Gale Alley." Gale Alley entends approximately from Cape Blanco, Oregon to the Gulf of the Farallones, and westward 300 miles.
As professional weathermen will attest, Gale Alley has the highest incidence of summer gales in the North Pacific Ocean. Why this is so is subject to analysis beyond scope here. Basically, the pressure gradient in Gale Alley is compressed between the East Pacific High and the heat induced low pressure over Central and Southern CA. This steepened gradient can remain for days. And a "jet" of wind and wave is driven southward off the Oregon/California Coast
I felt confident enough in the boat and my abilities to again plan to cross Gale Alley on this return passage. That things were stronger than planned is just one of those things that happen when you go to sea.
The size of boat and number of skilled crew is certainly a factor in successfully weathering conditions like we encountered. A long-standing rule of thumb by those who have run tank tests is that gale generated breaking waves of a height equal to or exceeding the beam of the boat, can roll a boat positioned beam on to such seas. (WILDFLOWER's beam = 9.5 feet)
The breaking seas we encountered caused a stout Robert Perry designed 42 footer to also run off under bare poles. A bit further north, the seas holed and sunk the port ama of DEFIANCE, a well found 45 foot Norm Cross trimaran also returning from Hanalei. They were assisted by the CG and a container ship, and safely made SF.
But size of boat, and crew number and ability, does not guarantee success in weathering gale and storm conditions at sea. The '79 Fastnet Race Storm had waves of similar height and steepness that I was encountering.....In the '79 Fastnet Race, out of 303 well prepared and manned entrants, 100 boats were knocked down 90 degrees. 90 boats were rolled further than 90 degrees. 18 boats were rolled 360 degrees. And 5 boats were held inverted from 30 seconds to 5 minutes.
It was this knowledge of what WILDFLOWER and I were encountering that helped lead to my sobering and heart rending decision. My dear and loving sister would have killed me if I had died at sea.
The water temperature was 62 degrees, plus or minus a degree. If there is a next time, I would also carry a survival suit to supplement the liferaft. WILDLFLOWER's small cabin was already filled with survival equipment, including all ISAF Safety at Sea Category 1 equipment. (4 man liferaft, flares, EPIRB, ditchbag, Iridium Satphone with 500 minutes, inflatable PFD, SSB and ham radio, etc.)
The amount of time that MSC TORONTO diverted off course, and lost during my transfer, was "insignificant," according to Capt. Hruza. We arrived in Long Beach well ahead of schedule.
Apologies for the rambling, but hope these details shed a little more light on our situation.
As a traditional Old Sailor's Prayer says:
From Rocks and Sands
And Every Ill
May God Preserve
The Sailor Still.
~skip
