And then the Wheel Fell Off
Literally. While I was on the helm in 35-40 knot winds at 11pm last
night the steering wheel fell off the boat. It had been coming loose
for the last couple of days but we had managed to tighten it each time.
This time it just kept getting looser and came off. This of course happened during the peak of the storm that we'd been
anticipating for the last couple of days. To give a sense of what the
conditions were like, when we went on deck for the watch, Pete warned us
to be extra vigilant about staying clipped on at all times, because with
the wind and rain and waves in pitch black, "if you go overboard
tonight, you're dead". After the wheel came off, the boat turned into the wind, which made the
apparent wind much stronger, something like 45 knots. We got out the
emergency tiller and three of us held onto that to keep the boat from
swinging all over the place while the rest of the crew lashed down the
now-disconnected steering wheel and struggled with getting the mainsail
down. On top of that the staysail halyard broke and the sail went into
the water and had to be brought back onboard. All in all it took a
couple of hours to get the boat to the point where it was moving slowly
but steadily in the wrong direction. Since then we've rigged up the emergency tiller so that it's steered
from two winches, each manned by two people. One person stands where
the wheel used to be, calling out "starboard" or "port" and then the
people on the winches grind or ease to move the tiller to one side or
the other. With this arrangement we're only currently able to fly the
staysail, so we're going a good deal slower with just one of the three
sails. On top of this it's cold and rainy. On our watches we're
rotating people through the mind and body numbing positions of sitting
in the rain for a couple hours while acting like a machine. I now know
what it feels like to be a powered winch. Good times. We're going to be in most likely a couple days later, but are
technically still racing. About a thousand miles to go on emergency
steering.
night the steering wheel fell off the boat. It had been coming loose
for the last couple of days but we had managed to tighten it each time.
This time it just kept getting looser and came off. This of course happened during the peak of the storm that we'd been
anticipating for the last couple of days. To give a sense of what the
conditions were like, when we went on deck for the watch, Pete warned us
to be extra vigilant about staying clipped on at all times, because with
the wind and rain and waves in pitch black, "if you go overboard
tonight, you're dead". After the wheel came off, the boat turned into the wind, which made the
apparent wind much stronger, something like 45 knots. We got out the
emergency tiller and three of us held onto that to keep the boat from
swinging all over the place while the rest of the crew lashed down the
now-disconnected steering wheel and struggled with getting the mainsail
down. On top of that the staysail halyard broke and the sail went into
the water and had to be brought back onboard. All in all it took a
couple of hours to get the boat to the point where it was moving slowly
but steadily in the wrong direction. Since then we've rigged up the emergency tiller so that it's steered
from two winches, each manned by two people. One person stands where
the wheel used to be, calling out "starboard" or "port" and then the
people on the winches grind or ease to move the tiller to one side or
the other. With this arrangement we're only currently able to fly the
staysail, so we're going a good deal slower with just one of the three
sails. On top of this it's cold and rainy. On our watches we're
rotating people through the mind and body numbing positions of sitting
in the rain for a couple hours while acting like a machine. I now know
what it feels like to be a powered winch. Good times. We're going to be in most likely a couple days later, but are
technically still racing. About a thousand miles to go on emergency
steering.
