From Hopless to Haul Out

Since I last wrote, a few more challenges have emerged from the ongoing Intle Breeze drama. In this story, you will read about the one that truly broke my spirit for a while, and just how grateful I am for the friends and family, both near and far, who talked me through problems, made me laugh when I really didn’t feel like laughing, and somehow gave me hope while I desperately waited for the return of my Captain

The day after my last story Lightning Strike & Big Girl Panties something rather wonderful was happening while I slept. A couple of men in South Africa were quietly organizing my life from thousands of miles away, allowing me to wake up the next morning with something I had been running dangerously low on “HOPE”

And finally, Eric returned to Intle Breeze!

In his absence, I had relocated her to a safer and far more comfortable harbour, where we could haul her out of the water and finally begin to navigate the enormous mess we found ourselves in.

But first there was one very important matter to attend to …. An extended trip back to civilization. After all that has happened, I think we earned this trip.

Water, Water, Everywhere …. Except in the Taps

The last time I discussed water, it was about the fact that I could not make any because the generator was out of order. I did, however, still have a little water left in my tanks, so between that and collecting rainwater, realistically, I would manage. Not comfortably, perhaps, but I would be fine.

Now why on earth would life be that simple?

Literally two days later, the water pump started sounding a little strange, and suddenly my taps were running completely dry.

I climbed into the bilge to investigate the water pump and filters. Just before Eric’s Australian bedtime, he had told me where to find the filters and suggested I give them a clean.

Easy enough, I thought.

Well, for the life of me , I could not find these bloody filters. I searched, looked, fiddled, crawled around and probably swore a little. Nothing. Eric was fast asleep by then, so I got my brother Lester on the phone, since boats are his thing and he knows Intle Breeze well.

Eventually, I located the filters, only to discover that they are tiny little things! All this time, I had been searching for something larger and obvious, like most of the other filters on the boat. Of course not one of the men in my life thought to tell me I am looking for something small.😂 Once again, I am convinced this boat was specifically designed to confuse me.

I cleaned the filters, which in my completely unqualified opinion, looked perfectly clean anyway. Unsurprisingly, I still had no water coming from the taps.

Then I noticed something else. There was far more water in the bilge than there should naturally be. So, of course, I did what every highly trained marine engineer does, I stuck my finger in it and performed the official taste test…… A little salty…..not a good thing I thought.

By now, I was beyond frustrated and starting to feel completely hopeless. This boat needed to get to Shelter Bay, and I wanted to mover her as soon as possible. But with who?? Basic things like washing hands and wiping the galley counter had suddenly become complicated.

Next, I decided to climb in the engine room to see if I could find any kind of leak and of course I found water in there too.

GRRRRR 😡 Also not a good thing.

Now both Eric and I are worried that water might be coming in through the sail drives. So Eric and I having a 16-hour time difference made it rather difficult for him to trouble shoot with me. Between Lester and his friend Handre, we talked through the possibilities. We more or less concluded that the water definitely did not belong there, which was comforting information NOT… Thank you very much 😒 but we also determined that the ingress was not bad enough at that stage for me to panic. Well not completely.

So the short version of the entire saga is simple. I had water in all the wrong places and none in the one place I actually needed it - the taps.

Going to Bed Hopeless and Waking Up Excited

By now, I was completely over it. On Eric’s very strong suggestion, I had booked myself into an Airbnb in town because according to him, I desperately needed some real comfort. He wasn’t wrong.

I crawled into my extremely hot and humid bed, feeling exhausted, defeated and rather sorry for myself.

While I was sleeping, however, family and friends on the other side of the world quetly doing my work for me.

When I woke up the next morning my phone was blowing up with messages. While I had been sleeping and feeling sorry for myself, my life had somehow been almost completely organized. All that was left for me to do was say YES.

Between Lester and Handre, they had found me a trusted couple who were good friends of Handre’s, experienced sailors themselves and rather conveniently, right here in Panam. H’s trusty words “ No matter what Chris  will get you to Shelter Bay”

The plan was for them to join me on Intle Breeze and sail the 140 nautical mile passage from Bocas Del Toro to Shelter Bay.

After a quick video call with them the decision was made. My husband’s words “ if you happy and feel comfortable go for it”

We were going to Shelter Bay yeahh!!

