Chapter 47

Waking at 09:00 after 5 hours sleep I watched Dad and Bill working on the autopilot as I ate a bowl of muesli. Yacht electrical systems and controlling electronics are inevitably both expensive,because of the small market, and unreliable, because of the environment. Dad was installing a complete new unit but at the same time had suggested retaining, repairing and servicing the drive unit as a spare for future use - a job for me in off watch time.

"What happens if the new carbon fibre boat gets hit my lightning?" My question was asked with all the innocence of the ignorant. "You've explained that you want the modern electronics on boats to be a lot easier to replace because they are so susceptible to damage by lightning but not what happens to the boat." Bill described the metal straps that are installed in wooden and fibreglass boats to act like the lightning rods on tall buildings but I got the feeling my question had unnerved him.

Up on deck I handed Tracy the coffee she'd asked for as I took over the wheel. The wind was a little lighter so both sails were completely unfurled, just about sustaining our speed of 10 knots measured by an ancient very low tech little spinning propellor towed behind. To our starboard about 2 miles away was another yacht and to port a ship also headed south. "I wasn't expecting rush hour traffic in the middle of the ocean!"

"I wonder if they'll find collisions becoming more frequent with GPSs and electronic chart plotters?" wondered Tracy. "As it becomes easier to stick to the 'perfect' route we might be more likely to bump into other vessels on exactly the same course."

As the watches progressed our routine settled, only challenged by an occasional squall for which we partially rolled the sails or a drop in wind when we started the engines and motored for a while to keep up our speed and charge the batteries. On the third day the autopilot rose from the dead and we changed our course to starboard from about 230° true to 265° true - the change of course involving 'jibing' the sails so the mainsail was out to port, the jib to starboard with the wind on the starboard quarter. It impressed me that Tracy's description of the boat making its own wind predicted (with the help of a to-scale sketch) how a change of course of 35° could produce a change in apparent wind direction of 60° but on the frightening side it similarly showed that quite a small accidental change of course could jib the boat again but in an uncontrolled way so that the huge mainsail on its boom could crash across the boat at speed.

With an autopilot working there wasn't a need for hand-steering and with Tracy's encouragement Dad and I pushed on apace with electrical work. The 'all-band' radio transceiver replacement was at first a disappointment and even I thought Dad might have 'lost it' when he had me trailing behind the boat a roll of kitchen foil borrowed from Sheila. That was followed by hours of running a 3" wide roll of copper sheet through the boat until at last a repeat of Dad's tests produced a thumbs up from him that the radio was ready for use.

The restoration of a functioning radio brought a flurry of activity. While Dad enjoyed a tea-break and I was preparing vegetables; first Tracy called an office phone in the USA and then Bill called first the boatyard in the UK which was building the new boat and then Grandma Tina.

I did naturally ask if that meant I could call my friends and was given the go-ahead if I was ready to pay what I could earn in a week for a few minutes chat!

That only left the instrument setup and chart-plotter and Dad's work would be completed since straight after the lightning strike the TV, microwave and DC to AC inverters had been replaced to allow chartering to continue.

Bruce made himself very popular a week out when with a trailing lure he caught a dorado. Sometimes it's called dolphin because of the head bulge but it's not 'Flipper' and makes very, very tasty sushi in the hands of an expert like Sheila. Thinking of future opportunities I asked her advice and she had me make poisson cru which works with any fresh fish but particularly well with dorado.

As we shared our evening meal with a glass of muscadet, which I found goes very well with the fish, we agreed that this was as good as life got and we could only feel sorry for the folks back home who would be worrying about what a tough time we must be having.

So the days passed, the final repairs were completed and although our progress slowed as the winds became lighter, on the morning of the 13th day English Harbour in Antigua, which was to be our first Caribbean port of call, was less than 200 miles ahead…

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! It was the short range VHF radio and Tracy was on it in a flash. The voice was almost sobbing with relief to hear Tracy's voice but was speaking French so the microphone was passed to Bruce who was fluent…

The vessel in distress was a yacht of about 35' with a man, a woman and a 6 month old baby aboard. With the accuracy of GPS we could see it was only 6 miles ahead of us but the yacht was sinking having hit a ships' container drifting semi-submerged. They were still aboard but had a life-raft ready to deploy.

"Lifejackets on everybody. Bill, start the engines and head straight for them, heading 272° magnetic. Bruce, tell them to stay on the yacht as long as possible as we can be there in 40 minutes. Sheila, take Isaac and Venus and prepare the inflatable for launching." Having got us all moving Tracy joined us on deck, after getting more information through Bruce, at just about the moment we first spotted a yacht. Soon Tracy and Bill had the sails furled and helped us launch the 12' inflatable dinghy and secure it fore-and-aft alongside WorthIt's port side.

"Bill. you're in charge here, I'm taking the wheel. Get Venus and Isaac in the dinghy ready to get the mother and baby off as I come to their leeward side. Only once they are safe on WorthIt are you to consider seeing what can be salvaged.

Tracy steered WorthIt alongside as sweetly as could be with the tender both acting as a fender and a secure platform between the two yachts. The woman climbed into the dinghy and readied herself to receive her baby, the stricken yacht however was by this time down at the stern and when a larger than normal wave passed under her the liferaft on the coachroof freed ready for deployment slid rapidly to the stern knocking the man holding his baby overboard. He hadn't even properly hit the water before Dad caught him by the harness to haul him in the dinghy but the jerk was too much for the man and the baby slipped out of his grasp into the water followed a second later by me…