On the morning of 2/17/07 a US Navy Warship announced on the VHF radio that they would be conducting live fire drills for the next couple hours, and asked all vessels to clear the area for 5 Nautical Miles from their location. We were about are 8 miles away, and slowly passed about 5 huge US warships from a safe distance.Holly filming the sunset, photo by Diny
About 1/2 hour later, another announcement was made, asking all vessels to clear for 15 miles. We called them to say we were only 8 miles away. The female radio operator told The Captain they would shoot away from us, after The Captain asked them not to shoot us since it was so early in the morning. She kinda laughed.
That night the batteries died again on Sarah's watch, so she lost the autopilot but at least still had the chart plotter and the other navigation instruments. The fridge was also off for most of the day. Our power issues were chronic, and were becoming very frustrating.
There was lots of boat traffic on 2/18/07. We were luckily sailing between two lines of huge cargo ships, possibly coming from the East coast of India and were heading south to Indonesia and points beyond. Breakaway must have been right in their path, because they were constantly having to navigate around the ships. Somehow we got lucky and didn't even change course once.
After most of us had our afternoon swim (hanging onto the lines from the boat), the swim step broke. The Captain spent some time fixing it before going back to trying to figure out why our house batteries weren't charging. CJ said to him, "didn't you only replace 2 of the four batteries in Australia in 2003?". The Captain ceded that it was possible, therefore two of the batteries could be as old as 8 years old, and the "new ones" were probably 4 years old. Susie thought that there must have also been wiring/shorting issues, but The Captain didn't agree.
On this day the halyard broke off the whisker pole, the generator choked on and off, and Susie and CJ had no instruments from 2:00am to 6:00am because of the lack of power. Trying to steer without instruments meant Susie needed to go by the compass. The Captain was holding a magnet-powered flashlight near the compass, and was yelling at Susie to stay on course as the compass whirled round and round. Duh. This was one of the moments that crew morale started to slip. Despite all the equipment failures, we were trying to have fun. We enjoyed each other, the meals we were cooking and being far out to sea.On 2/19/07 At night during CJ's 4am-6am watch, the track for the jib car ripped off the deck. It took a few minutes to figure out what all the mayhem was about, but luckily the car was hanging on the sheet and we didn't lose it. The Captain tacked the broken track back on the deck the next day, the screws had been rusted through. Some of the deck hardware has seen better days.
On 2/20/07 we took the day to fully clean the boat. I got a bit seasick cleaning the head. Between the good sized seas and being in an enclosed space with fumes from cleaning fluids, I lost it. That was the only incident of sea-sickness for the crew, though, so not too bad.
2/21/07 the seas got pretty big. We later got a report from Breakaway that wind further north was reaching 30 knots. Our wind was still pretty steady at 15-20 knots, though the wind indicator didn't really work too well. The sea swelled up and we were coasting down 10-12 foot waves that were cresting behind us. The autopilot was having a difficult time keeping us on course, and sometimes would swing us around in the wrong direction causing us to be sideways to the waves and heel considerably. This caused the pitch angle alarm to go off, which was a bit unnerving. It was pretty exciting, but not very good for the boat or our nerves. The Captain took the helm after one of these occurrences and was carefully steering Boat X while one of us called the waves behind. If one was to break right under us, he needed to know. CJ on the deck taking down the torn main sail. 
I went below to get my video camera when I heard a bunch of ruckus, and the source was a tear in the main sail. The Captain had noticed a day or two earlier that he thought the topping lift was not set correctly, but didn't do anything about it. He now claims that is why the main sail ripped, though the sail is 25 years old. Now we were without a main sail but were still conserving diesel in case we really needed it. We set an old canvas tri-sail that he had never used before. It worked reasonable well, but the boat felt less stable. We still made pretty good way, though. With a strong current and favorable winds we were still making about 6 knots.
Because of our continuous power problems, we didn't use the cabin lights, only our headlamps, even to cook. We even needed to be very stingy with our running lights. Sometimes we'd wait in the evening until we saw another boat before we'd turn on the minimum of lights, and usually not the masthead light. The instruments and autopilot continued to leave our services at the most inopportune of times.
