BANG…. WildChild rises up about 10 inches out of the water… Terror grips us both… what the fuck did we just hit…?
So today is Thursday May 30th 2019… We left Georgetown Exuma last Tuesday. Georgetown is a lovely place and we were able to provision the yacht and fuel up again. We have used $128 worth of diesel in the last 6 months. It makes me smile… see… I told you we really do sail most of the time… we use the motor so little.
Leaving Georgetown however is a shallow dodgy invisible reef and invisible coral head dodgy event… and we definitely hit some invisible solid object on our way out.
This was frustrating beyond all reason. Terrifying and nerve wracking…. destroyed my confidence in an instant… We had been doing everything right… we made no mistakes… yet we still hit something… hard! I ran down below to check to see if we were taking on water… did we just crack the hull? Oh lord please let us be okay… I was shaking in fear for another 20 minutes at the helm as we had to keep going. There is no pause button…
What the hell happened…?
We were slowly motor sailing our way out of the Georgetown protected harbor. It was 5 miles until we would get out into open clear deep water and could relax. We were in 24 feet of water with a sandy bottom moving along at about 2.7 knots. You can see in the Diagram we had just slowly come thru between these 4 marked rocks and the bottom was dropping away getting deeper.
I had begun to relax at the helm. It was 10am in good daylight and I had the mast camera turned on intently staring down at the waters in front of the WildChild to look for any dark patches that could indicate a rock or coral head. Elena was standing on the bow tethered in carefully watching the waters ahead for rocks or unmarked shallows…. Conditions were calm with good visibility. We had just come out of this spot where the charts said there were 4 rocks (not Coral heads) on the bottom but the waters were over 20 feet deep… and usually those rocks are only a few feet tall… in 24 feet of water no actual concern.
Elena saw nothing in front of us… I saw nothing on the camera… no sign of any dark patch or coral or rock or sunken vessels… I was just starting to relax after safely passing thru those 4 rocks… the depth was increasing and everything seemed fine.
BANG… the boat lurches up 10 inches into the air as the keel suddenly strikes some unseen object on the bottom and she rises up and over the object and keeps moving forward! Holy FUCK….!!!! what the hell was that..? Neither one of us saw a thing… we had no clue what just suddenly happened… Terror grips us both… We hit something hard… but it did not feel like a hard solid rock…. it felt like hitting a sand bar… but that was impossible… I am not sure if we smashed thru something or our massive keel broke or crushed whatever we hit…?
WildChild kept moving forward past the object… 
With my heart racing wildly in terror wondering if this was it… is this the moment we lost WildChild… is she about to sink… did we just crack the hull…. are the bilges running… are we taking on water… are we okay…? The questions race thru my mind.
I call Elena back to the helm to take over so I can run down below to inspect for damage… Check the bilge for running water or cracks around the keel bolts… but we seem okay… WildChild took the beating and didn’t flinch… she is such a tough girl… I FUCKIN LOVE THIS BOAT.
The best we can figure… the object was more likely to be an uncharted wreck than a coral head. We were in deep water 24 feet deep with our 8 foot keel on a +1.9 foot tide boost. Whatever the object was it had very steep sides and was very narrow. The way the impact felt I kind of had the impression that it was soft’ish.. like wood or the roof of a sunken vessel maybe.
Whatever it was WildChild rose up and over it and kept going. We don’t seem to be injured… I have not had time to dive the hull yet though, will do it this afternoon. We have been busy sailing the last 2 days. I bless the inch of fiberglass and Kevlar reinforcement I had added to WildChild’s hull and keel last year, $2000 worth of kevlar and a solid month of miserable work that just paid off. All hail the toughness of our girl… all hail WildChild.
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We eventually made our way out of that miserable passage route out into open water. We had to sail directly upwind all day in ok’ish conditions. We had 15-18 knots of wind on the nose all day smashing our way directly upwind at a wind angle of around 40 degrees true. It was technically only a 21 nautical mile passage once we got out of Georgetown to get to Newton Cay in a straight line… but of course we did not get to go in a straight line so really we sailed like 35 miles. We did it in 4 tacks and constantly were adjusting our course while we sailed to try and hold as tight to the shifty wind as we reasonably could.
The waves were not actually that bad… nobody vomited or anything… but it is just uncomfortable. Sailing close hauled into the wind means the yacht is heeled over a lot… like rail in the water at a heel angle of around 30 degrees. The waves are smashing into the bow and the beam of the yacht and spray up into the air and wash the boat. Sometimes we get spray 15 feet in the air come raining down into the cockpit. The jarring motion of the bigger wave slams shudder the boat and are uncomfortable to sit thru. Sometimes you suddenly get flung in a random direction… you can often hear me in videos grunting with the effort to fight the fling.
The wave period is around 1 boat length which is a bad length to smash into all day. The wave height was only like an average of 1.5 meters (4 feet) most of the day… not so bad… but smashy smashy and poundy poundy all day makes us tired. It is hard to explain to non-sailors… but even sitting upright all day in conditions like this can be physically exhausting. You are flexing all your core muscles to maintain your balance and fight gravity all day… you get tired.. worn down.
Now with our crew I (Captain Lexi) HAVE to stay in the cockpit and near the helm all day… every minute WildChild is sailing I am at the helm. Ever take a 12 hour shift at the helm on an ocean going yacht…? it is exhausting… mentally and physically. It is not fun for me. Elena is awesome… great crew… great attitude…. always trying to help… always willing to help any way she can. Her attitude is just the best…. but she is still a beginner sailor. She can babysit the helm… and she can now react to most things properly… but there are still many things she will not know how to react to yet.
I often let her nap in the cockpit nearby. Gives her time to recharge her batteries. She is always close at hand if I suddenly need help. This is the most I ever get to rest at the helm. I have to keep an eye on the instruments and sit up every 5 minutes to look around.
I have to scan the horizon for other vessels and check the clouds around us. I am always listening to the sounds of the boat. WildChild talks to me all the time. I am so tuned into every little sound of her… even the faintest sound that is “not quite right” will alert me. I can hear if the wind shifts by the sound of the sails. I can hear her when she starts to luff and I know to sit up and check things, make adjustments.
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I get bored on the helm. I have now spent thousands of hours at the helm. When it is calm I can watch videos or read…. but it seldom that calm anymore. The last 2 days we had 2 back to back 11 hour sailing days too rough to relax in. I spend all day at the helm. I get so bored sometimes… my restless spirit starts to rise up… and sometimes… I get out the blue tooth speaker and play DJ with my cell phone. So begins my crazy energetic bouts of wild singing and dancing at the helm. I have a terrible voice at best and a singing voice that used to make my dogs howl… but goodness gracious girl do I ever LOVE to sing wild and crazy songs I often make up on the spot.
Elena never sings with me… 🙁 boo…. I always sing alone to her amusement. She never dances with me either…. that German girl is so restrained… so proper all the time. Probably a culture thing. Lexi is a WildChild… not very conformed at all… a very wild and free spirit… take it or leave…
I am free spirited and I am okay with that.
Time to go diving and inspect the keel now.
Cheers
Captain Lexi….
…. the not confident and the uncertain …