Author: richwest3

September 27, 2019

d. The Bad Decisions of Others

We cruisers all make mistakes out here; so naturally we’re reluctant to criticize each other because at some point, as the Main Ingredient song goes, “Everybody plays the fool, sometime / There’s no exception to the rule …”

So when we see someone make a foolish choice, we’re often loathe to criticize unless that mistake could be truly harmful. After all, sometime, somewhere, when we least expect it, it will be Our Turn. This lifestyle also has an underlying theme of independence and freedom; so unless you’re infringing on someone else, you can pretty much do your own thing.

The unfortunate flip side of this is that someone else’s bad decision can have consequences for those around them. In a nutshell, their problem can quickly become everyone’s problem. Naturally, it can be exasperating to witness someone making a mistake that could end up pulling us in.

One example (Fiji, 2015): Rich and I were motoring through a wide channel between an island and a barrier reef. Not far away from us was another cruiser who, for some reason, decided he wanted to be outside that reef and made an abrupt turn towards it. Maybe he believed there was an opening or didn’t know the reef was there, but in any case he was headed directly for it.

Now it was urgently time for us to become busybodies, not just to be helpful but because we’d have to go to his aid if he got stranded. Rich tried multiple times to hail him on the radio but got no response, and we watched helplessly while he ran straight into the reef. Thankfully he got off it and sailed on; but for a time we were unwilling participants in that scenario.

Another example (Tonga, 2014): Three cruising boats had befriended each other in Tonga during our second season there and were traveling together. One of the captains, who we’d met, was frankly in the unfortunate zone of being too old to effectively operate his own boat. His wife had been with him (and probably helped him be fully functional) but had to leave for a family emergency, leaving him on his own. Thus it was lucky for him that the two other boats had taken him under their wings.

This worked out well until this man decided he wanted to linger in an anchorage and meet up with his friends later. I’m sure his friends weren’t too happy about that as the trip to the next spot, while not far away, did involve some weaving through a reef-strewn area. But what could they do?

Rich and I were ashore when we saw him finally pull anchor and head off to join his friends. Knowing him as we did, we wondered if he’d successfully maneuver through the reefy area. As it turned out, he didn’t; he ended up hitting a reef hard and running up on it. Now, he was very stuck. The man put out a call to his friends for help. A local resort owner overheard and zoomed out in his panga to help, while one of the man’s friends left their comfy anchorage, taking his own boat into the reefs to help with the rescue. His other friend, probably wanting to wash his hands of the situation, stayed put.

The panga and the yacht were able to pull his boat off the reef, and luckily it still floated. That evening all of us ended up ashore at the resort, and while the guy who’d driven up on the reef seemed OK, the poor friend who’d gone to his rescue was pretty traumatized, his hands shaking so badly he could barely light his much-needed cigarette! I guess the rescue had been hair-raising and difficult, along with the stress of dealing with a friend who really did not have the skills to be out here on his own. (Rich and I, having dealt with our elderly parents, know what it’s like when they won’t give up their independence even when they’ve become a hazard to themselves and others.)

One of our most serious examples happened in Tonga in 2012. A mass of cruising yachts, having checked out of Vava’u, were resting up in the Port Maurelle anchorage before starting the passage to New Zealand. This is when everyone got the startling news: a huge low was forming and predicted to hit the area between Tonga and New Zealand. It would be bad, really bad. So bad that a few boats who’d actually started the passage were turning around and heading back to Tonga.

Those of us remaining in Tonga needed find safe harbor, and those cruisers who’d checked out and were sitting in Port Maurelle had a big decision to make: head back into Vava’u even if it meant having to check back into the country, or try to outrun the storm. It quickly became apparent that it would not be possible to do the latter, and that the group in Port Maurelle needed to head back to safe harbor. All except two of them did just that. One of those two boats, Windigo, opted to head out on the passage in spite of the forecast. I’m not sure who the other boat was, but it may have been a boat called Adventure Bound.

Why these cruisers decided to head out into what was coming, I can’t imagine. But what’s interesting is the decision was only “bad” for Windigo. Adventure Bound was a good seafaring boat with an experienced and capable captain. Windigo was, in our opinion, a bit of a tub (when I’d seen it previously I couldn’t help but think “Winnebago,” because it reminded me of those big motor homes). If what we heard since heard was true, that Windigo was taking paying guests aboard in tropical ports, the roomy boat was probably perfect for that. But this boat was best suited for coastal cruising conditions; so heading out into a near-cyclone was a really bad decision.

