epic story/fail

[thesailerdude]

Man I have missed you guys..your incessant warnings are even welcome here!

Well I have a story here along with pictures..(will post them later)

We was running out of fuel and were having some problems with our stuffing box...so we decided to look for a marina to refuel and possibly try to get equipment that were necessary to fix that goddamned leaking problem that are absolutely destroying our bilge blower (as we had to empty it every hour) We were nearing Charleston, SC...we didn't realize it as we decided to go out of our way a little bit to James Island...on a side note at the time i was obsessively addicted reading Ken Follett's masterpiece- "The Pillars of the Earth." If you haven't read it yet..go and buy one! perfect book to read while on a sailing trip. Anyway back to the point..to our aghast the marina was an elementary one...still very much under construction (marina's name I forget) So we took advantage of their newly built facilities which included a luxury we don't get often...a hot shower. It was freezing out so we immediately went out and cajoled, begged, used our puppy eyes to receive the keys for the hot shower..in which we succeed after a while. It took a while but five of us was refreshed, refueled...our stuffing box problem still remained but we planned to take the boat to Charleston and solve it there....we got on the boat and were ready to leave...then...one of the crew member decided that he needed to get a gatorade to "further" refresh himself...everyone including myself went below deck...our captain and another crewman was sleeping. Another member was doing whatever god knows with that magazine. I was reading Follett's masterpiece..actually I was so engrossed until i felt a strange sensation that...we were not docked anymore. I immediately put it down and checked what's up...I found that the fifth crew member who "desperately" needed his gatorade had pulled all of the docklines in and pushed the boat off the docks...To my horror..He didn't start the engine before doing so..I yelled at him asking why didnt he start it??? He calmly replied.."Relax! I will start it soon" by then current was pushing us down the middle of the river..the gatorade boy then pressed the starter..and guess what? NOTHING! absolutely nothing! So we were drifting in the middle of a swift moving river without any means to get back to the docks. I quickly alerted the rest of members..including that captain who likes to display his ass crack when he sleeps....we tried to start the engine again...again....again..to no avail. We tried different methods..turning off the battery and back on. We decided we could try to furl our Jib in vain hope of reaching the docks (it was windy that day) but to no avail as the wind swirled around us in cross sections..we drifted uselessly.....until...BAM we ran aground near the weeds area...I was so pissed at the Gatorade boy and his amateurish mistake. I was so mad... that I decided to do nothing and simply...read Ken Follett and escape the cursed world I was currently living in..(one should be noted that it was not the first time we ****ed up...so it had gotten to a point of no return) The rest of members were equally listless...we did absolutely nothing for the next 15 mins as the we got even more deeply entrenched with the current pushing us against the sand...then our captain realized that at the MOMENT it was at the HIGH tide...we scrambled to do something because...well if it had went back to the low tide...I believe that the water will go so low that the boat will tip over....we jumped off board and tried to push the boat valiantly away from the shore and into deeper water..but alas! the keel was too deeeeply entrenched...we deliberated what to do....and decided we had to call the Boat US...we were not even members so that means $$$$$$$$$ the morale was at the all time low...as we waited for the boat us to come....I FELT THE SAME SENSATION i had before...we were floating! we were not aground anymore! Then at the moment...boat us guy arrived (we were using credit card...they already took 250 bucks for initial fee) We clamored that we didnt need boat us anymore and tried to explain that tide got us out..but the man blatantly refused and adamantly towed us back to the same marina where we left 1 hr ago...it now began raining profusely...these kind of hard piling rain that keeps coming at you...when we finally docked..in mishandling the mainsail in the rain...we tore a sizable gash into the middle of it....EPIC FAIL...THE GATORADE RENAISSANCE boy cost us (boat us, torn mainsail, taxi transportation from the tiny island, paying a mechanic to come and see what is up with the starter) a grand total of more than 1 thousand dollars....it turns out...the spark plug for the starter was not plugged..how did it get unplugged? i do not know

But one thing we laughed about later was that why didnt the hell we drop the anchor when we were free-floating???

I hope you enjoy the story....I got plenty more

and i am beginning to miss sailing too much.. I am seriously thinking about sailing around the world after i graduate college

 

[Ed Schenck]

Hey Dude! Why are you reposting a story that we read and commented on over a week ago?

 

[higgs]

Sounds like an anchor would have saved a lot of money.

 

[catsailor]

Sounds like I would throw the lot off my boat:

Sounds like an anchor would have saved a lot of money.

* "I was so mad... that I decided to do nothing and simply...read Ken Follett"
* "The rest of members were equally listless...we did absolutely nothing for the next 15 mins as the we got even more deeply entrenched with the current pushing us against the sand"
* "Relax! I will start it soon"


I have had several engine failures (when ethanol gas was new) and always got the anchor down in less than a minute.

Fun reading, though.

