Home News Dis-moi oui, Andy!

Dis-moi oui, Andy!

Friday, 25 May 2007

Official News Finally! I made contact with Andy at midnight my time, in the Rocky Mountains; 08:00 local time south of Les Sables, en route to La Rochelle. He was idling in light winds about 24 miles from La Rochelle, and as we talked, the wind picked up and got him going back up to about 5 knots. He hopes he will catch high tide, to facilitate entry into the harbor by late this afternoon (Friday). Andy is okay, and his problems were electrical. Andy will post a more detailed and precise "race" ("cruise") report later, but he related to me that in his 2d day of sailing, he noticed he was not getting any battery recharge;  his solar panels were functioning but the units that take the voltage from the panel to the battery were not working.  In spite of his efforts to trouble-shoot and repair them, it was beyond what he could do on the boat.  He decided to carry on, using his autopilot and instruments less than planned, and was enjoying fairly smooth conditions. Late Wednesday, however, he encountered what he described as a bizarre and difficult set of storm conditions in fair weather, apparently a function of "gradient winds" that pushed close to 30 knots while rendering the sea a choppy mess.  Andy descried the waves as chaotic and mountainous, impossible to sail cleanly through.  During this time the autopilot failed, as Andy had to rely on it to try to secure two broken lashings, worried that without them his mast could come down.  By the time he returned to the cockpit, he noticed that the tiller had essentially locked itself into position on one side, unable to cope with the turbulent waves, and had subsequently burned out the motor.  He attempted to hook up a backup, which also failed.  After all of that, Andy was still contemplating pressing on -- knowing he would probably run out of electrical power during the last two days of the cruise, and knowing he would be sailing with no autopilot.  However, as he remarked, "prudence is the better part of valor."  Indeed; as we climbers say when retreat is necessary, "live to climb again."  Given that he was going to be sailing near coastal areas, in heavy and changing currents, and shipping lanes, as well as land hazards, he decided it would not be prudent (or valorous) to press on, and made the painful decision to turn back, as we have seen on the iBoat tacking site.  From that point on, for about 38 hours, he has had almost no sleep.  For just the first two or three hours after turning around Thursday morning, he had a favorable wind that allowed him to lock the tiller and get a nap; however, after that time, he has had to hand sail all the way back. His mood was about as good as one could expect at this time, et, comme dans la chanson, << Andy a toujours évité les ennuis >>.  We will soon hear more from him, no doubt.  --  CSA

 

< Prev		Next >