Day 43 – Part 1: Fix Fails, Hull Leak, Giant Sea Turtle

12 Apr, 07 – 21.30    
16.5780N,35.5808W
24 hr progress: 24.2 Nautical Miles
Distance rowed to date: 1493 Nautical Miles
Distance left to Antigua (straight line): 1483 Nautical Miles ( 2743 km) (1 NM = 1.85 km)
Conditions: Wave height – 4-5ft, Winds – 10 knots E
Bearing: 270 degrees.

This is a slightly longer post than usual. Part 2 will follow.
Last night, rain again and rough seas as usual before daybreak. Tried to sleep curled up as close to the stern as possible in order to use my body weight to compensate for the lost ballast (supplies in the stern that had to be thrown away). Unfortunately, the waves hitting the port quarter were too powerful, and as a result I got thrown about all night regardless of where I shifted my weight.
Normally, when the boat has its stern into the waves, the stern gets lifted up and falls back into the water almost vertically, in line with the weight of the rudder. The rudder also acts as a pivot and guides the boat down the back of the wave as it passes under the boat.
Day after day, for the past two weeks we have been beaten up as we row without a rudder, beam on to the waves. The boat lists up and slams back down at a 45 degree angle. I've been concerned for a while about the pressure this may have put on the structure (at least the port quarter) of the boat, possibly worsening the weakness in the joint for the rudder. In addition to this, I still wonder what was the effect of the beating we got in the first three weeks of leaving El Hierro in gale force conditions.
Woke up at 4.00 am GMT (which is about 01.00 am here - mid-Atlantic time) to find the water back in the stern. No joy in the previous day's fixes. I bailed out the water again by about 6.00 GMT. Bailing out the water is a 2 hr affair, as I remove all the contents of the cabin, bail it out, dry it up, line some paper and put all the contents back in. Fortunately, the amount of water looks as much as yesterday, which is a good sign. It means that it's not gotten worse as yet.
During my morning dive underwater to look at the hull, I've discovered a crack, just above the waterline. I was able to feel about an inch of space with the tip of the dive knife. Did not dare to push the dive knife in any further. Finding it was a fairly easy. But trying to patch it up is a different story. There I was bobbing up and down, trying to apply rubber sealant to it. I had a few very frustrating attempts, as the sealant refused to get into the crack. Maybe there was water inside pushing it out. In the end, the sealant failed to hold. Unfortunately, I do not have any epoxy resin on board. I also noticed some other points of leakage that I had not considered before - near the steering cable and the mooring loop. However, during my two hours in the water, I managed to strengthen the male pins to hold the rudder so all was not lost.
A spot of wildlife however, in an otherwise frustrating morning. A giant sea turtle, about 5 feet long and 4 feet wide came snorkeling up behind me as I was in the water. Its state of mind completely opposite to mine.
I was in the middle of admiring it when it disappeared underneath the hull to feed off some of the barnacles growing underneath. I didnt care until moments later I could hear massive bangs as the hull of the boat and the giant sea turtle collided with each other in the swell. It sounded as if the boat had run aground on a coral reef.
I had forgotten how easy it was to panic. I was in the middle my hull repairs, the last thing I needed right now was anymore cracks in the hull. So the next half hour was spent trying to chasing the giant sea turtle out from underneath the boat. I got hold of it twice, but its feet were too slippery to get a grip. After a few more collisions with the hull, it finally emerged from underneath. Its head, and brown and gold shell grazed with spots of grey and blue anti fouling paint from the bottom of the boat.
It took me longer than usual to chase it away. Trying to drag it away did not seem to work. I think it was in fact enjoying the chase. After trying everything, oars, floats, fenders I finally got rid of it using the one thing I'm sure it did not foresee – dishwasher liquid. Ah!
It's been a longer day than usual. Following the mornings exercise of chasing the Giant Sea Turtle around the boat, I've made a decision to put the rudder back in and alter course towards the nearest shipping lane as an emergency precaution, 'til I have fixed the leak at least. Will write about this in the next post.
If the water leak stays at 3 -5 liters per day like now, I should be able to buy some time by continuing to bail it out everyday, until I have found a way to fix it up. The weather forecast for the weekend 10-15 knot ENE / E winds is bit of good news.
B
WOULD APPRECIATE NO MESSAGES OR CALLS ON THE SATELLITE PHONE. THE LINE IS BEING KEPT OPEN FOR EMERGENCY USE. Instead, direct messages thru the messages section on the website at http://www.bhavik.com/crossatlantic/messages.asp. These are forwarded to me at the end of each day.
(EXCEPTIONS: Erden, Tatiana, Tiny, Hicks, Leven, Larsson, Kalisinski, Haglnd, Ambani)


Giant Sea Turtle

GST near stern

GST running away under the boat