Why to Check those Stays and Shrouds !

[MitchM]

outside online just posted a horrific story of 'survival at sea'. check it out at

How a Shipwrecked Crew Survived 10 Days Lost at Sea

The story of how three crewmen lived more than a week in the middle of the Pacific in a wrecked sailboat with almost nothing

www.outsideonline.com

i know what my 1st task at haul in is gonna be.

 

[ggrizzard]

I don't know...
Get more waterproof flashlights Mitch?

 

[capta]

10 days? That's hardly noteworthy.
Try 38 (Survive the Savage Sea) or even 117 (117 Days Adrift) in life rafts, not a boat, real stories of survival. I don't buy how either got into the survival situation, but once in the life rafts, I believe both stories are pretty factual.
However, the best is "Once is Enough" by Miles Smeeton, IMO. Having read it, what I learned saved our lives after capsizing in a hurricane at sea.

 

[jssailem]

the best is "Once is Enough" by Miles Smeeton,

And he did it twice. What is with that?

 

[Michael Davis]

And he did it twice. What is with that?

Being British, he had to make sure!

 

[jssailem]

 

[PaulK]

Get a radio that gives weather reports?
Tie down your batteries?
Make sure you have 4-weeks of food for a 4-week trip?
Turn your faucets off before you capsize?
Don’t use earplugs off-watch so you can hear what’s happening on deck?
They were lucky they didn’t lose anybody overboard, but it seems they were all sleeping below when the mast went. We had a lower shroud fall to the deck off Arcachon after cruising transatlantic, up the Irish coast, around the Hebrides, and down to France. The rig had been dye-tested before our departure, but the upper end fitting obviously fatigued and failed. We had people on watch and were able to use a halyard to support the mast and get us into Arcachon, where we got a new shroud. Our skipper believed in what he called the “Air Force Planning System”: plan for every possible situation. That way, he said, when everything goes FUBAR, it will be because you planned it that way.

 

[capta]

And he did it twice. What is with that?

I actually got to meet him and talk with him in Hawaii after I'd read his book and before I left Hawaii on the rest of my circumnavigation. An interesting conversation.
Apparently, his hair went white after the pitchpole.

 

[jssailem]

hair went white after the pitchpole.

The quality of the writing makes me sure that I would have the same experience, white hair that would problaly jump off my scalp.

Your visit sounds like a special moment. His experience and that of his wife were such, that identifies them in my mind as possessing the “Luck of the Irish”. How do you find your self out side the cockpit then suddenly back in the cockpit. Like they had an angel watching and helping them in a time of need.

 

[shemandr]

How do you sleep through losing a mast?

 

[PaulK]

Partly my point. Then immediately start counting out the 5 daily almonds because there’s nothing else?

 

[capta]

CORRECTION! I met and talked to John Guzzwell, the crew on the boat, and it was his hair that went white, not Miles. Sorry for that. Perhaps late night posting isn't the best idea after a certain age?

 

[jssailem]

Easy for me to confuse. So John was the “Carpenter Crewman” in Miles story. He put the boat back together and enabled them to reach a Chilean port.

Still a life memorable experience.

Thanks Capta. And it is quite alright to post any time night or day.

Makes for interesting reading. I find the spell check mostly helps with my marginal typing when my mind says you should be sleeping, but I am still kinda awake.

 

[Michael Davis]

So John was the “Carpenter Crewman” in Miles story.

Johns boat Trekka was/is in the maritime museum in Victoria along with Tillicum the first/only dug out canoe to circumnavigate. I think he still lives in Seattle.

 

[jssailem]

He would be in his 90’s Maybe we can find the time to visit the maritime museum during our visit.

Read an article about John and Trekka this morning. First to Circumnavigate the world in a 20ft boat I think.

 

[Hydro Therapy]

The most incredible survival event I’ve ever read was a book titled, “ In the heart of the sea - The whale ship Essex”. Once is enough was also a good read.

 

[Joe Blizzard]

horrific story of 'survival at sea'

What made the story truly horrific was that the only piece of equipment left operational was a banjo…