#captainslog “...We really took a beating. It was blowing a steady fifty knots; in the gusts—I couldn’t say how much, because the wind instrument died. But there was a lot of wind. The beginning is here >> ...We didn’t manage to set the mizzen because the guys were seasick, and it was unlikely they’d be able to steer outside. And physically, I find it difficult to stand at the helm alone for ten hours. To heave to under the mizzen, you need to furl the staysail and set the mizzen. Setting the mizzen in fifty knots was already dangerous: it would flog as it went up and tear. I decided to heave to under bare poles. I furled the scrap of staysail we’d been sailing under on my own. Artyom heroically climbed out on deck to steer. I said: — Bear away, because even that scrap of staysail is making her round up hard. I crawled forward to ease the staysail sheet, then ran back aft to haul in the furling line, and there was hardly anything left, literally half a metre of staysail... And then—wham!.. The sea is rough... one! A tremendously powerful gust hit us; the boat rounded up and heeled over. It didn’t feel as though the mast touched the water. But the leeward wheelhouse windows went under. A wave tore off the sprayhood (the canopy over the companionway), bent its hoops, and ripped the sprayhood to shreds. It simply rolled straight through it with all its force. Artyom and I were clipped on, of course. We were fine; we held on when the knockdown happened. The same wave tore off one solar panel and broke another. It actually cracked; there is now a web of cracks across it and a hole where a fitting was ripped out. Some of the fittings were swept overboard, and now we have to figure out how to repair everything. We finished furling the staysail, put the helm to windward, and the boat almost hove to. The bow was being blown slightly downwind; we needed something more aft. I released the two remaining solar panels. They increased the windage aft, making her round up (turning her bow into the wind). In the end, the boat hove to almost as though she were under a reefed mizzen. And that was how we lay for about fifteen hours while sixty knots passed over us. The rain was flying horizontally. Artyom said it was the first time he’d encountered rain that hurt his skin. Then the wind eased and eased; when it dropped to about thirty knots, I set a scrap of genoa. A day later, the wind died away. And under full sail we crawled along at about four knots until it went completely calm. The forecast promised a week of calm. There wasn’t much time left for us to enter the Philippines without complications: in three days, Artyom’s passport would enter its final six months of validity.
A note from the first mate: As you may remember, the yacht left Vladivostok without its scheduled refit. For reasons beyond anyone’s control, spare-part supplies began to be disrupted, and the captain decided to get Lady Mary out of the country. Initially, it was decided to leave the yacht in Korea (the previous post with details is here) —a common practice among Vladivostok yachtsmen. After the storm in the Sea of Japan, the crew were refused an emergency stop in Korea and headed for the Philippine Islands.
Early December
We arrived. Repairs began. We moved to the island of Cebu, about 400 miles south of the capital, where it is cheaper to stay and repairs can be carried out. One day, the captain flew from Cebu to Manila.🌎 Which, translated into plain language, means: from the southern Philippines, where the yacht had been laid up for repairs, the cap flew to the Philippine capital to get a new international passport at our consulate.
Follow Lady Mary: The “Route” tab on our website has a track on the second map. It is recorded in real time by a Rockstar Iridium 360 tracker. Go to the Route tab on our website, travely-family.com. The map takes a couple of minutes to load.
Our captain is currently in Antarctica. Follow Andrey’s adventures aboard the schooner Elsi in the Southern Ocean here: https://www.iridium360.ru/guest/journey/8db92642
We regularly publish the captain’s posts on our social media. Follow us on social media: Travely-Family on VKontakte Travely-Family on Telegram Travely-Family on YouTube and on the platforms that must not be named: on Can’t-agram on “Mugbook”
Friends, thank you for your support in the comments! Huge thanks to Yuri K., Natalia D., Anna K. and Vladimir K. for supporting the expedition with a contribution to the ship’s fund via https://sobe.ru/na/travelyfamily
Hugs. May everything work out! PEACE to everyone!