Disaster!

Saturday 6 October, Ben and Sam embarked on a two-man voyage to the harbour bridge and back. The boat was in excellent condition after a long and stormy winter break. Sam had repaired the tiller by gluing the split wood together and wrapping the entire tiller in fibreglass tape. We initially set sail in no particular direction and found the wind too strong for both the genoa and main. The genoa was quickly furled and the staysail hoisted in its place.

We headed towards the tank farm and tacked many times to avoid ferrys and dinghy races. We then came across a 100 footer called Squall, which was anchored near the southern end of the harbour bridge. It had lots of deck hands cleaning and polishing as they do on such a fine sailing day. With Ben at the helm, Sam busily organised a chocolate testing for Sunday on the phone.

We approached the bridge surprisingly slowly for the strength of the wind. The available sailing space was limited due to the marina and Squall on one side and the racing on the other forcing us to tack every minute or so.

As we approached the bridge near its tallest point, we tacked to avoid a larger boat coming right for us and we then got caught up in the turbulent wind beneath the bridge. The boat was slightly out of control and it took about 45 seconds to get into some good wind and get back on course. In future, we will tackle the bridge at full speed to avoid hitting the concrete pillars.

Shortly after passing under the bridge, we rounded a mark and started heading home. We jibed and set up a goosewing with the spinnaker pole (as we are currently without a whisker pole - donations appreciated). After passing beneath the bridge we foolishly agreed to hoist the spinnaker so Sam took down the staysail and sorted out the hoist. After threading the guy ropes and laying the entire kite out in the cabin we were satisfied it would hoist successfully. We went ahead and quickly realised the halyard and guy ropes were inside the forstay and the kite balooned out like Team NZ's in Race 5 of the America's Cup 2007. As we both pointed and laughed at our predicament, we failed to notice the boat being pulled about by the rouge sail and the main jibed at near warp speed but was luckily halted by Sam's ear.

The mainsheet rammed into Ben with force and Sam asked Ben if he was bleeding. Turns out he was and there was blood all over the side of his face and on the deck. Sam pulled off a shirt and put pressure on the wound while steering into the wind and Ben retrieved the spinnaker and started the outboard. Ben returned the boat to shipshape condition with Sam at the helm and we moored about 45 minutes later. Once we picked up the bouy, Sam called Angie for a lift to A&E (Sam protested this insisting that a trip to A&E was not necessary, Ben vetoed from the umpire boat and forced a trip). Sam had eight stitches put in the upper medial area of his left ear and wore a full head bandage for six days.

Exams will prevent further sailing until mid November. Till next time!