November 27 UNTIE THE LINES II #19 – When Karl Decides
This weeks episode is an interesting sailing video. Matthieu and me were supposed to sail up north to Guanaja. But things came a little different.
When we headded out, I already noticed that we would have problems with our course. We did not want to get too close to the coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. One reason being banks, the other reason being possible pirate attacs.
The wind was not too bad, but not quite good enough for us to make a straight course. On top of that, Matthieu was really seasick and I had to single hand the boat. Now, yes, I do usually sail my boat solo. But it is way harder to single hand when there is actually a second person present. Especially when your crew is sick.
On top of dealing with the boat, you have to make sure your partner stays hydrated. And you have to work around someone that is lying motionless in the cockpit, usually always on top of the sheet that you just need to use.
In my head, I was discussion if we should maybe head in to Providencia, which was just 30 nautical miles away. I did not want to be totally tired when we have to navigate through the banks. That’s why I decided that we would change course and sail to Providencia instead.
Some 10 miles from Povidencia, I hear a massive !!!BANG!!! and something comes flying towards the cockpit. What was that? That did not sound good at all. Pretty soon I figure out what had happened. The lower shroud on the starboard side had snapped.
The plan had been to sail up to Guatemala for the hurricane season and give Karl a shiny new rig. Looks like my good old boy was a little bit impatient. Luckily, the weather conditions were rather light. We made it safely into port.
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