The weight was immediately lifted off my shoulders, and I could see light at the end of this tunnel. After all I did not want to sail with complete strangers that nobody knew, so this really felt good

It’s a New Day

With a much lighter heart I headed into town to enjoy a couple of days in an Airbnb, a little island life and most importantly, some air-conditioning and unlimited running water. At this point, these were no longer luxuries, they were spiritual experiences.

Then suddenly I remembered something rather important, Alejandra and Chris would be arriving soon, and I had placed a rather large Amazon order…..but not everything had arrived yet……...mmmmm what exactly was I going to do about that?

Apparently, my luck had changed because, when I returned from town, all my goodies had arrived and were neatly packed on the boat waiting for me. It was a small miracle. These days I’ll take them wherever I can get them.

Shortly afterward, my new crew arrived, and we spent the evening getting to know each other over rum and whisky. This was, of course a very serious and professional pre passage crew briefing.

Between drinks, we also went through the more important potential safety issues on the boat so that everyone fully understood what we were dealing with on the passage ahead. Naturally, by this stage, the list of problems had grown even longer. The difference was that I was no longer dealing with all of it alone.

Together, we decided that Intle Breeze was safe enough to make the passage to Shelter Bay. Perhaps not perfect, perhaps not problem-free, but safe enough, and at this stage I learnt to appreciate and accept the words “safe enough”

We released the lines and began our passage.

The Passage

Before we departed, we checked the weather carefully, and everything suggested that we were in for an easy ride.

Now you would think I had learned by this stage not to trust the words easy passage. We could not use the sails because the rigging was most likely compromised after the lightning strike, so we would be motoring the entire way. According to the forecast, there would be almost no wind, very little swell and, even better, we would have the current running in our favor, which should help us make good time. Perfect. What could possibly go wrong ?

As we left Bocas Del Toro behind us and headed out to open ocean, we were suddenly hit by some seriously rough weather that came as a complete surprise. The wind was howling at well over 30 knots, the swell was huge and black clouds all around us.

The three of us looked at each other with more or less the same thought.

Oh, Crap this is going to be a long ride !

Thankfully just as quickly as it had arrived, the weather cleared. Within about an hour, the wind had dropped, the seas settled, and the rest of the passage was surprisingly easy. Of course this is Intle Breeze, so naturally we discovered a few new problems along the way. The radar was no longer working, neither was the VHF radio. Two pieces of equipment that I personally consider rather important when travelling on an ocean. Just for the record, both these had been somewhat working when we left Cuba.

Apparently the lightning strike was the gift that just kept on giving, slowly revealing new surprises whenever it felt we were becoming a little too relaxed.

Fortunately, all three of us had plenty of sailing experience, so while losing both radar and VHF was certainly not ideal, it simply meant that we needed to be far more vigilant, which we were.

With calm weather for the remainder of the passage and very strong current pushing us along, we made excellent time. In fact, we arrived at Shelter Bay breakwater at around 08:00am instead of the lunchtime arrival we had expected and that was even after slowing the boat down substantially during the night.

The relief was enormous. We made it. Intle Breeze was safe, we were safe, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I could finally exhale.

Finally

Two days later, Eric finally arrived after an extremely long flight and with an impressive amount of jet lag.

I cannot tell you how happy I was to have my him back on board. Not only because I missed him, of course, but also because I was now officially allowed to hand at least some of the boat problems over. I had worn my big girl panties alone for long enough.

I was also incredibly grateful that we were now in a much better marina, with access to shore power, and dock water. After everything that had happened, I think it would have been rather traumatic for an extremely tired and jet-lagged man to arrive home and immediately discover that the taps didn’t work the generator was broken, there was water in places where water should not be etc etc it was a softer landing but not for long.

Lets just say Eric may have had a little speed wobble.

So before you watch this video, I would like to apologize if you find the language offensive. Intle Breeze and its crew take no responsibility for anyone’s feelings or mental health trauma after viewing it.

‘you have been warned’

Time to Declutter

At this stage, we were about 15 days away from boarding a plane and heading off on our long-awaited land travels.

We were also waiting for the dry dock to let us know when Intle Breeze could be hauled out of the water for a detailed hull inspection. Only then would we be able to determine whether the lightning strike had caused any damage below the waterline.

In the meantime, the surveyors came on board to carry out an in-water inspection, as well as a full inspection of the rigging. We won’t receive the final report until the hull inspection has also been completed, so once again, we wait.

And, as we have discovered during this entire lightning saga, waiting is apparently one of our new hobbies.