 

[Bob V]

Enjoy it now

Once you have a clue about how to handle a boat the stories get a lot more dull.

It will be more like "we set off for ______ everything worked because we maintain and understand the equipment. We had checked our course and knew just where we were so there were no groundings of course and there was a competent skipper in charge so we knew it couldn't be gatorade boy's fault if everythng went wrong."

Of course. things will still go wrong but you will have a plan to deal with them so everyone won't have to sit around reading while a small problem grows into an expensive (or fatal) one.

Good luck out there.

edited to add: that was a really good book though...I read it at anchor.

 

[Roger Long]

i was obsessively addicted reading Ken Follett's masterpiece- "The Pillars of the Earth." If you haven't read it yet..go and buy one! perfect book to read while on a sailing trip.

The one part of the story I can totally agree with. I read it on my single handed cruise last summer and it was a memorable part of the trip. A truly great book.

 

[Deadhead]

Epic Story

I also thoroughly enjoyed Pillars. I bought the sequel, World Without End, in hard cover a couple Christmas' ago; however, I have twice been unable to get beyond the 1st 150 pages. Follett spends an exorbitant amount of time on character development.

 

[Witzend]

I am seriously thinking about sailing around the world after i graduate college

Please don't you will never make it!

 

[Hermit Scott]

Once you have a clue about how to handle a boat the stories get a lot more dull.

It will be more like "we set off for ______ everything worked because we maintain and understand the equipment. We had checked our course and knew just where we were so there were no groundings of course and there was a competent skipper in charge so we knew it couldn't be gatorade boy's fault if everythng went wrong."

Of course. things will still go wrong but you will have a plan to deal with them so everyone won't have to sit around reading while a small problem grows into an expensive (or fatal) one.

Good luck out there.

edited to add: that was a really good book though...I read it at anchor.

I didn't have a problem relating my first boating stories becasue I knew I would quickly learn and not make those mistakes any more. My trips out now are a lot less story worthy.

 

[higgs]

Pretty much all of this adventure was avoidable. It makes a great story, but, even when a boat and crew is properly prepared, there will be plenty of stories to tell.

 

[CharlieCobra]

I bet ya rethink spending $135.00 for a year's worth of towing now....

 

[thesailerdude]

to deadhead...yeah I agree...the world without end is definitely a lesser book when compared to pillars.

I am starting to look over the sites for right boat to go on a bigger adventure as of right now I think Beneteau is the most sought and desired boat out there...agreed? Hunter and jeneteau could be considered as desirable too.

dont be a wuss and sail in circles...go to places

 

[Bob V]

If you're looking for the boat to sail around the world

you might want to look a bit further then the Bendytoy broker...jus sayin'.

 

[Roger Long]

I think Beneteau is the most sought and desired boat out there...agreed?

No, they may be the most sought after and desired but not by people planning what you are.

I took care of a 40 foot Beneteau for a couple weeks and got to look it over pretty thoroughly. This boat had drifted around abandoned for a week after the crew was evacuated by chopper on a trip from Bermuda. While she didn't suffer any significant damage I kept thinking that I much rather would have been out there in my Endeavour 32. All the small things that can start a chain of disaster, engine water piping, battery installation, etc., etc., etc. gave me the heebie jeebies as did the general lightness of everything.

Unless you are in the bracket where you plan to pay about six figures with someone on the end of the phone you can call when you need more money, you should spend no more than half of what you currently envision as your boat budget on the boat itself. Expect that other half to be gone before you start your trip or within the first few hundred miles.

Because the Benetau's and Hunters are so desired by people as daysailing and drinking platforms; you'll be paying much more than you need to for a boat not suited to your purpose.

Unless you have a trust fund you haven't told us about, I expect that you are looking for a boat in the low 20's or even the 15 thousand range. The good news is that you can find boats that you could circumnavigate with in that price range and this is a great time to buy them. I would take the Endeavour 32 I bought for 15 grand around the world but she is about a 50 thousand dollar boat now and I would put another 10 into her before I went.

In this age and price range, be prepared to look at an incredible number of boats or confine your search to those that don't have balsa core. That greatly restricts your search but also narrows it down in a way that includes a higher proportion of heavy, comfortable, boats that won't wear you out. Most accidents and abandonments are caused by failure of the crew; not the boat. The importance of comfort and ease of handling is greatly underestimated.

 

[thesailerdude]

roger, do you think it's practical to take a 32 feet endeavour boat for 20 k max and be able to sail her around the world? with probably three people...would the boat be big enough? and what makes endeavour better than other boats?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Sure, why not?

The Endeavor 32 is a very good sailboat with a basic and solid single spreader rig. I recall it as a single spreader because when we bareboated one in the BVIs in 1986 I caught the topping lift around the spreader - got it off with a boat hook while standing on the boom; if it had been a double spreader and the topping lift had been caught on the upper spreader, I'd still be there trying to get it off!

