I’m not judging, but trying to learn. In the account, they were sailing down steep 30-foot waves under bare poles. The woman awoke to a hard hit by a wave, was suddenly on the ceiling, and tons of water came in through the companionway hatch. The man at the helm assessed that they had been turned upside down.
The account does not indicate whether the companionway was closed (hatch boards in place), nor whether the the boat may have turned beam to the waves and rolled. What I’m wondering is, regardless of whether they got pooped or rolled, could tons of water have come through the companionway if it was closed? In any case I’m glad the couple survived the ordeal safely, and sorry about the loss of their boat. Best Regards, Randy Stafford S/V Grenadine C&C 30-1 #7 Ken Caryl, CO > On Jun 29, 2018, at 3:32 PM, Francois Rivard via CnC-List > <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > > Thanks for sharing, it's a well written and poignant story. > > I think it's easy to find faults from a distance. I'm also of the opinion > that younger / tougher sailors would have sailed home as the mast was still > up, the sails there, the boat wasn't taking on water, and the inoperable > pumps sounded fixable since they were supposedly only clogged by paper.. > > But I wasn't there. > > In my mind 2 things were much harder to fix: > > 1) They were a couple of exhausted / beaten 70 year old folks showing > physical signs of distress coming from off-shore exposure and hypothermia. > > 2) The dinghy / life raft were gone. If the boat did start to sink, they had > no options. > > It's pretty clear that they "gave up" on a likely to be fixable situation but > the real issue was that they were also really worried that either one or both > could fall seriously ill or worse before they could reach the shore. > > I wouldn't want to be the widower that caused his / her better half to perish > by saying: "He/ she'll be just fine" the boat's replaceable. > > > -Francois Rivard > 1990 34+ "Take Five" > Lake Lanier, GA > _______________________________________________ > > Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and > every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use > PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > _______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
