Nick Barham
SHIPWRECK
I wrecked in my trimaran “TAHITI BELLE” returning from the Azores Challenge in 2008.
It happened at night: 3 days out from Ponta del Garda – on passage to Falmouth – 400 nm West of Portugal. There had been gale force winds for two days – I was sailing along quite happily under a three quarters rolled-up foresail and main lashed down on deck. Then the boat got a battering from big often breaking cross seas caused when the wind direction changed 90° as the low went through. She then started to break up and take in water.
At first light I could see the extent of the damage and it was clear I was going nowhere except perhaps 4000 metres down. The bow section of both ama’s had broken off flooding the floats and the centre hull was cracked and waggling about at the point where the deck joins the main hull.
As much as I admire him, I decided rather than “Drowning like a gentleman” advocated by Col Hasler, it was time to set off my EPIRB. 12 hours later I was picked up by the 32,000 tonnes motor tanker ‘Omega Princess’ on passage to Antwerp, stopping fortuitously at Falmouth, my home port, for bunkering,
THE PICK UP
After setting off the EPIRB I started sending out regular MAYDAY messages on VHF. I had no way of telling whether the EPIRB message had been picked up. And there was no shipping near enough to hear my MAYDAY’s.
My options were limited; Either the boat would sink and I would have to take to my dinghy, or I might get picked up. Between MAYDAY’s and pumping, I packed my GRAB BAG and generally got ready to abandon ship.
Around 1600 Hrs my main VHF radio cracked into life and I received the message
“TAHITI BELLE, TAHITI BELLE, THIS IS OMEGA PRINCESS, OMEGA PRINCESS, WHAT IS YOUR POSITION, OVER”
It was staggering, out in those huge seas and shrieking winds. Then out of the blue that little black box suddenly comes to life and you are connected to other human beings and realise your chances of survival have just gone up another five notches.
I radioed my position back and they told me they would be at my position in about one and a half hours. After that they called me up at regular intervals to check my position.
Then around 1530 Hrs I heard
“TAHITI BELLE THIS IS OMEGA PRINCESS, WE HAVE YOU VISUAL. WE ARE COMING ALONGSIDE TO MAKE A LEE AND PICK YOU UP”
I came up on deck and there she was, this huge black hull, red topsides and white bridge glistening wet in the pale afternoon storm cloud sunlight, water cascading from her deck as she ploughing, through heavy seas towards me. I was soon able to talk to them using my hand held radio on deck. The plan was to come alongside, throw a line down for me to connect onto, I jump overboard and they pull me over and up their side.
The captain manoeuvred that huge tanker as though it were a dinghy, came right along side so that I was staring up her perpendicular black side,
Down came the lines
I clipped on
Jumped over the stern of my boat clutching my GRAB BAG – which immediately sank.
Pop, then a hiss as my lifejacket auto-inflated.
And there I was floating free supported in my lifejacket in the middle of the Atlantic drifting attached to the tanker
I remember being surprised how warm the water was.
The crew then pulled me over to the tanker as she motored slowly forward to avoid my being crushed between the two boats
Then hauled me up on to the tank deck and safety.
Three days later we anchored in Falmouth Bay for bunkering and I came ashore on the Falmouth pilot boat.
My wife was waiting on the dock to meet me. I was wearing a blue shipping line boiler suit – probably what is called a onesy these days – and like a released convict, clutching a black plastic bin bag with what was left of my possessions Lifejacket and oilskins. My next task was to explain how I had left £20,000 of family assets lying at the bottom of the Atlantic.
WHAT WERE THE LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS EXPERIENCE
- A Val is a light trimaran and she was going too fast for the conditions – I failed to slow her down. It is essential to have a way of slowing your boat down and prevent her from surfing out of control.
- I have a strong preference for the Jordan series drogue. I had all the cups on board but had not managed to find the necessary 100m double sheathed nylon warp needed to assemble it in time for the start. – a potentially life threatening mistake.
- Without modern electronics I probably wouldn’t be alive.
- I was lucky to be rescued in daylight. Had it been dark it might have been a very different matter.
- Few accidents happen by chance. Most are man made and the risk can be managed to acceptable probabilities by good pre-start preparation.
- Your boat should be regarded as a survival capsule with which you are going to achieve your objective of getting to Newport RI in good order and return safely to base.