Unfortunately for Adventure Bound, Windigo was rolled and the couple aboard injured and in need of rescue. Adventure Bound, well ahead of them, felt duty-bound to turn around and slowly beat their way north through horrific conditions in order to stand by while a diverted cargo ship rescued the couple from Windigo. It’s not a surprise that Adventure Bound sustained damage to their steering and ended up having to hand-steer to New Zealand after the rescue.

The ripple of Windigo’s bad decision did not stop with the damage to Adventure Bound or expenses incurred by the cargo ship that had been diverted to rescue them. There were a lot of boats yet to make the passage (including us) who now had to contend with the idea of a blacked out, stricken, drifting yacht somewhere between Tonga and New Zealand.

As it happened, one boat actually got their prop tangled a line trailing off the life raft dropped for Windigo by a New Zealand plane. That crew had to go into the ocean to cut the line off their prop, highly dangerous in ocean swells. Another boat nearly collided with the dark hulk of Windigo itself.

The rest of us had to set off with the knowledge of this floating death trap out there somewhere, another stress in an already-stressful situation. Rich and I were glad for our radar and can’t imagine how stressful this must have been for people who didn’t have a good working radar. Keeping a visual watch doesn’t do much good if there’s a black object, large swells, and a pitch black night.

Rich and I personally don’t criticize the Windigo couple for leaving the boat as they had both been knocked unconscious and the captain was injured. But we were unhappy that they didn’t scuttle the boat, opting to leave it floating out there in hopes of retrieving it.

In the end, Windigo eventually ended up wrecked on the Australian coast. During the time she would have been drifting towards that area, a single-hander en route from Fiji to Australia hit a mysterious object in the night and his boat was sunk. Could it have been Windigo? Possibly, but we’ll never know. What we do know is that Windigo’s bad decision ended up affecting many people.

On a final note: It’s not always easy to intervene even when the problem is obvious, but it’s even less so when you’re near someone taking a foolish risk. Such was the case the last time we were in Minerva when one boat, captained by young guys having fun, anchored out in the pass into the atoll to spearfish. At the end of the afternoon their engine had conked out, and they had to be rescued by someone who actually took their own boat out there to retrieve them. The rescuers were accompanied by about seven dinghies from other boats standing by to help. It was a relief when the boat in trouble was towed back in safe and sound.

This event wasn’t a big deal, but we later heard these same guys headed back out to the pass the next day to fish again! We’d left Minerva that morning, but had we remained I would have been incensed. Repeating your risky behavior is no way to express your gratitude to your rescuers, but I also have a problem with their spearfishing in a pass where tiger sharks are frequently spotted. Yes, it’s their business if they want to take that risk, but what happens if one of them is attacked and injured? Whose problem is it then? It’s everyone in the anchorage’s problem; that’s whose problem it is. The few people who remained would have to deplete their own medical supplies, including very hard-to-get effective pain medication, and try to arrange a rescue.

My point in writing this post is, when weighing the greatest hazards to a cruising boat, bad decisions by others are way up there near the top of the list. All we can do, I suppose, is to try to hail any boat we see headed towards trouble, to butt our nose into their business even if the interference isn’t welcome.

During an interview after they lost their boat, Windigo’s owners claimed the storm wasn’t forecast when they left Tonga, but that simply isn’t true. Everyone knew about the storm at that point; so the couple on Windigo either didn’t want to admit they made the deliberate decision to head out or that they didn’t bother to check the most recent weather predictions. If it was the latter, I certainly hope someone would have radioed them to make sure they knew the forecast, that the entire anchorage would make sure everyone was apprised of the situation. After hearing that people were incredulous as they watched Windigo motor off, I can’t imagine that someone didn’t pick up the radio and at least try to intervene.

Coming up, a few more troublesome issues caused by other boaters. Do they never end? –Cyndi

Other posts in the series:
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 1)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 2)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 3)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 4) (this post)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 5)
Real Cruising Danger #2: The Sheep Mentality

September 21, 2019

While we’ve been away from Legacy, we’ve been keeping an eye on her. We left the GPS on and we look at her position on Marine Traffic. I was surprised to see her change berths and called the marina to see what was up.

