September 25 UNTIE THE LINES II #12 – Time To Give Up
No, I did not make it to Cuba…I decided to head back to the San Blas Islands and to head north after that. On the way back there, a couple of things went wrong…and I had the feeling that maybe it was best to give up, sell good old Karl and end this little adventure…
It was a 200nm solo sail from Cartagena to the San Blas islands. The conditions were actually not too bad. Wind between 10-25 knots, a bit of annoying sea state (around 3 meters) but all within a doable range.
But during the first night, one of my pulleys of my wind vane broke off. I should have heaved to to repair it. But I didn’t. Instead I tried to fix it with one hand, the other hand trying to keep Karl on course. Of course that was a very bad idea, especially with the wind coming nearly from the stern and the waves throwing Karl from side to side.
I am sure you see it coming already. Yes, exactly, I went through an accidental jibe. And of course I had a preventer set up…but the metal ring that it was attached to the boom to broke off in that moment. The boom flew over towards me and I could feel the main sheet brushing past my neck, not an inch away.
On top of that, the tiller came over to my side. It smacked me onto the backrest and squeezed my ribs.
When I came out of the temporary paralysis, I only had one thought running through my head: “you could be dead, that was really, really stupid!”
Enjoy, ahoy, thanks for watching and see you next week,
Nike & KARL
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