en_Blog

Losing the  Genoa

Right now Faule Haut received cellphone network from the southern coast of Portugal and is able to post this latest news about what had happened on her leg between the Azores and Portugal.

Another setback for Faule Haut on her last leg so close to her home port. Her foresail/genoa has been ripped to pieces in a storm.

Skipper Ingo had not intended to stop in Portugal but he will have to. He can’t sail anymore because he hasn’t repaired his mainsail yet, and unfortunately he lost the genoa in a storm yesterday. It had blown apart – unrepairable  – a total loss of a 3,000.- € foresail. Like the breaking of the last whiskerpole it happened while he was sleeping. After cruising for more than two years and seven months he got so much used to live and sleep on a rocking and rolling boat, that he hardly wakes up in a storm not even if the rocking gets violently. He woke up too late by the noise of the flapping remnant pieces of genoa. The genoa tore into two parts and they were flapping violently at the furling system. There was so much force on the sail and the sheets, that it took him four hours to secure the cloth and get it wrapped around the furler. He was scared that the furling system with the forestay would come down, so hard was the wind power working on that forestay in 40 knots of wind.

He was sailing with the genoa and the storm sail together and from then on only had the storm sail. With that alone he only made one or one and a half knots of speed when the wind calmed down to 25 knots.

He will have to take the genoa down as soon as possible and install the spare one. But he can’t do that on the open ocean, especially since he is sailing singlehand. So he decided to make an unplanned emergency stop at the port of Ponta Delgada, Portugal. He hopes to find some help there to pull up his second genoa. Also he will have some time to keep sewing on his mainsail, which could not have been used for over two weeks now. He hopes to finish his stitching and be able to leave the port with two working sails.

In spite of these problems Skipper Ingo is of good cheer, for here he has experienced another protection because the loss of the genoa happened so close to the coast of Portugal, about 80 nm offshore. If this had happened on the middle of the Antlantic, it would have been much worse (having neither the main sail nor the genoa). Being so close to a port, he decided to use the motor to get to Ponta Delgada. Since he left Guadeloupe he has sailed 3,822 nm and wisely has only used the motor sparingly only for eight hours. Thus, he has enough fuel to make it to the next port under motor.

When he was securing and fastening the remains of his genoa, the jib sheet on the starboard side fell into the water and wrapped around the prop. This scared the the skipper because now he was partially  unmaneuverable. He could neither sail properly with just a six square meter storm sail, nor could he motor. He had to wait till daylight next morning to dive down and clear the prop. To his surprise, he found another rope blocking his prop. So somehow, it was good that his jib sheet fell into the water. He would not have noticed the other rope blocking the prop.

Next stop, most likely, will be Queensway Quay Marina at Gibraltar for refueling. Supposedly, the diesel there is tax free and cost only 48 Cents.

The southwestern tip of Portugal.  Crossing the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme / German: Verkehrstrennungsgebiet).

Crossing boats have to yield to the ones inside the TSS. Faule Haut just sneaked in before three other boats got close.

May 29, 2020

Jellyfish and dolphins

Over the last 1,000 nm Skipper Ingo saw lots of jellyfish passing by Faule Haut. He got curious what they exactly look like and caught one with a bucket. It’s one of the most poisonous jellyfish that exists. It’s a Portuguese Man o‘ War (German: Portugisische Galeere)

(The Skipper swears, its not a blown up fancy Billy Boy Condom in the bucket.)

It had long tentacles of over 6 m which glued to the deck when he pulled it on board. Its tentacles are poisonous and can do really harm to your skin. He had a guest on board at the Mediterranean once who suffered severe burn on her legs. There are people who are so allergic that they even can die if they get in contact with these tentacles. But they look kinda pretty, don’t they?  It looks like it is filled with air because it’s totally transparent, but actually it’s full of jelly. When Skipper Ingo poked in it with a screwdriver, it didn’t collapse strait away (like an air ballon) but took some time for the jelly to run out. Well – they are called jellyfish -that says it all.

After that, some dolphins showed up and where playing at the bow. I shot a video but can’t show it here yet.

May 10, 2020 on the Atlantic.

4th Whiskerpole broken.

After sailing 900 nm over the Atlantic, Faule Haut ran into the second heavy thunderstorm on her third Atlantic crossing with such strong winds, that her whiskerpole broke again. This was the fourth whiskerpole that broke on her circumnavigation (one aluminum, two bamboo, one wooden). This is another great loss, because so far it has been used for half of the sailing time during this crossing and without it it will slow down Faule Haut quite a bit now.

Skipper’s guess: It will add about three days of sailing time on the Atlantic crossing.

Luckily though, the pointed ends did not poke a hole in the genoa, nor did it do any other harm on deck like breaking the deck lights (= windows)

This happened early in the morning while Skipper Ingo was still sleeping. He woke up too late to prevent this damage. In fact, he woke up by the noise when the pole hit the deck. Luckily the thunderstorm didn’t last very long.

Somehow it’s good that the Skipper didn’t realize that thunderstorm earlier.In a storm you can’t sail with a pole. You have to take it down. If that pole had broken while the skipper was trying to dismount it, it could have injured him severely. Look at that pointed pole and imaging it breaking right while you are trying to dismount it and get spiked or impaled. You have to be on a small sailing yacht in a storm to understand and see what strong (sometimes uncontrollable) forces are working on the sails and ropes in high winds. It’s a tough thing to dismount a whiskerpole in high winds when you are alone. Reflecting on this, the Skipper is thankful that he has been protected again and comes to terms with the loss of just the pole.