“Nope, still in the same berth as always” was the answer. What’s up?

Here are the results on Marine Traffic over the past four weeks or so…

Possible causes:

1. Inaccurate GPS reading. This move is within the normal error range of a GPS, but it makes me realize that navigating a narrow channel with GPS alone is probably not a good idea.
2. Inaccuracies with Marine Traffic. This could be, I guess, but I’d have no way to know.
3. Error with Google satellite images. I don’t think this is likely with the back and forth movement I’m seeing. I would expect any error to occur when the map is created, not when it’s displayed.

Of these, I think that the first is the most likely. That or our marina manager is taking Legacy out for joy rides and his memory isn’t so good when it comes to putting her away! 😉

-Rich

September 21, 2019

Everyone’s probably seen this, but just in case…

September 17, 2019

While other boaters can present occasional trouble, the vast majority of cruising horror stories come from taking on crew; but I must add that in these cases, the danger isn’t so much about being harmed as it is about being annoyed. I’d title the crew-hiring scenario: “Annoying People Who Appear Normal.”

Any situation which throws complete strangers together into a living situation will inevitably bring clashes. After all, this is where many reality shows get their drama and entertainment value! This scenario is magnified out at sea people where people are together 24/7. What’s worse is that boat owners have their own way of doing things which the crew may not be willing, or able, to comply with.

Personality quirks get magnified, as do eating habits, drinking habits, sleeping habits, bathroom habits, decision making ability, meticulousness, etc. Really, bringing people you don’t know out onto the ocean with you creates a breeding ground for conflict. Unfortunately, bringing people you know doesn’t necessarily solve this issue: in fact it’s been said that if you want to lose a friend, bring them on as crew.

Impossible, annoying, crazy, duplicitous, irresponsible crew stories are so common that it’s amazing no compilation book of these stories exists (at least that I know of). Books like these written by nannies, airline personnel, nurses, celebrity assistants, etc. can become bestsellers and even movies. Such a book containing crew stories would be both horrifying and hilarious, I’m sure!

Thankfully we’ve never needed crew on Legacy, but we’ve certainly had people approach us, and a couple of them have been clearly unstable. In New Caledonia, we encountered one young American who’d planned to hitch a ride on a cruising yacht to New Zealand after finishing his temporary job. The problem: his job lasted late into the season and virtually all the cruising yachts had left. Someone (darn you whoever you are) told him that we were planning to head off soon; so he came by our boat wanting and expecting a ride. Rich patiently explained to him that we are a 2-person boat with one bed and do not take on passengers or crew. All Rich could suggest was that the young man post an ad on the bulletin board as boats do pass through the area late in the season.

The young man, dissatisfied, left, but the next morning he appeared again. This time I was in the cockpit. He marched up and stated, “Just let me sleep on your deck!” For a moment I had no idea who this was or what he was talking about—why would someone want to sleep on our deck? Then I realized he must be the pest from the previous day. I said no, then had to bark at increasing volume, “No!” several times as he kept arguing with me and insisting we take him with us. He finally left but was pretty miffed. After that we had to keep our boat locked in fear we’d come home one day to find him inside. It was a huge relief when we finally headed south (after carefully checking Legacy for stowaways).

Note to any Kiwis who don’t understand why crew can be a problem: Finding mentally stable, sober, and reliable crew is much easier in New Zealand in that, by law, Kiwis cannot captain their own boats offshore until they’ve actually experienced an offshore passage themselves. Thus, there’s a lot of good crew available (sailors anxious to get that required passage experience) and on top of that, they’re able to leave the yacht once it arrives at its destination.

This is perfect for those cruisers who want to deliver their boats to or from the tropics and have their families fly in to meet them. For those of us blue-water cruisers leaving from the Americas (North, Central and South), finding good crew is much more difficult, especially since said crew generally expects to stay with the boat once it’s arrived because cruising, not the passage experience, is often the reason they want to crew in the first place.

