MacGuyver

[summer storm]

After getting stuck in New York for 4 weeks because of the weather I took in the lines and got underway for Bermuda. It was December and after clearing the snow off the deck left the main channel and settled in for a rough trip. The idea was to let the cold front behind me overtake me and provide calmer weather when I hit the gulf stream. 100 miles out the seas were 15 to 18ft and the wind was 30 to 35 knots, rough, but we were dealing with it. Well the front stalled and when I entered the stream about 350 miles out the seas grew to 25 to 30ft and the wind was steady at 55 knots. At about 7am one of the crew woke me and reported that the pumps were not keeping up with the water in the boat. After spending a hour looking for a spot where this amount of water could enter the hull I was stumped.
Next I went out on deck and managed to work my way forward to check the foredeck, well I found the problem. About 20 foot of the starboard side rub rail sprung and was hanging off the boat. Every time we hit a wave the bow would go down and massive amount of water came in this 20ft X 2in opening. Not knowing what to do I looked around for something to hold this rail back in place. The only thing I could up with was a set of chisels. With 3 crew holding my feet and 3 crew inside trying to pull the rail back in with coat hangers I hung upside down and drove the chisels into the gap and wedged the rubrail into place. We still had to run the main pumps 24 hours a day and had to run the big clutch pump 30 40 minutes every hour but we pressed on and pulled into Bermuda 3 days later. We made repairs and continued on another 1,100 miles to Antigua for the Winter but this event affected me in a strange way and the following Summer I resigned as captain. That fall with a new captain in command the vessel met similar weather conditions in the same area and sank.

[wowzer52]

That would definately make the pucker meter peg.

[summer storm]

I did more than pucker on that trip