News
July 30, 2019
On Monday, July 22nd, we were less than 200 miles from the finish. At around midday, and looking at a midday finish on Tuesday, I heard the words that I have come to hate “I have no helm”! Debbie and I were just starting to repair the A2 (again) as it had come apart the evening before after we had flown it most of the day. The repair that we did before worked so well that it came apart at a different spot! I am still of the opinion that we weakened the fabric by dragging it across the rough spreader tip at the upper spreader and then it was a weak spot looking for a chance to fail.
Not suspecting a major failure like a missing rudder, I dove into the aft compartment to check the steering linkage. All seemed to be in order and upon command, the helmsperson (in this case, Mike) could turn the helm from one side to the other and the steering quadrant would respond like it should. Peter grabbed a pair of fins and tied a line around himself to keep him attached to the boat and went over the side. After two quick dives under the hull to assess the situation and then confirm it, we had lost our rudder. As Peter described it, he was counting appendages hanging down from the bottom of the boat: 1 – keel, 2- sail drive, 3 -hmmmm. Okay one more time: 1- keel, 2 – sail drive , 3 – hmmmm. It is now clear that Onde Amo’s rudder is lying at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in roughly 8,500 of water. I tried to get Peter to go look for it, but no luck.
We deployed the emergency rudder, which is a rather heavy, clumsy stainless-steel contraption that took me almost an hour of swearing to deploy in the slip for our safety inspection. With several sets of interested hands, we were able to deploy it quicker than I imagined possible on the open ocean. While it was better than no rudder at all (the other option), it is not the easiest to use to control the boat. The blade of the emergency rudder (the part that sticks down in the water and actually steers the boat) is less than half the size of our regular rudder and has a much smaller range of motion. It is controlled by moving a stainless-steel pipe back and forth. We notified the Race Committee, the Coast Guard and Risa by satphone of our situation and said that we would update them periodically as to our progress.
We took our headsail (the #2 jib) down to see if we could sail the boat with this toy rudder with just the main up. It worked for a while, but as the wind built, it became less stable, so we took the main down and sailed for a while with the #2 jib alone. This was manageable but again as the wind built, this became a challenge. Finally, we had to drop all our sails and turn on the engine for propulsion. At that point, we had to retire from the race as the rules provide that if you use your engine for propulsion, it is a rule violation. You can use your engine to charge the batteries, but not to push the boat.
We contacted Boat US to see about a tow to Honolulu. Boat US is the ‘AAA of the ocean’. As we were still 150+ nautical miles from Honolulu, it was suggested that we head for Molokai instead, as it was less than 100 nm away. There is a fisherman on Molokai that contracts with Boat US to do towing. Therefore, we headed for the channel between Maui and Molokai making the channel on the morning of Tuesday, July 23rd. Our plan was to get into Molokai, fuel up so we would have enough to motor all the way to Honolulu if we had to, and then catch up with Dedric Manaba for our tow the last 50 miles or so across the famed Molokai Channel (the channel between Molokai and Oahu). As we were motoring along the southern side of Molokai, the wind built to the point where we were seeing gusts of 35+ which made steering the boat a real challenge. Dedric informed us that there were Small Craft Advisories and that we should spend the night in Molokai and leave early the next morning to be towed to Honolulu. Although we were all ready to get into Honolulu, we opted once again for safety and settled into the tiny harbor at Kaunakakai. It was an interesting experience as the wind was blowing 35 and we only ran aground three times trying to get into the two areas where they wanted us to dock for the night. We ended up getting part of our port quarter up to the end of the dock so we could at least get on and off the boat.
We were able to get showers, walk into town for a cold beer and some groceries, and returned later for pizza for dinner. Dedric had offered us some venison, but we did not have a grill onboard, so had to decline his gracious offer. He also offered all of the crew to come back and he would take us hunting and/or fishing! He was definitely a bright spot on our 'journey' to the finish line!
We started out at 03:00 the next morning as the winds had laid down and Dedric wanted to get us to Honolulu and return to Molokai in the same day. The ride across the channel under tow behind his fishing boat was relatively uneventful, although the waves in the Molokai Channel did make it interesting to try and stay behind his boat. He was able to get us into Ala Wai Harbor where he turned us loose to meet our welcoming committee. We were still able to get our ‘Transpac welcome’ under our own power and we were also able to get into our slip with the emergency rudder, 'almost' by ourselves. I think we made the crew of Bolt nervous (they were in the slip next to us), so they were more than happy to assist with our landing. We had finally traversed the 2,250 miles of ocean between Long Beach and Honolulu in 14 days, almost to the minute. There is no official record of our time, as we are scored DNF (Did Not Finish). A bittersweet end to an incredible journey!
Upon arrival, life had one more kick in the teeth for us as we found out that our good friend, Jim Lincoln, had passed away in his sleep during the night. Jim had sailed the 2017 Transpac on Onde Amo. He had just finished the 2019 Transpac on Chubasco, who won our division. Jim was a great sailor, a warm and funny guy, and someone that I am blessed to have called my friend. Jim was our ‘weight Nazi’ in 2017, and at one point, while we were getting the boat ready, he came out with the kitchen tongs, a serving spoon and a spatula in his hands and asked if we really needed all three!
