Blue Two Over Easy
Sunday, July 16

By: David Thompson

We set out at 2 PM on a hot and humid but breezy day, with the temperature up to 91 degrees, and breezes out of the north northeast averaging 12 MPH, but with many lulls and a few puffs that were stronger, accompanied by dramatic, 30 degree shifts.  Still, a fairly gentle wind day as we worked our way up towards the 14th St bridge.

We wanted to get in some spinnaker practice, so we approached the northernmost red channel marker by East Potomac Park on a port tack, pretending it was a windward mark, and tacked over to starboard to round.  But the combination of a strong current and  wind headers required us to try this twice more before getting around the buoy. 

We set the pole, got the chute up with a double twist, worked that out, and headed downriver in the general direction of the Wilson Bridge, pulled the board up, eased out the main, and relaxed for what we expected to be a nice downwind run with perhaps a gybe or two before reaching Old Town.

Then a puff hit from the leeward side, causing us to heel sharply to weather.  Of course Catherine and I had been sitting on the weather deck, prepared to hike hard if we had a puff from the weather side.

The puff hit so fast that before Catherine could react I was in the water and the boat was on its side.  We were in front of Roaches Run, about 200 yards off shore, with the mast pointing upwind.  In retrospect I remember seeing the chute out on the weather side farther than usual, and the boat heeled to weather a bit more than I wanted, so I asked Catherine to move to the middle of the boat, and she was headed in that direction when we went over. 

So there we were, us in the water, the boat on its side.  Fortunately we were all wearing our PFDs, and were accounted for, on the surface..  Now what?  Two jetskiers came by asking if they could help, but I couldn't think of anything they could do, and they quickly disappeared.  A pontoon boat came by asking if they could help, and I directed them to retrieving articles that were drifting away from the boat while trying to remember the recovery drill.

The first thought was to get the board extended, so that we could get someone on it and keep the boat from turning turtle, and then start the process of bringing the boat back up.  There was about a foot of board showing, so I had Barb hang on to that, while I went in to the cockpit and retrieved the preventer, and pulled hard on it to try to get more board out.  It wouldn't budge.  I swam over to the bottom side of the boat (swimming is not easy with clothes and shoes on and a PFD around your chest, but at least you won't sink). and pulled myself up part way onto the board, but didn't have anything to grip, so had to give that up.

The next thought was to get a line around the mast at the deck, and throw it over the high side, so that a rescue boat would have something to pull on to get us upright.  The port side jib sheet (double-blocked and heavy-duty) was just the ticket, and soon it was where we wanted it, wrapped around the mast with a clove hitch, with the tail up over the side, with a few feet of line to spare.

I asked the pontoon boat if they had a line they could attach to the end of the jib sheet and while they were getting it out, two DC Harbor Patrol boats roared up, sirens blazing.  (On the airport, two fire trucks and an ambulance were standing by as well).

At that point the harbor patrol crews took over.  First question: "is everyone accounted for?" With an answer of  "yes", they ordered us out of the water, taking us on board, and looking for personal injury needing treatment.  Barb had bit her lip in the excitement, and the crew thought she might have had a concussion, so they applied the concussion-detecting techniques, including asking her who was the President.  She resisted the opportunity for political comment, answering , "W, of course."

With those preliminaries out of the way, we worked on getting the boat upright.  I asked if I could get back in the water to lower the main, jib, and spinnaker, and the harbor patrol captain said OK.

Lowering the main and jib was relatively easy, but finding the top of the chute and easing it down was impossible; in addition, as it turned out the chute had caught on a spreader and was hung up tightly there.

At any rate, with the sail-lowering tasks done as best as they could be, I got back in the second harbor patrol boat while the first pulled on the jib sheet strung for the purpose of uprighting the boat, and it came right up.  Unfortunately the spinnaker ripped badly in the process, as we had expected.  The starboard side spreader was also somewhat bent, and the mast fly was history.  But other than that, the boat was fine.

Of course the cockpit was half full of water; in the meantime the harbor patrol fireboat was also on station, and so it pulled along side and with its pumps was able to get most of the water out of the cockpit.

All of this took the better part of an hour, but once the cockpit was bailed, we hopped on board, cleaned up the lines, got the sails into the boat, put up the jib, opened the bailer, and headed for the marina.

As we headed up channel I suspected that we would not be able to tack successfully on jib alone, and that was a correct suspicion.  So we had to head back into the middle of the river and get the main up, a process that was more difficult than expected.  But once up, the main brought us back up the channel and we docked.

Taking stock of our losses, we seemed to have only  lost the forward mast partners blocks (including the curved plastic one) and some spare gloves that were in the glove bag (the bag itself stayed on the boat), plus the ice that was in the carry-on cooler.  We'll need to replace the bent spreader and the masthead fly, and repairing the spinnaker will be a major undertaking.  But we were quite lucky that the toolbox stayed with the boat, as did the paddles, fenders, throwable cushion, bailing bucket, and the contents of the lazaretts.  The lazarett  covers remained shut, protecting the many things that were in there, including Catherine's car keys and various sailboat paraphernalia.

Lessons learned:  Don't pull the board all the way up when running down wind, and do use the preventer.  When pulling on the preventer to try to extend the board, make sure no one in  the meantime is hanging on the board, pinching it against the board trunk.  And do more to get the spinnaker free and down before righting the boat.

We were most fortunate to have been wearing our PFDs -- and were tempted to not wear them, given the 90-degree temperatures.  We were fortunate to have the mast pointing up wind when the boat was on her side, so that we didn't have a mast tip being driven into the mud.  We were fortunate that the water was warm. And we were extremely fortunate to have the harbor patrol so close and so responsive.

I asked Frank, on shore after we had secured the boat, what we might have done to prevent the roll to weather.  His response was to trim in the chute hard on the first sign of a roll, and to bear off.  That, of course requires an instant understanding of what is about to happen, and the presence of mind to execute maneuvers that are counter-intuitive.  If I had any time at all to react (which in this case I didn't), my thoughts would have been to point up and let go the spinnaker sheet. He also recommended avoiding sailing dead down wind with the chute up, gong instead on a deep broad reach, so that a sudden shift of wind to leeward doesn't do you in.  Good advice!

Post Script August 3:  North Sails Annapolis did a beautiful job of rebuilding the spinnaker, turning the work around in a week and charging only $175.  Jeff Todd did the work, referred by Greg Fisher, who was very helpful.  On the other hand, UPS has proven to be singularly unable to ship a spreader without damaging it. Shipment # 3 is currently in transit and we are crossing our fingers on this.  Shipment # 1 was in a rectangular cardboard carton, long and narrow, and while the box didn't appear to be damaged, the spreader inside was formed into a nice symmetric curve.  I thought perhaps NBW had invented something new in spreader design, but no, it was shipped as a straight tube when it left the factory.  Shipment # 2 was sent in a 2-inch diameter tube of stiff 1/4 inch cardboard, and not only was it bent into a curve by the time it arrived, but also the contents had fallen out along the way.  Hugh said he would pack #3 with a piece of wood for added stiffness.  Stay tuned!