Up the Mast While Underway

Saturday, March 8, 2003

017-45.060 N
087-18.300 W

I had considered using a title such as "Escape from Xcalak", but this one seemed to best capture the major event of the day.

The day dawned in its typical Caribbean fashion: an orange ball rising out of the ocean with puffy cotton ball clouds dotting the sky. The difference today was that the reef wasn't a frothing mess. At times you could see breaks in the surf all along it. Ah, it was a good day to leave!

We pulled into Ish-ka-lock (which Sue says sounds like a Klingon word) on Monday in order to clear in to Mexico, and had planned to leave on Tuesday. Unfortunately the port captain didn't show up until Wednesday, and by then the seas had built and we were trapped. The only positive thing was that we met Stephen and Jayne from Alegria and really enjoyed their company.

Anyhow, back to the story. I had to do the weather on the Saturday NW Caribbean Net and we planned on pulling the hook up as soon as we were done. Alegria was supposed to have followed right behind, but for some reason they hadn't filled their water tanks the day before and needed to do so before departing. They were ashore as we were pulling up the hook.

When you enter or leave this harbor you need to be precisely lined up with 2 lighthouses in order to make it through the cut in the reef. That's easier to do coming in than going out. When you're leaving it's much harder as you're constantly looking behind you to see if you're "on the beam" while you're watching the reef get very close to the bow! I was so busy lining things up that I didn't take the time to study the wave patterns before entering the cut. I'm not sure that it would have really mattered, but in retrospect, I would do things slightly differently the next time...if there is a next time.

We were about half way through the cut when a series of large waves descended upon us. Based upon what we experienced outside of the cut, these were probably 5-7' waves, but they get much larger and steeper when they cross over the shallow reef. We rose up over the first of these waves and crashed down on the other side. You have to imagine a 40' boat rolling over the top of a wave and then having the bow fall about 10' into the trough of the oncoming wave. Stephen, who was watching from shore, said that he could see our prop and rudder come out of the water and he could even see the keel! The next wave was breaking and completely washed over boat. A wall of water swept the decks and even blew out one of the windows on the dodger. I pushed the throttle all of the way forward and kept the boat into the oncoming seas. The next wave was very steep, but it wasn't breaking. We pounded our way through the rest of the cut and we were free!

Sue, who had been hanging on to a winch for dear life stated that she didn't think that she could walk if she wanted to as he hers were shaking too badly. I had a ton of adrenalin pumping through my system! After a few minutes I went forward to take the sail ties off the jib and to put the halyard on. I was quite impressed with the size and steepness of the seas. Certainly they were much larger than I had anticipated while inside of the reef. We had a very bumpy close hauled sail to the Banco Chinchorro. The seas got much flatter about 2/3 of the way there when we got into the lee of the bank.

Banco Chinchorro and Belize's atolls have been called the only true atolls in the western hemisphere. Chinchorro is 26 miles long and 9.5 miles wide at its widest. There are 3 small cays on the interior. The Mexican government has declared this an Underwater National Park and has divided it up into 5 different zones where various activities are allowed or not allowed. They probably have 20+ type of activities listed (3 kinds of fishing, scuba, motor boats, etc) and currently we're currently in a no photography zone! What?!? Are they crazy!

As we were cruising along the western bank we decided that it would be nice to pull up to the bank and drop the hook into a nice sandy spot. We turned into the wind to drop the sails and when I released the halyard for the main sail, nothing happened. In the past I've pulled the main too tight and jammed the knot at the shackle into the slot the halyard goes through. I've used the reefing lines to free it, but nothing budged when I tried it this time. I grabbed the binoculars and saw that the halyard had somehow gotten jammed between the sheave (pulley) and the side plates and by using the reefing lines I had probably jammed it even more. The only thing that I could figure out to do was to go up the mast.

The major problem associated with doing this was that BlueJacket only has 1 main halyard and the other 2 halyards only go 7/8 of the way up the mast. I was going to have to climb the rest of the way, which is only 6', but when the boat is pitching, that's a long way. We pointed the boat so that the main was filled and providing stability. Sue hauled me up the mast using the jib halyard. I tried to shimmy up the rest of the way, but since the sail was up, I couldn't get my arms or legs around the mast and just couldn't make it. Sue dropped me down so that I could consider other options.

I sat and looked at it through the binoculars and decided that I had to get to the top. There's a very lightweight flag halyard that runs to the top and I was wondering if the rollers would support my weight with a heavier line. I tried calling Freedom on the sat phone, but it was a Saturday. I called information and asked for the number of Dave Balfour, who worked for Freedom and knows more about these boats than anyone that I know. Instead of Dave, I got his dad who did a great job of screening his calls. I eventually got Dave's number and called him and found out that the rollers would support my weight. So, the plan was to pull a heavier line up thru the flag rollers and pull me to the top. We decided to head to Cayo Norte where we'd get better protection and we knew that 6 other boats were there who could offer assistance.

On the way to Cayo Norte we tried calling the boats via the VHF. No answer on any channel and we tried everything from 12 to 20. How could this be!?! Six boats and no one had their VHF on! Just as we approached the cut to Cayo Norte one of the boats called and asked if that was us coming in. They had been off their boat exploring, so that was understandable. Everyone else was monitoring channels 13 and 17, which are low power channels, but they still should have been able to hear us. This also really emphasizes the need to monitor channel 16. We needed information about the anchorage and we couldn't get it. While it wasn't critical, what would have happened if it was? What would have happened to the boat that ended up on the reef at Xcalak if no one was monitoring 16?

Anyhow, we were heading into the wind and the cut when I looked up and saw that the main had started to come down. I guess that while I was on the phone with Dave that I had closed the main halyard clutch. When we opened it the sail came down! I have no idea how it got free, but I was sure glad that it did. I'll go up and check it on Sunday.

We're anchored on the west side of Cayo Norte and plan to spend the day cleaning all of the salt that deposited at Xcalak. It's amazing how salty everything is...I mean dripping with salt. Yuck! I'll report on Chinchorro in a later report.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 344