Faule Haut

A Circumnavigator‘s Yacht

Blog

Forestay broken again

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June 14, 2020

Faule Haut is experiencing new problems

The forestay is breaking for the third time on her circumnavigation, due to the foresail furling system which doesn’t work properly. The pipe on which the Genoa rolls up got jammed. It doesn’t turn freely around the forestay but turns the forestay steel wire as well. This of course puts force on the wires and they have started to break. Already four of the nineteen strands have broken.

In order to fix this problem the entire furling system has to be dismounted and taken apart. But you need to be in port or in a boatyard to do that and you need certain spare part like pipe, connectors and more. Today the crew motored from their anchorage to a place right opposite of a boat yard and dropped the anker. They had the intention to to ask for some help next morning. During the wait, Skipper Ingo got up the third time on the mast and worked on the jammed furling system. He could do some fixing, but this is only a temporary solution without having the necessary spare parts.

Evening:

Due to the Skippers repair job the crew decided to change their plans and forget the boat yard. They startet the motor and tried to get the genoa rolled out. It worked, even thought the furler jammed a little. After motoring for 5 hours good wind came up and they got 96 nm closer to Gibraltar.

Crew from Germany

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On Saturday night new crew, Benno & Suzana,  joined Faule Haut.

Benno is Skipper Ingo’s closest sailing buddy. In 2017 he joined the Skipper on his first Atlantic crossing. Suzana is a sailing enthusiast and eager to lern new things on Faule Haut.

Both will accompany Faule Haut on her final leg back home. Good vibrations on the boat. 

Losing the Genoa

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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.

Torn genoa

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.

Passing the Azores

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June 1, 2020

Almost as predicted, after 2,810 nm of sailing, Faule Haut is passing the Azores Islands. She is two days behind her schedule due to the broken whiskerpole and the torn main sail. Skipper Ingo is still sewing on the main sail. At the moment he can’t use it yet and Faule Haut is powered only by her genoa and storm sail.

Without the main sail and the wiskerpole, he will arrive at his home port two or three days later then expected.

Faule Haut won’t stop here at the Azores. The Skipper just uses the internet to get some weather data and do this posting.

Portuguese Man o‘ War

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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.

Repairing the Genoa

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May 21, 2020

A reinforcing strap came loose at the genoa and has to be sewn back on. Also some tears have to be patched before they get even bigger.

The needle has to go through three layers of white sail cloth, four layers of blue uv protection cloth and two reinforcing straps. Nine layers all together. No wonder it broke on the first stitch.

Mast Climbing at Night

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Diary 5:   

May 18, 2020 on the Atlantic. Climbing up the mast.

At two o’clock in the morning my Skipper woke up from a slapping noise.

He went on deck and noticed, that the main sail was almost entirely torn off the second batten car/slider that runs on the track along the mast. But even worse, the halyard got jammed on the tip/end of the upper spreader/crossing. This could only happen because he had broken the upper most batten car/slider already a few months ago and could not replace it yet.

There is a little groove at the end of the spreader where the halyard got in between and stuck. Pulling he halyard tight meant pulling it deeper into the groove. Pulling on the sail did the same thing. There was no way to get the halyard free by pulling either one. The only solution was to climb up to the spreader and clear the rope. It was impossible to get the main sail down. And the wind was picking up. The main sail had to be taken down fast. Getting in a storm with a sail that you can’t get down would be disastrous.

Middle of the night!    Dark!    25 knots of wind blowing!    On a rolling boat, with the mast swinging to and fro!    12 feet waves!   The Skipper’s nightmare that he had had for over two years came true.

He started the motor to get some more speed and keep Faule Haut on track. That reduced the rolling movement of the boat slightly, but still the mast was swinging from port to starboard.

So he got his climbing gear ready and started the ascend.

Skipper Ingo hasn’t gone on this circumnavigation unprepared. Knowing that unexpected things can happen on an adventure like this, he took a climbing course at a school in Reutlingen a few weeks before he left, and bought all the necessary equipment to go up the mast alone. It was worth the cost.

The ascend was more than a PITA. The skipper got close to collapsing and giving up when he was 2/3 up the mast, scratching and squeezing his fingers, swinging away from the mast and bouncing against it several times, but knowing there was no other solution to free the rope but by getting up close to the spreader he kept on climbing. Once he reached it, it was easy to get the rope clear.

When he got down he saw the damage done to the sail attachment. It will be a tough sewing without a machine, to get that sail ready to be used again.

Climbing gear – happy skipper after decent – torn sail attachment

And this sewing has to be done while the sail is partially still attached to the batten cars on the track of the mast. No way to take the sail off in those winds alone. Well – it might work to take it off, but it’s hard to get it back on alone, except Faule Haut would run into a calm/doldrums (no wind period/area), but the Skipper won’t wait for that.