On 2/22/07, we were ready to motor into Male', the main city of The Maldives. Most of the crew had showers that morning, feeling free to use the water and power since we had almost reached our destination. We were excited to get our feet on land and make phone calls to friends and family after our 12 day voyage of mishaps. The Captain went to turn on the engine, and it wouldn't start. He tried for awhile before giving up in disgust. The engine hadn't been started in about 5 days, and it seemed the starter battery was dead. I still think Susie was right and we had a short somewhere in the system. The Captain says the starter battery was new, bought in the summer of 2006.
We sailed back and forth past the harbor entrance and contacted our agent who we had spoken with on the radio a couple hours before. We told him of our predicament, and he told us he would get working to find a tow boat to get us in. While we waited, the crew enjoyed tacking and jibing and working together, the first time we'd done it on the trip so far. The Captain was impatient with us, but we had had no training on his boat to sail it, and some of us were pretty inexperienced sailors in the first place. I think we did a pretty good job considering. This is a very smart, competent and quick learning crew. We aim to please and get along well, so we felt fortunate that the opportunity arose for us to practice without it being too much of a difficult situation. Well, we thought it wasn't a difficult situation. CJ noticed that we were gaining on a reef, and we needed to tack. Also, there was a strong current that was pushing us away from Male', and the winds were not in our favor. We were not able to sail into the harbor without going around the island and coming around again. I assume a good sailor would have been able to get us in without an engine, but for us it turned into a panic situation, though the crew did not feel panicked. It was daylight, we had enough food and water for weeks, and could have easily sailed for another day or two if necessary.
The Captain started giving orders but wouldn't tell us what we were doing. He had me help him get the outboard off the stern of the boat and carry it to the foredeck where the dingy was. The only other time the dingy had been in the water had been in Chalong Bay before we left Thailand, and not only did it leak pretty badly, but the outboard engine died on our way back to the boat. We had to paddle with our shoes for about 100 yards in the dark. That was my first time in the dingy and was our first time at anchor. Sarah called this foreshadowing of the difficult times ahead, and I think she was right.
I tried to ask The Captain what we were doing so we could be of better help. He barked that he would not tell us and that we needed to just follow instructions. He gave one order at a time with us often not understanding what he was asking us to do. Finally we attached the engine to the dingy and lowered it into the water. The Captain dropped into the dingy, started the engine and held onto Boat X while standing in the dingy. Then he screamed at us to tack. We jumped to the task, and it went pretty well. Now The Captain was trying to propel Boat X, a 17-ton boat, with the dingy and a 15 hp engine against a 2 knot current. We made no headway at all, stopped dead and even slipped back. After about 15 minutes of The Captain getting abused by the wind and spray and battered from trying to hold onto the boat like a cowboy on a bull, he climbed back aboard Boat X and we brought the dingy back on deck.
All the while the crew stared at each other in disbelief, rolling our eyes and shrugging our shoulders. It wasn't a life-and-death situation, why was he reacting like it was?
Soon after his fruitless and exhausting effort, we got the call that a tow-boat was on its way to rescue us from the perils of the Indian Ocean. The Captain proceeded to drink 2 beers before CJ told him that he would have no crew if he drank another and dumped the third down the drain. (btw, this was my private beer stash). I had never seen The Captain drink a beer, but we had the occasional cocktail in the evening. This was not much of a drinking crew, by far. Besides the fact that he doesn't really drink much, we were entering a Muslim country and alcohol is not permitted. We weren't even supposed to bring it into the country. The day before, the crew was discussing stashing the small collection of rum and vodka we had bought in Thailand so it wouldn't be confiscated in case they searched the boat. The Captain refused to let us hide it, stating that it could cause him penalty if they found it after we had hid it. Now he was somewhat drunk and talking about strange philosophical things like "if you jump from a bridge, where are you?". He said about 3 strange things and we were worried. He'd better get a grip before we had to deal with the authorities to check into the country. The tow boat finally came but The Captain hadn't gotten anything ready. He started yelling at CJ to get line, etc. Once again, I was flabbergasted at his lack of thinking ahead.
By this time I can't even describe how the crew felt. We were demoralized and incredibly disappointed in The Captain. I was ready to get off the boat, but hadn't made a final decision. I needed to think about it before any decision could be made. I decided to wait until India, our next stop. There was no way I was going to sail through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea with a captain who had lost my trust and confidence.
Because of our continuous power problems, we didn't use the cabin lights, only our headlamps, even to cook. We even needed to be very stingy with our running lights. Sometimes we'd wait in the evening until we saw another boat before we'd turn on the minimum of lights, and usually not the masthead light. The instruments and autopilot continued to leave our services at the most inopportune of times.
