What just happened?
The plan. Sail from Cadaques, Spain to La Ciotat, France. A 128 nautical mile sail
that is by nature, challenging. This area is known for a wind pattern referred to
as the Mistral. High and low pressure cells converge and the wind that is
generated is funneled south through the Pyrenees mountain range and the Alps. As
the wind is cooled by the mountains it increases in density and begins to fall
and build in momentum creating sustained periods of heavy wind,
regularly around 40 knots and, in times, exceeding over 75 knots. The Mistral is a
strong, cold, and gust ridden phenomenon that has been around since the beginning
of time.
It's a type 5 PFD so once it's underwater it'll self inflate. If it
doesn't inflate whenever it's underwater you pull this tab here. We got a d-ring
you could use for a leash if you need to, otherwise it should fit nice and snug
and comfortably and you should feel secure.
Like a professional. *laughter* Sweet.
This is a harness with a tether on it. You got where it comes together to make a T.
That's gonna go down on your back and then you got the shoulder straps like so.
This strap here you can use to make a jack line. Already got one set up. What a
jack line is is a jack line it's just a secure line that runs the length of the
boat so you can clip in your tether to and around the mast
and you would obviously have on over this your PFD. As we were preparing to
make way the forecast look to be sustained 25 to 35 knot wind right on the beam.
So Jackson, you'll head up into the wind. I'll raise the main sail. Tara will ease the main sheet.
And then, ugh, we've got two reefs in the main sail already.
Jackson braved the helm for the first portion of the sail and we were moving well.
Around 10 hours in we were visited.
Our naivete led us to believe this was a 'good omen'. The wind grew.
What just happened?
The brackets broke. No... The brackets broke?
The brackets holding the davits on the transom both sheared.
Davits were flexing heavily as it was only held on by a few bolts in the cockpit.
Quickly I tried to devise a solution to relieve the pressure.
The first thing I tried was to tie the davits to the backstay.
Quickly realizing the futility of this idea I remembered that
we used the main halyard to hoist the davits onto the boat.
I would use the main halyard to support the davits.
I tied a rolling hitch and began to tension the halyard.
The stress was relieved, but there were many things that I was uncertain about.
This is where, I believe, that I began to make a series of mistakes that turned this
mishap into a catastrophe.
I feared that the continued beating we were about to
take from the remaining 60 miles would be too much for the already weakened
davits. So I chose to lower the dinghy into the water and tow it behind
thinking it would be safer afloat than swinging like a pendulum. In a hurry, we
lowered the dinghy, failing to remove the redundancy line that secured the dinghy
to the davits. Now with too much tension on them the only option was to cut the line.
Many mistakes were made since Cadaques, but a clear rookie mistake was that I
had elected to leave the outboard motor in the dinghy strapped to its sole.
The dinghy was made fast to the port stern cleat and we resumed sailing on a port tack.
Secured to the windward side of the boat, the towing line began agitating
the broken davit leg against the hull.
I gave the dinghy more slack in hopes that it would alleviate the pressure. As I did
this the stern line that was used to lift the dinghy was made fast to the
starboard stern cleat as a loose redundant line. This line then became
taut and the dinghy was being dragged broadside behind us.
Loosen the one on the starboard side. The starboard stern cleat. The starboard stern cleat? What about it?
Loosen it!
Just as I saw in my mind moments before it happened the starboard side of the dinghy dove and
it filled with water and it violently capsized it.
This is the only footage we have of that event.
Loose the cleat!