Atlantic Burger

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Diary 4:

May 15, 2020 on the Atlantic. Cooking on Faule Haut.

Skipper’s vegan  “Atlantic Crossing Burger“

Many times the Skipper has been asked what he eats on such a long transocean crossing. He lets you know and recommends something he himself created for the very first time, adapted from different YouTube recipes he studied. He didn’t expect such a delicious outcome:

Ingredients:

1 can of kidney beans
1 can of mushrooms
1 big onion
4 pieces of garlic
4 table spoons (TS) of each: cashews, almonds, walnut
2 TS lin seeds

2 TS whole wheat flour

2 TS olive oil (for frying the onions and garlic)

Some broth powder, pepper, salt, cumin, chili.

You should add 1/2 cup of oats. The skipper was going to do it as well, but forgot. Oats help to glue the mix together. He also wanted to put corn in, but the servings were too big already.

He chopped all nuts, the onion, garlic and the mushrooms and meshed the beans. The lin seeds he soaked in water for fifteen minutes. They also help to make the whole mixture gluey and bind the ingredients together (the vegans say: that substitutes the egg to bind it).

Then he fried the onions and the garlic in a pan and added this to the other mixed ingredients and formed the patties.

And now comes the trick: SQUEEZE THE PATTIES REALLY TIGHT AND BAKE THEM IN THE OVEN, instead of frying them in a pan. That way the stay together and WILL NOT FALL APART (as you can well see on the picture).

Afterwards you may fry them in a pan – just one minute on each side.  Worked perfectly. Didn’t think it would be that easy. They became crispy outside and stayed juicy inside. And the nuts also added to make them crunchy.

In nutititional value and in taste they cannot be topped by any beef burger.

They were delicious and will be put on the Faule Haut Menu for ever, because the Skipper became a vegetarian on his circumnavigation.

And…  did he just save a cow from dying ?

Looks like the Skipper got carried away. Too much time on a transocean crossing.

The buns had to be made by the skipper as well, ‘cause the next bakery was 1,200 nautical miles away. No “sail through” McDonalds, Burger King of KFCs on the Atlantic.

BURGER BUNS:

Those were his “first ever” buns.

Nothing to it:

1/2 white flour

1/2 whole wheat flour

some lin seeds, oats and sesame seeds.

salt, sugar (1 teaspoon), leaven, water,

(non vegans may add an egg).

Just mix everything, let the dough rise for two hours, knead, form the buns, wet the top and spread some sesame on it, and … in the oven.

All this cooking took place on a rocking, rolling and 21,1°heeling boat on the Atlantic in position  33°26.979’N  052°24.632’W at a speed of 4 knots in winds of 25 knots and waves of three meter height – in case this is of importance ? – but it should be possible on land as well.

Too bad, no fresh tomatoes nor lettuce on board. The Skipper could not find canned lettuce at the supermarket at Guadeloupe.

So pineapple and onions where the only toppings. It still was a feast.

The Skipper knows – with the toppings you can do better and have more choice than he in the middle of the Atlantic.

Close encounters

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Diary 3:

May 14, 2020 on the Atlantic. Close encounters with a tanker

Close encounters with a tanker of 333 m length and a beam of 58 m on the Atlantic.

Having sailed 1,200 nm over the last 13 days and not seen any ships at all, Faule Haut’s AIS (Automatic ships Identification System) collision warning went on in the middle of the night and disturbed the skipper’s slumber. His iPad and iPhone screen showed a tanker who was about to cross his path and said that a collision would most likely occur (if none of those boats would alter its course).  Well – good to know!

The tanker, making 15.1 knots of speed, was still ten miles away, so there was no danger whatsoever – thanks to the warning of the AIS (Skipper’s sweetheart).

So Skipper Ingo got off his berth and started watching what that sucker would do, because according to the IRPCS (International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea) the tanker, being motor powered, has to yield to a boat powered by sail.The Skipper decided to wait and let it come close to no less than 500 m before  taking any action, if need be.But then – early enough- the tanker changed its course to port to let Faule Haut pass in front of it.  Thanks – Captain!

Almost exactly the same thing happened when Faule Haut was sailing from Panama to Pitcairn. Over a distance of 4,260 nm miles, and 39 days of consecutive sailing, the skipper saw only ONE boat and had collided with it if none had changed its course. There, the distance was even closer. It was also a tanker of 330 m and passed Faule Haut at a distance of only 360 m. There as well, the tanker changed its course correctly to avoid a collision.

Processed with MOLDIV

This is proof again, that singlehand sailing is only possible with AIS and/or RADAR on board.

4th Whiskerpole broken

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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.