Of course the horror stories go both ways, and in fact none of the stories I’ve heard from the cruisers’ perspective have resulted in any fatalities or anything truly sinister. But from the opposite perspective, there are stories of crew and passengers who’ve been hurt or killed as a the result of incompetent or mentally unstable captains. In short, boat owners are far more deadly to crew than the other way around; so this will be the feature subject of this post.

c. Dangerous People Who Appear Normal, Part 2

The worst crew/passenger story we’ve heard was that of a young British couple, Peta Frampton and Chris Farmer, traveling around the world.

Chris and Peta had the misfortune to meet an American named Silas Duane Boston, who had a boat in the Caribbean. Silas probably seemed safe as he was running day trips off Belize and had two sons, age 13 and 12, aboard.

Silas was making the 150 mile trip from Belize to Honduras and was willing to take Chris and Peta along as passengers. Little did they know that Silas was, in fact, a serial killer who had already murdered his children’s mother. When Chris intervened as Silas was beating one of his sons, Silas waited and then took his revenge by murdering the couple and throwing them both overboard. It was many years before this murder was solved, and it’s believed this man has committed other murders since then.

Less drastic but no less fatal was a story we heard a few years ago from friends who’d been cruising in Fiordland (New Zealand). There were a handful of other boats visiting the area, and two young female backpackers had accepted a ride with one of them. The captain was European and one of those grizzled old salts who doesn’t pay attention to weather. He was also known among the other cruisers as a real jerk.

If memory serves, our friends tried to warn the girls about this man, but hey, he was offering a free ride and what an opportunity for them to see a remote area. So the girls went with him even though he was heading out into bad weather, and bad weather in Fiordland is nothing to be trifled with. Sadly but not surprisingly, the boat along with its captain and the girls, was lost in the treacherous waters off that southwest coast.

In our own experience, we were in Samoa when a young woman came up on the radio saying the boat on which she’d been crewing had an accident and she needed another ride. It turned out she was crewing on a boat with a rather notorious drinker who, in an inebriated state, had tried to anchor overnight off the north side of the island (there are no anchorages in that area because the bays are too reef-strewn). They had ended up on a reef and spent the night there with waves pounding on the boat.

Samoan officials rescued them the next morning and pulled the boat off the reef. Now, they were being towed into the marina. The young woman was immediately offered a ride to Tonga and later got another ride to New Zealand. She was OK but suffered some post traumatic stress disorder after the incident.

We never met her but we did meet the captain she’d been with, a nice guy but his drinking problem made him an unsafe skipper. Coincidentally we’d met another man in Tahiti who’d been trying to woo this girl, unsuccessfully, to his boat. That guy was both a drunk and a nutcase; so while she’d chosen the better of the two, both choices were bad.

The saddest story we know is of the four people who opted to crew on an old schooner called the Nina crossing from New Zealand to Australia. Along with the crew were the captain, his wife and their son. The boat was lost in bad weather during the trip with no survivors.

After reading the report New Zealand issued about the incident, it seems the boat was ill-equipped and not all that seaworthy. In my opinion, even though the captain was experienced, he wasn’t careful as not only didn’t he hire a weather router (probably because said router would have advised him not to leave when he did), he wrote this statement before they left: “The Tasman Sea is shooting gales out like a machine gun, living up to its reputation. We are shooting at heading out after the first one this week. No doubt we will be dancing with one or two of them.” Anyone who goes out in any boat, much less an old wooden schooner, with the expectation of “dancing” with gales on the Tasman Sea is a bloody idiot. I realize that sounds harsh, but it’s frustrating to look at the beautiful faces of that young crew and know their deaths were preventable.

Over the years Rich and I have talked to numerous crew in search of a boat and always try to steer them to trustworthy people. I especially worry about young women as they often end up with male single-handers who are often single-handing for good reason. We actually warned two girls in Fiji not to get on one boat for a planned day trip because it wasn’t seaworthy and the captain was a very heavy drinker. Thankfully, while the girls did go talk to him, they didn’t end up going anywhere on the boat. This boat eventually sank on a day trip out of the marina, headed to the same place its captain planned to take the girls.

I think one frustration for many of us cruisers is running across these young people who just assume anyone who owns a boat knows what they’re doing. They get stars in their eyes about making a trip with no thought as to the seaworthiness of the boat, the competency of the captain, or the degree of danger in the trip. They get into a “beggars can’t be choosers” mentality and are so grateful for a sailing opportunity they won’t look that gift horse in the mouth.

