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January 29, 2007

Collision with sunken ship - back to port

LOCATION: Mumbai, India
SEE WHERE WE ARE!
Longitude: N:18.92874°
Latitude: E: 072.83865°
Miles to Djibouti: 1,800

This update should have been written 30-miles offshore on our first day away from the coast, but a freak incident off the southwest corner of the Prong's Reef lighthouse after just 2 hours of pedaling had us limping back to harbour with significant structural damage to the underside of the boat.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly after a relatively painless departure (compared to previous voyages) from outside the Gateway of India: Sher and I were garlanded by the club tindals before being escorted several miles down the peninsular by our good friend Cyrus Heerjee (Honorary Sailing Secretary for the Royal Bombay Yacht Club) and several other well wishers. Then shortly after rounding the last lighthouse marking the southmost extent of the Prongs Reef a sickening crunch from the underside had us both instantly roused from our heat-induced stupors. Three more impacts quickly followed before water began pouring over the top of the centre board that had been punched up and backwards by the force of the first collision. There are many things that can cause alarm at sea, but water pouring unexpectedly into your boat ranks pretty high up there.

After the initial frenzy of bailing out, lathering the rogue crack with sikaflex sealant and beating the centreboard back down as far it would go (before getting jammed), we started to try and rationalize what the hell had happened. We were far enough off the lighthouse not to have hit a reef and it was just a couple of hours after high tide anyway. The only possible cause we could think of was a submerged piece of timber, or something else pretty substantial floating close to the surface. But this was just a wild guess as the visibility of the water was pretty much zero.

Centreboard Housing

A short while later we hailed a fishing boat and learnt the real story. Three years ago a ship had sunk in the immediate vicinity and although the locals knew about it, no one had notified the authorities to have the hazard marked on the charts. And if it had ever been marked on the surface with buoys they certainly weren't there anymore.

What luck!?! Even if we had set out to ram this thing deliberately we would never have found it. We could only chalk it up to a mixture of incredibly bad luck and fate perhaps dealing us a hand that somehow, as these things have an uncanny way of doing, would only reveal its real reasoning later on down the road.

Whatever the reasons the bottom line was that the top of the centre board, being jammed at an angle, was unable to make a proper watertight seal, and as we continued to head out around into open water where the waves started to increase in size, water again began leaking in. The decision was made to head back to make proper repairs before committing ourselves any further into the voyage and running the risk of not being able to make it back unassisted. And what a good decision this turned out to be! On arriving back at our old mooring outside the Gateway we took a closer look at the underside of the boat and found the rudder to be almost completely destroyed. Just a few pieces of fibreglass were all that was holding it together.

Cracked Rudder

The first thing to do was to find a competent shipwright, which Cyrus quickly manage to do by making a few calls. Razzaq, the club's shipwright and general carpenter with 36 years of trade experience, immediately answered to the call and took a 2 hour bus and train ride down from north Mumbai where he lives. Vini Soni spent the rest of the day combing the city for a section of seasoned Burma teak from which build a replacement rudder.

Building a new rudder from scratch

At the time of writing the picture is looking much brighter than it did 24 hours ago. Razzaq will have a complete rudder, supplemented with some key parts cannibalized from the old unit, ready by 6 p.m. this evening. We'll then throw some paint on to dry overnight. We also hauled Moksha out of the water this morning using a hire crane to beat the centreboard back into alignment and check the hull for any other damage. This all went off fine and we threw her back into the water just 30-mins later with everything looking good - no leaks. So if the rudder is finished by this evening then we should be able to get out of here tomorrow morning early.

Realigning the Centreboard

Aside from the rudder there was one other very good reason to come back. After just a few minutes of pedaling yesterday it became clear that Sher couldn't read any of the figures on the compass and was having a hard time seeing even major landmarks along the coastline. This has now been resolved in the form of a pair of $10 minus two long distance glasses. At 34 years old Sher has now opened the door to a whole new world that until this morning was just a blur. And for the crossing it might make the difference between getting to Djibouti versus landing up in South America somewhere.

Posted on January 29, 2007 11:58 AM

Comments

Posted by: Crister at January 29, 2007 1:46 PM