OCEANPLANET DAMAGED!
After a successful Key West Race (Ft.
Lauderdale to Key West), the yacht OceanPlanet was damaged against a
concrete seawall in a storm.
A fast moving cold front swept across the
Florida Keys, producing steep waves and winds that pinned OceanPlanet and
many racing boats against a dangerous concrete pier. Thankfully, no one
was injured, but unfortunately OceanPlanet was badly damaged and will not be
able to compete in Key West Race Week.
Bruce reports: Utterly heartsick barely describes how I feel. Saturday, Jan
14th was one of the most horrible mornings of my life that I can
remember, worse than anything in my two circumnavigations. To see our boat get
damaged was a nightmare, and all day I was in a state of shock. The seawall we
were moored to is quite dangerous as the basin is completely exposed to the
northwest, but apparently no one realized how bad it was going to be. The end
result is that we won't be able to race KWRW, and will be several months getting
repaired.
The reality of being pinned next to a concrete seawall in big
waves and 35+kt winds was worse than anything that I have experienced in my two
solo circumnavigations. Our fenders had exploded and the last docklines were
breaking just as I arrived, so we were naked against the cement. When we were
blown back into the boat behind us (a Kiwi 35), I ran to the transom
to attempt to push us off (The motor was on and in forward gear but
I had yet to discover that it needed to be in full throttle to keep us
from going backwards), but that was a completely hopeless concept. I almost got
caught underneath the 35's outboard as slipped and fell down as our transoms
careened over and under each other. It was like a horror movie as I scrambled
back out of the way, and sat for a moment in horrified disbelief as I watched
the outboard whack down on our deck/transom corner, rip away from the back of
the Kiwi, and completely munch away at both boats. Not a pretty, or safe place
to be, so I scrambled back to the tiller and throttle and went full forward.
The boat moved ahead and the transoms disengaged, and I looked forward
to see where we were relative to the French Open 60 ahead of us. Suddenly I
heard a terrific crack and groaning and I turned to see our carbon radar tower
(the one that I had to climbed up and repair during the Vendee) topple over just
to seaward of the 35. The spectra stays had gotten caught on the 35's outboard
or the racks (who knows) and it ripped down the whole show. I grabbed our
cockpit knife, went back and cut the stays so we could pull away.
There
were many crews working to save their boats, but no sign of anyone on the 35. We
(and I'm sure many others) would have kept a crew on the boat for the night but
for some inexplicable reason no staying aboard was allowed. I later found out
that the crew of the 35 were held up in travel, which kept them from beeing
there to help.
We scraped and ground and slammed horrifically against the
wall for what seemed like an eternity as I waited for OP crew Sylvain Allard to
get back from the house with more people...he had arrived with me and when we
realized this was an emergency situation I sent him back to the house. I yelled
and cursed and screamed at the wind, the wall, the waves, and myself, and hoped
that I would wake up soon. I didn't.
When everyone arrived we grabbed
anything we could use as makeshift fenders and all the bigger guys tried to hold
us off. Of course we kept yelling at each other not to get caught between
anything and not to get hurt. It was terrifying.
The most effective of
many items we used was our furled heavy reacher which we draped down in between
the wall and the boat. After a while a marine assistance boat that was pulling
boats off the wall finally got to us, and we escaped to the other side of the
basin where we could hang away from a windward surface.
I was chewing
myself to bits most of yesterday, but my incredible crew of supporters organized
a team dinner at the house and everyone told me that all the
shoulda-coulda-wouldas I was beating myself up with were not going to help. Here
I'm supposed to be an inspiration to these great people and they turned it
around and have helped me to look forward, not backwards. They are right of
course, and I'm feeling more positive now.
OceanPlanet will be repaired.
We will have a reunion of these super people at another event. Our fledgling
OceanPlanet Foundation will be continue to build itself around the concepts of
opportunity for shorthanded racers,cruisers, and youth, along with prominence
for American shorthanded racers, and a new program for the Vendee in 2008. With
all that, there's no time for me to be moping.
Many lessons learned.
Mother Nature rules. No matter what you have accomplished, she doesn't give you
special treatment and you can never let your guard down.
Most important?
Always give all you can to your friends and supporters. You never know when
you'll be finding it coming right back to
you. |
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