Tenacatita Part 1: Work

1/6/15 - 1/7/15

110 NM, 10 hours on motor

JUMBLE departed Yelapa in flat, glassy seas. It was a very tropical scene as Anna and I deflated the dinghy and stuffed it into the cockpit locker. The elation of our little dip in a shady pool above a picturesque waterfall faded fast as the sun blasted us into submission. 2 PM in not the best time to be in full sun in the tropics; steam rose off the jungle. I'd only seen that in movies. It was &%^ing hot!

We motored towards Cabo Corrientes, ready to make a left turn and finally escape the vortex that is Banderas Bay. Lots of cruisers come to Bahía de Banderas and some never leave. The local VHF forecaster, from North Sails I think, had warned of northerlies from the Sea of Cortez and possible rough conditions around Cabo Corrientes. Winds and seas are often amplified off points, so most sailors exercise caution when rounding them. The crew of JUMBLE was feeling rather invincible and eager to see some action, so we hoped for big wind and a fun ride.

Calm Seas Inside the Bay; The Trap is set

I mentioned something a couple posts ago about the arrogance of youth. This was in full effect aboard JUMBLE.

As we approached the cape and were no longer in the lee of Punta Mita, the seas rose to 4'-5', quite small, but more than we'd seen since coming down the coast of Baja. Naturally, we were carrying full sails: 170% jib, full main and mizzen. Once outside the lee of Punta Mita, the wind rose to 15 knots out of the NNW and we were reaching, heading WSW. It felt great, JUMBLE was hauling ass and the wind had a dry, dusty smell, refreshing after that tropical interlude.

Before we could settle into the new conditions, the wind was hitting 20 knots and becoming gusty. JUMBLE is a slow boat, but incredibly forgiving. We've never dipped our leeward toerail and not for lack of trying. I went forward to reef the main and Anna was pulling the working jib out of the hatch. I was amidships, gripping the windward shrouds and staring at the mainsail like an asshole when the boom snapped at the vang and bent upwards about 20 degrees. The main started luffing and I said, "We broke the boom"

Anna shouted forward from the cockpit, "Let's start the motor!"
"What do we need the motor for? We're already doing 6 knots."

We worked to get the mainsail down without breaking anything else. The stainless steel sail track was the only thing holding the boom and all its expensive parts together. It was like a broken arm: floppy, but still attached. Anna luffed the main enough to get it down, still driving off the jib and mizzen. At this point, we were in beam seas and the boom was sliding and skating all over the cabintop and solar panels as short, steep wind waves passed under JUMBLE. After settling into a broad reach, things settled down. We engaged our trusty Sailomat windvane and labored together to remove the mainsail. The sail track was kinked around the breaking point and I had to cut the track with a hacksaw to remove all the slides. We stowed the mainsail on the cabin sole and the detached portion of the boom on the port deck.

At this point, we were happy to be a ketch. Jumble still had two sails left in play. The main boom broke around 1800 and we managed to sort that out and switch to the working jib before nightfall.

The wind rose during the night, maybe point effect or general norther, I don't know. By 0000 we were down to the working jib (no mizzen) and sliding downwind at 6-8 knots. The seas never reached more than 8' (a guess given that it was night), but there were at least 2, possibly three directions. The main train was NW, on the starboard quarter, there was an occasional W swell and, as the evening progressed and the wind came more off the land south of Corrientes, a choppy NE set of wind waves. Even running downwind, JUMBLE's rigging hummed and howled, especially in the gusts. Pretty cool.

This is what happens when we take pictures at night

It was an eventful night, but our boom broke and that was a major bummer. Truth be told, it didn't break because of big wind or seas. What we experienced was a brief period of point effect and a northerly wind blowing down along the coast of Mexico. My guess is that between 2300 and 0100, we had 30 knots, gusting to 35, but no more. The seas were confused and a bit choppy, but we didn't take any water in the cockpit. We came close when a NW and NE wave came together jut a few feet off our stern, but it would have only been a splash, nothing serious.

By the early morning hours, the wind had blown itself out and by 0700 we were motoring and starting on the repairs.

The Boom Stump

The Work Begins

The boom broke because of bad practice. To add insult to injury, we'd discussed the inadequacy of our preventer arrangement back in 2012 on the Baja Ha-Ha. We knew that what we were doing put enormous strain on the boom, in a weak area. A previous owner had either moved or replaced the original vang fitting. I knew this because I'd removed and re-bedded the vang attachment piece shortly after we bought JUMBLE. There were old screw holes filled half-assedly with 4200 or similar. The boom broke cleanly along the forward line of fastener holes, new and old.

Why had we been so foolish? It was easy! And it worked. Our vang protected us from an accidental jibe and it was easy to set up. We were inducing an enormous moment arm on the boom by essentially using the vang as our mainsheet. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Approach to Tenacatita. Lousy Picture

So, some anonymous guru once said: "cruising is working on your boat in exotic locations". Very true. Luckily, there's at least once idiot aboard JUMBLE who enjoys working on his boat as much as sailing it.

Assessing the Damage: Clean Break

Scarfs Cut and Ready to Laminate

Final Glue up; Second piece took two attempts (days) to get it straight

Patch Sanded and Ready for Glass

Two Wraps of Glass Around Repair

Filler Goop for Sanding/Fairing. Our buddy LUNGTA in the Background

The major work took four days. The last three days were just some rigging and a lousy paint job (that's already failing around the spectra strops). Mosquitoes ate us alive the first couple of nights. We eventually set up some screens over the hatches as it's much too warm here to close them. Silvia from IOLANI was kind enough to give us some DEET. Dengue Fever is no joke and we know at least one cruiser who's had it, so we're being cautious.

Old Boom Arrangement

New Boom. Note the huge lever arm between the clew and vang

With the work completed, we were finally able to have a little fun. More on that to come.