All right...here you go Dave.....No lectures though!
ok...so the rest of the story about me "throwing my gear overboard". ( I
got time to type now)
Jim and I were having a blast out in the vicinity of the oil platform
Gina....probably about 4 miles offshore. I was running a 150. The wind had been
building and I was beyond the wind range where I should have been with that
sail... I knew it.. But Big D is fairly forgiving and she was tolerating
it , but barely.
The water was fairly rough. The swell wasn't that large but was stacked
close together...4-5 seconds at 3-4 feet with wind chop on top. The ride was
sporting for sure. My windmeter was showing a beautiful steady 18 knots and
I knew the 150 wasn't gonna be do-able for much longer. We had bore off a
bit and were on a close reach. The boat was still heeling pretty well. I had
put the autopilot on to allow me to set-up for a headsail change. I was
single handed and wanted to get everything ready before I tacked over and
hove to to make the swap to a 90-100% blade.
Like I said the boat's motion was, well, A LOT due to the sea condition. In
a couple of the shots in the video you can see the bow surging up and down
a lot. It might not seem that much to you, until you try to get out there
and work, with no-one at the helm. It was hard to stand up unless you were
also holding onto something. I was just contemplating going down below to
get the 100 right under the forward hatch and ready to go, when suddenly the
boat's transom lurched up in the air and then dropped out again. The boat
was rolling hard and rounding up. Fortunately, I hadn't entered the
companionway yet. I ended up getting tossed onto my left knee towards the other
side of the boat, ripping the knee out of my jeans and cutting my knee a
little. As I turned to see what was up, I was assuming that I finally reached
the point where my lack of changing out headsails had finally culminated so
much weather helm that the rudder probably stalled. This was not the case.
I was shocked to see, the autopilot trolling behind the boat by only the
power cord. The kick in the pants was so hard that it unseated the inch and
half long pivot pin from it's mount, tossed the autopilot up in the air, and
the boat sailed right out from under it! LOL Now, the powercord has a two
prong Perko push in deck connector on it. Any second now, it was about to
pull out and that would be it for the autopilot and a nice donation to
Neptune. As I am trying to get a hold of the cord I am also trying to get the
tiller pushed up to windward, and get my feet back under me. I get one hand
on the cord, but from where I ended up in the cockpit, I can't pull the cord
far enough to jerk the autopilot back into the cockpit until I get seated,
the boat turned back off the wind and then am able to hold the tiller with
my foot while reaching out with both hands and walking the cord back in.
Yes, it was a three ring circus! hahaha
Meanwhile, Jimbo is right behind me watching this whole stupid show, I am
sure laughing his ass off! (He had rigged a regular jib and was perfectly
powered up and enjoying the ride.....and show.
Well, here's the kicker....
After getting the Simrad back on board...I plug it back it....and it works
fine!!! I guess it really is watertight!!! Way to go! Unfortunately, the
jeans did not survive. I blew the knee out and then bled all over them. hahaha
So there you go....the story behind the story
Oh, and yes,...on the "list of things to do" is to somehow fabricate a
leash that will retain the tiller-pilot in her mounts when things get
"sporting"! :-)
As for the rest of the sail. Made the headsail change and about a half hour
later...reefed down. We had a blast! Probably stayed out another 3 hours
before we came back in. You can hear me giggling like a school girl in some
of the clips of the video. You'd be hard pressed to get me OR Jim to think
that there was a better boat out there for what we were doing. Monty's
RULE!!!!