The quarter berth is a great sea berth, and lee cloths could be used on the saloon bunks if needed.

We really liked sailing that boat. We had a Catalina 22 at the time, and of course the Endeavor felt as big as the Titanic, but it was very functional, sailed very well, and had everything one could require.

A friend of ours, who has just sailed his Catalina 34 from Vancouver, British Columbia, down to Mexico, wrote this in his 1,500 Mile Update:

I find it really interesting on the whole debate of what makes an offshore sail boat. It is unbelievable how much BS floats around and how many people have opinions but no experience based on the particular boat they happen to have an opinion on. I now believe it matters far more how the boat is prepared than what boat it is. Obviously you need a minimum standard in terms of hull integrity and rig strength and I think the Catalina 34 has that easilly. The question is can the boat and crew be prepared for offshore? I believe the answer question lies only with the skipper who does the preparation. In our case, we have had a fairly good shakedown cruise and I rate the boat highly. I've had "experienced" sailors who were aghast that I would take my family with no offshore experience in a Catalina 34 from Vancouver to San Francisco - a nasty bit of coast. And it takes some serious thought to call bull#### and say you're up to the challenge having never sailed in an ocean swell. I've also had experienced sailors who say go to the Marquesas and you'll find a lot of less capable boats than yours crewed by Europeans having the time of their lives. And you'll also find North Americans with real fancy boats with a lot of broken bits waiting for parts.

Steve's whole report can be found here: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5270.0.html

 

[Roger Long]

roger, do you think it's practical to take a 32 feet endeavour boat for 20 k max and be able to sail her around the world? with probably three people...would the boat be big enough? and what makes endeavour better than other boats?

Sailing around the world is not practical. If we substitute "possible" for "practical" we have a complex question, "advisable" and the waters get even murkier.

Big enough? I think three is a crowd on mine for a two week cruise. OTOH a family of 5 in this state lived on their 27 footer and sailed it high into the arctic. I once knew someone whose family of seven spent the entire summer every summer cruising on a 27 foot doublender of Tancook whaler heritage which was small for even a 27 footer. This answer depends on the people as much as the boat. Good luck though finding that third person who will be happy on a boat under about 36 feet.

An Endeavour 32 will be a few grand cheaper than a comparable boat because of not being well known and having a reputation for cheap construction. The latter is accurate but most of the corners they cut made them heavy rather than weak. They have no core other than plywood in the cockpit floor so they age well. See my web site for more on my boat.

http://www.rogerlongboats.com/Boat.htm

An E32 wouldn't be my first choice for a circumnavigation but I would take mine if I decided I wanted to do that. I probably wouldn't take someone like my son with me on all legs though. Many lesser and less seaworthy boats have done it but I would stick to good weather routes if I were to do it, probably going through the canal than around the horn.

A 20 thousand E32 will probably take another ten to be minimally ready for such a voyage at a level of safety that would horrify most people who actually do it. A 15 thousand boat would probably take another 15 thousand. See where this is going?

Don't underestimate the costs of the trip. 30 grand only gets you ready to start loading the boat with the 10 grand of stuff you need to get part way. Most deepwater cruisers would laugh at these numbers I'm giving you but people like Donna Lange have actually done it for what I would guess to be much less.

You should note that I'm not going around the world. There is much better and more interesting cruising exploring coastally on a more limited distance and time basis. You see more, it's more relaxing and comfortable, you don't have to load the boat to the limit with stores. You should read about some of my Maine cruises. All the stories are on the web site. Turn the corner at Schoodic point and you are suddenly out there into a wild and incredible part of the world that you could spend a lifetime exploring. I see more scenery in a two week cruise than many circumnavigators see on a whole voyage other than water and sky.

 

[Sumner]

........ See my web site for more on my boat.

http://www.rogerlongboats.com/Boat.htm

Roger thanks for the link to your site. We were really impressed with everything you have done..................

http://www.rogerlongboats.com/

........with your life. We will be going back as we really have enjoyed reading about your projects and look forward to reading your trip reports.

A while back Ruth and I were researching boats we might be interested in buying and maybe owning and sailing on for a year or so. The Endeavour 32 kind of made it up to the top of the list as a boat that would be safe, practical money wise and so forth for us. After reading about you and your boats knowing that you own one has reassured us that it would be a boat that would probably work very well for us.

We have decided to use our Mac for at least another year, but still haven't put the Endeavour out of our minds as a future possibility.

c ya,

Sum and Ruth

Our Trips to Lake Powell, UT - Kootenay Lake, Canada - Priest Lake, ID

Our Mac Pages

Mac Links

 

[Roger Long]

Thanks. Be sure to watch "Nova" on January 5 and you'll see about 5 minutes of me blowing up models of Japanese midget subs.