Fortunately, there was plenty to keep us busy. There was, of course, an enormous amount of cleaning to be done, but one of our biggest project was something we had been putting off for a very long time.

We decided to declutter the entire boat.

And when I say declutter, I mean going through every single cupboard, locker, drawer and storage compartment on Intle Breeze. Every item was removed, stared at, discussed, put back down, picked up again and questioned at least ten times before we decided whether it had truly earned the right to occupy precious space on board.

Do we know what it is? Not really.

Could it possibly be important one day? Maybe.

And this is exactly how you end up carrying completely useless things halfway around the world.

We started our sailing journey four years ago, and the truth is that, back then, we had absolutely no idea what we really needed on board and what we didn’t. Apparently, we thought the answer was everything.

Four years and almost 30 000 Nautical miles later, things have changed. We now have a far better understanding of what deserves a place on the boat—and I can tell you, a lot of things did not make the cut.

We gave away and donated an enormous amount of stuff. Fortunately, we found a couple of willing kids who, for a few dollars, were more than happy to cart load after load off the boat and deliver everything to the free table for other sailors and marina staff.

I’m not entirely sure who was happier, us, the people collecting the free goodies, or the boat, which was probably floating several centimeters higher by the time we were finished.

Haul Out Day

At sparrow’s fart on Monday morning, we had the marina manager knocking on the boat. “Let’s go! Time to haul out!”

We had barely finished our first cup of coffee.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I feel that moving an 8 meter catamaran into an 8.6 meter wide haul out bay should only be attempted after at least two or three cups of coffee. Apparently, the marina manager did not share this opinion.

So, we scrambled around in a mild state of panic, but underneath the stress was enormous relief. The timing was perfect. We were still here handling the haul out ourselves, and it also meant we would be present when the surveyors inspected the hull. This was a big win for us, as we could be part of the process, ask questions and understand exactly what they were doing and what they were looking for.

The haul-out bay is 8.6 meters wide. Intle Breeze has a beam (width) of 8.04 meters. So yes, it was a rather tight squeeze.

And, naturally, on this particular morning, the wind was blowing and pushing us around. Because why make things easy when you can add a little unwanted wind to an already tight situation?

Despite all of this, it went incredibly smoothly.

It was actually one of those moments when we realized just how far we have come in our sailing journey. Things that would once have made us nervous, stressed and slightly terrified now feel controlled.

Look at us. Calm, experienced sailors.

With the slings securely positioned beneath the hull and the travel lift ready to raise Intle Breeze out of the water…

BAM!

My cell phone fell straight into the water. There it was, my iPhone, lying 2.5 meters below the surface. 😳

Thankfully, there was already a diver in the water helping to secure the slings beneath the hull, so we quickly asked him if he could find it. He did!

The relief! In fact, while my phone was still lying on the bottom, Eric called it, and it  was actually ringing underwater.

Now, this phone is already several years old. It has been dropped more times than I care to admit, abused extensively, travelled across oceans and has now spent some quality time at the bottom of a marina. And it still works perfectly.

So yes, Apple, you’re welcome for the free marketing

Time for a Break from Sailing

Now that Intle Breeze is safely on the hard and settled into her new home for what will probably be at least the next six months, it is finally time for us to take our long-awaited break from sailing.

Although, looking at our travel itinerary, I’m not entirely sure the word break is correct. Our land adventure begins on Friday, 10 July, and looks something like this:

Panama City → Peru → Cape Town → Velddrif → Durban → Port Elizabeth → Melbourne → Adelaide → Singapore → Paris → Frankfurt → Stockholm.

Yes. Apparently, this is our idea of taking some time off.

By the time we arrive in Stockholm, it will be October, and only then will we start figuring out how and when we return to Intle Breeze.

For now, though, we really need to enjoy this time away from the boat because, once we return, there will be an enormous amount of work waiting for us. Repairs, contractors, quotes, decisions, language barriers and, I am quite certain, at least a few moments when Eric and I will look at each other and wonder why we didn’t choose a slightly simpler way of life.

We will be managing the repair process ourselves, so there is a great deal ahead of us. Once we receive the final surveyor’s report, I will share the full extent of the damage and the work required to bring Intle Breeze back to where she needs to be.

But for now, the boat is safely out of the water, the Captain is back, and we are packing our bags.

It’s time for a different kind of adventure.