Offshore Sailor Needs Advice

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by twisty

Which is exactly what I was trying to get back to. But no one really answered my question about how either could have been used in this situation ad it seemed stupid to make another thread that was title as something like How could a drogue or sea anchor helped that guy in that other thread.

From shrimping I know that if you shorten one of the lines attached to the doors and net and not the other, you turn. So though I have never tried it, it would seem that in this case a sea anchor re roped in the proper way would have given a very crude method of steering.

Hud I may take a while to get there but rest assured I am always trying to get to one point, I just go the long way around sometimes.

Twisty,

That's a very valid question.

One of the greatest uses of a parachute sea anchor is that it will keep you safe in foul weather and allow you to keep station until better weather arrives and you are better able to deal with the situation.

In this case, the sailor could well have stayed put until conditions were moderate to calm and allow him to actually go overboard and jeri-rig lines to the rudder that would allow him to steer.

The key here is to always keep enough stores on-board to handle this sort of situation. Our rule of thumb was to calculate our needs for a passage using 100 miles per day as our goal and then put 3X the amount of stores required for that passage.

There is no worse thing that could happen to a sailor than to have to abandon ship due to a lack of stores. If you have enough food and water on-board, you can deal with almost any situation if you also have a parachute sea anchor. DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT ONE!!! They are a cruising sailors best friend. If you never have to use it, it's the best investment on the boat. If you need it and don't have one........well......you may end up where this guy did.....China....

[Isara]

Sorry to bump this old topic but I just wanted to say that there was a lot of helpful information contained within these 29 pages. It should be required reading for any one contemplating a solo crossing without much experience. This guy was lucky he lived to tell his story.

Actually, thanks to this topic, I'm making some changes to my plans for next year... and taking some extra precautions. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and knowledge.

[RTB]

He's a determined young sailor. It seems he will be heading for Hawaii once more. He is signed up for the single-handed Trans Pac.

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