I used to have a fantasy about creating a website where cruisers could anonymously post warnings about dangerous vessels or captains. This site would be for the parents of young people, not so much the young people themselves as they tend not to heed warnings. If I were a parent who knew my traveling child might be looking to crew or hitch a ride on a yacht, I’d monitor such a website. But alas that will remain a fantasy as I can’t see anyone actually creating such a thing, or parents knowing enough to find it.

In the end, all I can think to advise anyone considering hitching a ride on a yacht as unpaid crew (being a professional crew member is a completely different matter), is to remember that while you’re becoming part of a team transporting a boat, that only you can look out for your own best interests.

It’s human nature that when joining a group, people shift their loyalties to that group. It’s tempting to put on blinders, but I’d advise that if your boat’s “team” is opting to leave when the vast majority of other boats has deemed a “weather window” unacceptable, or someone pulls you aside to warn you about a weather forecast, or problems with the boat, or problems with the captain, to please take heed of the warnings. You can do your own research about the weather or ask another cruiser to explain what they’re seeing. If you don’t want to believe one person who’s warning you about something, ask other cruisers for their thoughts—I’m sure you’ll be able to gather multiple opinions on the matter.

For women, make sure what’s expected of you is clear. Single males are often perfectly capable of delivering their boats themselves but may like female company, especially if that female company cooks and cleans. I don’t think I have to spell it out that some guys might want more. Make sure you know before you go, and keep in mind that even when everything seems well and good, some leopards can change their spots when they’ve been drinking heavily.

As for cruisers who want to take on crew, be sure you’re clear on your reasons. Are you doing it for yourself, or to please someone else like a nervous family member or advisers who’ve never done a blue-water passage in their lives? And if you’re trying to ease the watch burden on, say, your female partner, remember that as cook and maid (yes that’s sexist but it’s the way it usually works), her workload will now be doubled unless you bring on crew who can fix their own food and seem thoughtful and careful (in other words, a clean-up-after-themselves sort of person). Bringing on crew that makes life more difficult for your partner is hardly going to help convince them that cruising is a great thing.

I don’t mean to come off as negative about crew and crewing. Of course sometimes it all works out wonderfully as lifelong friendships are made and existing friendships are strengthened by the shared adventure. I guess my wish for both sides, whether it’s serving as crew or bringing on crew, is that they go into the deal with a clear head. In the end, trouble on one boat can ripple out and affect the cruisers around them, and that’s just no fun for anyone.–Cyndi

Other posts in the series:
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 1)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 2)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 3) (this post)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 4)
Real Cruising Danger #1: Other Boaters (Part 5)
Real Cruising Danger #2: The Sheep Mentality

September 16, 2019

Yep, we have a freezer on the boat but it’s tiny. This is true luxury – Frozen Dinners! And an ice maker! This is our freezer here in Kona. We only have about two more weeks of this before we go back to Legacy. Good bye freezer. Good bye ice maker. -Rich

Note from Cyndi: To landlubbers the above photo is no big deal: “Frozen dinners in a freezer, big deal, show us something special.” But to me (us) this is something special. It’s a Christmas miracle, a wonder of wonders, one of the most amazing sights ever! These are delicious, portion-controlled, relatively healthy dinners that when we get  hungry, we pop them into the magic microwave oven (another thing we don’t have on the boat) and dinner is ready in minutes! No long shopping trips, no trying to find elusive ingredients for recipes (why is it grocery stores are always out of the exact fresh herb I need?), no promising Rich only 20 minutes more ’til dinner when it’s actually 40.

I’d envisioned doing a lot of cooking in Hawaii as we have a real kitchen, but then I met Mr. Microwave and remembered that we used to love some of Stouffer’s frozen dinners. After finding those, we discovered Amy’s Bowls and Evol, yumbo! Yes, they’re short on vegetables and some nutrients, and when we get back to the boat I’ll be back to preparing more veggies, but for now it’s nice to get a break from cooking and working over a hot stove (we have fruit and unsweetened cereal for breakfast and go out for lunch). Life is good, very, very good! –Cyndi

PS: Oh yea, it’s nice to have some ice cream on hand, too!