Lynne and Joe's journeys on their 1979 Tayana Vancouver 42 have taken them from the Florida Keys to Maine, The Bahamas, Guatemala, and Honduras, as they have embraced the cruising lifestyle and the challenges it brings. This article recounts a particularly eventful passage from Guanaja in the Bay Islands, highlighting the trials they faced, from diesel spills to rigging malfunctions, and their resourceful problem-solving in the high seas. Read on as Lynne and Joe navigate unexpected hurdles and find joy in the unpredictable nature of life at sea.
In the eternal words of Kurt Russel as Captain Ron, “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen out there” and that could not be more true!
I’m Lynne and I fell in love with Joe who is a sailor and Captain of Que Sera Sera, which led me to loving the cruising life-style and the challenges of problem-solving on the high seas. Our travels have taken us from the Florida Keys to Mount Desert Island in Maine to The Bahamas to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala to the Bay Islands in Honduras. We have covered all of these nautical miles in our 1979 Tayana Vancouver 42 fully outfitted for ‘off the grid’ living.
Our story begins in Guanaja in the Bay Islands on February 7 of 2024. Here is the weather routing information, provided by Chris Parker and his excellent team at www.mwxc.com , we were working with:
We left Guanaja under sunny skies, running our motor to clear the island and then picking up the East wind to start our sail. With seas ranging in 4’ to 6’ heights and wind gusting into the 20’s, we knew the conditions were going to be a bit spicy and we prepared for be heeled over for most of the passage. Our first day was relatively uneventful, with our normal 3 hour shifts and picking up meals as we could.
Day two started fine and we enjoyed good speed with fairly strong winds for most of the day. By nightfall, the captain was getting his 3 hours of rest while I kept watch. Around 1 am, sitting in the cockpit, I started smelling diesel even though the motor was off. Moving around the cockpit, I couldn’t identify where the smell was coming from and checking inside the boat provided no further clues. Finally, after turning on the spreader lights, I could see the spare diesel cans that we brought with had broken free of the tie down to the stanchions and lifelines and were sliding around the foredeck splashing diesel all over the decks. The captain woke up from the smell and we realized what a mess there was. It took us about an hour to re-secure the jugs and then clean up as best we could with soap and water. We were feeling quite proud of ourselves at this point and the captain went back to bed.
Another hour goes by and there is a loud noise from the bow of the boat that doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before. Turning on the spreader lights revealed the deployed stay-sail swinging freely from the mast! Carefully going forward I could see the stainless steel deck fitting for the furler-assembly had failed leaving the entire sail, furler assembly and boom all swinging freely in 25 knots winds, in the dark, with a deck still slippery from the diesel spill. It should also be noted that we normally have netting around the entire boat for small dogs, however the netting had been removed and not yet replaced leaving very little protection from sliding off the deck. Once again the Captain joined me near the mast where we were able to secure ourselves to the mast pulpit and evaluate how to capture the free swinging sail.
At this point, the wind had carried the entire assembly to the port side and it was stuck on the outside of the life-lines, this allowed the Captain to capture the furler and hold it tight to the boat. I was able to use the furling line to pull the sail in and then, working together we walked the boom and furler assembly toward the bow. Finding any extra lines we could find, we were able to tie the entire assembly to the bow so that the Genoa could still be used and there wouldn’t be further damage. In the midst of this whole emergency, the Captain had to sit on the deck and brace his feet on the toe rail while I rolled in the sail and had a flying fish land in his lap on the deck! Needless to say, the comic relief of this was welcomed as we continued to fight our way towards a solution.
The next day we were able to assess damage and realized there was very little damage done, other than the broken fitting and possible damage to the aluminum pole that the staysail attaches to. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for getting through that whole ordeal with no injuries to ourselves or the boat.
Several more days passed with no incident, other than strong winds with a severe heeling angle. Once we rounded Cuba, the wind had pretty much died and we had countercurrent to deal with, so we started the motor. After a few minutes, we noticed the temperature climbing very quickly and also noticed a lack of water being pumped out the through hull from the engine. We immediately stopped the motor and started investigating possible causes. Checking the impeller revealed a badly damaged part and our likely culprit to the lack of water being pumped through the system. We did carry spares and were able to replace the impeller, however we noticed that there should have been 12 fins on the old part and only 2 of them were still intact. We knew this probably meant that those other 10 fins were probably stuck somewhere in the cooling system, but we tried to be optimistic anyway. Low and behold, after re-starting the motor we immediately noticed the lack of water and the quickly rising temperature. Yep, we definitely had parts where they shouldn’t be. So, very light wind, counter current and no motor!
We slowly made progress and got back into the Gulf Stream and the wind picked up a bit. We made it to about 40 miles away from Cuba when the wind completely died and left us just floating with a dead stick. Since we weren’t really going anywhere, we tried to clear the blockage in the cooling system by inspecting the heat exchanger. Unfortunately, when we removed the end covers the gaskets were destroyed and we did not have spares of those. As the sailors of old did, we just had to wait for the wind and hope that we could sail our way to Marathon.
After about 12 hours of dead wind, we finally started seeing an increase in wind and had fun getting the sail up and back on track. Thankfully, the wind cooperated and we also had some good help from the Gulf Stream. We made it to Marathon and then had to talk through how we were going to anchor (there were no mooring balls available) with no motor and still 20+ knot winds with a non-functional windlass. We got into position and with the forward momentum turned into the wind and started dropping the anchor and chain. Things were going great until the chain came off the cleat the Captain was using as a breakpoint, allowing the full weight of the boat to pull against the chain that was just free flowing with no means to stop it. Very luckily, the chain is secured in the chain locker and that saved us! We secured an impromptu bridle to provide additional protection for the chain and the load it was holding and then found our way to the main salon for frosty cold adult beverages and some much needed processing time from our passage.
We have definitely learned that things will go wrong on passage and you can’t really anticipate what you might need for whatever breaks or goes wrong. Our plan is always to have major items (pumps, filters, etc.), and we also know that we will probably have to come up with creative solutions along the way.