- Sailing the challenge is the easy part. Getting to the start line properly equipped in good seamanlike order is the most difficult.
WHAT MY PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE SHOWED ME
Your EPIRB is likely to be the first link in the rescue sequence and probably the most important piece of safety equipment on board. You are seriously chancing your luck if you don’t take an EPIRB you and preferably one with a built in GPS. I had my EPIRB mounted on the bulkhead just inside the cabin. So that I could reach it from both the cabin and the cockpit and it couldn’t be washed overboard and set off a false alarm.
GPS – If you have a fixed GPS then do have at least one handheld as back-up – you will be very difficult to find if your main GPS’s goes down (flooded or lightning strike) and you are unable to communicate your position to a rescue vessel.
VHF – Have a waterproof hand held VHF in your pocket for close quarter communication
Site the main VHF with its longer range mast head aerial, where you can get to it without leaving the cockpit or use an extension mike and ideally have a waterproof speaker in the cockpit so that you can hear beyond the noise of the wind or an engine.
SART (Search and rescue transponder) – The ‘Omega Princess’ although I was able to give them my position over the radio, were unable to see me on their radar, despite having state of the art equipment.
In the event I was sighted visually by the lookouts on the bridge, which was a feat in itself under the conditions. Yachts send out notoriously poor RADAR echoes which in heavy seas are likely to be masked even further by the waves. A SART when activated causes a series of dots to appear on the rescue vessels radar screen indicating your position from 5 miles away.
Like liferafts, EPIRB’s and SART’s can be hired. Ensure the EPIRB is registered to you and your boat with HMCG
LIFEJACKETS – Never use a lifejacket without crotch straps, life line and preferably a built in spray hood.
I used a 275 Newton jacket (debatable whether too large and cumbersome when inflated, for getting into a life raft or up a pilot ladder or cargo net). My current jacket is 190 Newton
When I was being pulled up onto the rescue vessel I had clipped the line to the tethering ring of the lifejacket. When upward pressure is put on this line it has the effect of pulling the lifejacket up around your head and your head disappearing underwater unless the crotch straps are tightly adjusted.
I think this was probably my most anxious moment. It is easy to drown in a life jacket if your head gets too low in the water. You take gulps breathing and swallowing water – you try to expel air by gasping and coughing – you have little air in your lungs and are desperate to take in more – you find it very difficult because your head and mouth are at water level and – Bingo the cycle repeats and gets worse each time – very dangerous.
LIFEJACKET or SAFETY HARNESS
The question arises should one wear a lifejacket when sailing single handed. My suggestion is that one should not. Inflated it is bulky and in the way. Why make saving yourself more difficult than it already is. One must however wear a safety harness (with crotch straps) nothing less will do and be clipped on at all times (day and night) and never leave the cabin without clipping on.
Better still promise someone you love at home you will never, ever, go on deck without being clipped on.
LIFERAFT – I sailed without one which was not a very clever thing to do.
I could not afford the £1500 to buy a current ocean going model and all the hire rafts were already booked by mid May. If you are hiring a liferaft do make the booking arrangements now.
I relied on my AVON Redcrest which I kept pumped up and lashed down on the deck. This would have been adequate for a ship to ship transfer but not if ‘Tahiti Belle’ had sunk and I had to ’take to the boats’. Hypothermia would almost certainly have been my fate if not worse
SURVIVAL SUITS – I suggest taking a survival suit or dry suit and wear it early, rather than wait until things start to go badly wrong.
FLARES – I was fortunate in being picked up in daylight. Had it been at night I would have needed at least an additional six red parachute and four or more red and white hand held to pin-point my position to a rescue vessel.
KNIVES – Have a sharp riggers knife around your waste at all times (day and night) and keep another tied on up by the mast. You may need to cut life line lashings or rapidly deflate a lifejacket
GRAB BAG – Must have built in buoyancy and be waterproof. Mine was not and sank.
Keep it permanently packed – there could be no time to pack when things start to go wrong.
EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLY
If you have to abandon into a life-raft take, in addition to the water ration in your liferaft pack an extra 4 gallon plastic jerry can of drinking water. Leave an air gap in the can so that it floats and a lanyard to stop it floating away.
YOU TUBE
The actual rescue can be seen on YouTube by entering “The loss of Tahiti Belle”
Jester Challenge 