On 2/22/07, we were ready to motor into Male', the main city of The Maldives. Most of the crew had showers that morning, feeling free to use the water and power since we had almost reached our destination. We were excited to get our feet on land and make phone calls to friends and family after our 12 day voyage of mishaps. The Captain went to turn on the engine, and it wouldn't start. He tried for awhile before giving up in disgust. The engine hadn't been started in about 5 days, and it seemed the starter battery was dead. I still think Susie was right and we had a short somewhere in the system. The Captain says the starter battery was new, bought in the summer of 2006.
We sailed back and forth past the harbor entrance and contacted our agent who we had spoken with on the radio a couple hours before. We told him of our predicament, and he told us he would get working to find a tow boat to get us in. While we waited, the crew enjoyed tacking and jibing and working together, the first time we'd done it on the trip so far. The Captain was impatient with us, but we had had no training on his boat to sail it, and some of us were pretty inexperienced sailors in the first place. I think we did a pretty good job considering. This is a very smart, competent and quick learning crew. We aim to please and get along well, so we felt fortunate that the opportunity arose for us to practice without it being too much of a difficult situation. Well, we thought it wasn't a difficult situation. CJ noticed that we were gaining on a reef, and we needed to tack. Also, there was a strong current that was pushing us away from Male', and the winds were not in our favor. We were not able to sail into the harbor without going around the island and coming around again. I assume a good sailor would have been able to get us in without an engine, but for us it turned into a panic situation, though the crew did not feel panicked. It was daylight, we had enough food and water for weeks, and could have easily sailed for another day or two if necessary.
The Captain started giving orders but wouldn't tell us what we were doing. He had me help him get the outboard off the stern of the boat and carry it to the foredeck where the dingy was. The only other time the dingy had been in the water had been in Chalong Bay before we left Thailand, and not only did it leak pretty badly, but the outboard engine died on our way back to the boat. We had to paddle with our shoes for about 100 yards in the dark. That was my first time in the dingy and was our first time at anchor. Sarah called this foreshadowing of the difficult times ahead, and I think she was right.
I tried to ask The Captain what we were doing so we could be of better help. He barked that he would not tell us and that we needed to just follow instructions. He gave one order at a time with us often not understanding what he was asking us to do. Finally we attached the engine to the dingy and lowered it into the water. The Captain dropped into the dingy, started the engine and held onto Boat X while standing in the dingy. Then he screamed at us to tack. We jumped to the task, and it went pretty well. Now The Captain was trying to propel Boat X, a 17-ton boat, with the dingy and a 15 hp engine against a 2 knot current. We made no headway at all, stopped dead and even slipped back. After about 15 minutes of The Captain getting abused by the wind and spray and battered from trying to hold onto the boat like a cowboy on a bull, he climbed back aboard Boat X and we brought the dingy back on deck.
All the while the crew stared at each other in disbelief, rolling our eyes and shrugging our shoulders. It wasn't a life-and-death situation, why was he reacting like it was?
Soon after his fruitless and exhausting effort, we got the call that a tow-boat was on its way to rescue us from the perils of the Indian Ocean. The Captain proceeded to drink 2 beers before CJ told him that he would have no crew if he drank another and dumped the third down the drain. (btw, this was my private beer stash). I had never seen The Captain drink a beer, but we had the occasional cocktail in the evening. This was not much of a drinking crew, by far. Besides the fact that he doesn't really drink much, we were entering a Muslim country and alcohol is not permitted. We weren't even supposed to bring it into the country. The day before, the crew was discussing stashing the small collection of rum and vodka we had bought in Thailand so it wouldn't be confiscated in case they searched the boat. The Captain refused to let us hide it, stating that it could cause him penalty if they found it after we had hid it. Now he was somewhat drunk and talking about strange philosophical things like "if you jump from a bridge, where are you?". He said about 3 strange things and we were worried. He'd better get a grip before we had to deal with the authorities to check into the country. The tow boat finally came but The Captain hadn't gotten anything ready. He started yelling at CJ to get line, etc. Once again, I was flabbergasted at his lack of thinking ahead.
By this time I can't even describe how the crew felt. We were demoralized and incredibly disappointed in The Captain. I was ready to get off the boat, but hadn't made a final decision. I needed to think about it before any decision could be made. I decided to wait until India, our next stop. There was no way I was going to sail through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea with a captain who had lost my trust and confidence.
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