An Unexpected Trip to Martinique
We had previously decided that Dominica (blog post to come soon) would be the farthest south we would venture this year. We’re planning to sail back to the States before hurricane season and we’re looking forward to spending some more time in the Bahamas with its plethora of white sandy beaches, mahi mahi, and lobster. However, we’ve already learned how quickly plans can change while cruising. It seems like mother nature and boat maintenance are constantly creating obstacles and we’re no longer surprised by delays. But we never would have predicted the events that occurred on the morning of Friday, January 13th that caused us to make an unexpected trip to Martinique.
We were moored in Roseau, Dominica next to our friends’ boat when their mooring broke loose, causing them to wash up on the nearby rocky shore. The mooring had recently been installed and held them just fine the previous two nights. But when a northern swell rolled in, the shackle failed and the boat went aground with the bright orange mooring ball still attached to the bow. It was this devastating sight that we woke up to.
One incredible thing about the sailing community is that cruisers certainly rally when others are in trouble. Despite the early morning hour, other sailors and the mooring owner (SeaCat) rushed to help. Within a couple of hours, the boat had been towed off the rocks and secured to a different mooring. However, the nightmare was nowhere near over. The keel suffered considerable damage and the boat was taking on more water than the bilge pump could discharge.
After wiring up and installing two additional bilge pumps, the water level was under control. However, the boat’s battery bank alone didn’t have the capacity to run the pumps for an extended period. So, the fate of the boat depending on running a 37 year old engine (and alternator) that had just been tipped on its side. Luckily Yanmar was making tanks back then and the diesel started right up. Our friends desperately needed to be hauled out of the water. The only problem was that the nearest facility was 55 miles away in Fort-de-France, Martinique.
There was never a discussion on our part. There was absolutely no way we were going to let our friends travel the next 10 terrifying hours on their own with a hole in their boat and an engine that was just badly abused. Luckily, they never needed our help, but we stay by their side until the following morning when the boat was hauled out of the water and we all sighed in relief.
It was an exhausting 24 hours for us and I can’t even imagine how emotionally draining and terrifying it must have been for our cruising buddies. Despite helping in any way we could, I still felt helpless. All I wanted was to take away our friends’ pain and ease their fears. But there was no undoing what had happened. The broken boat was a sad sight, but fortunately, no one was injured when they crashed ashore. And that’s all that really mattered. Their boat will be pieced back together one step at a time and now they have an incredible story about perseverance to tell.
After being reminded how quickly things can go wrong on a sailboat, we decided to inspect our standing rigging more closely while we were anchored in Fort-de-France. We have a lot of sailing ahead of us and we just couldn’t bear the thought of a rigging failure. Imagine if a broken shroud or a failed chainplate lead to our mast snapping in half while we were traversing the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, 100 miles away from help. We knew it would take time and a nice chuck of change to inspect and replace our rigging, but we had all the necessary services available to us in Martinique and we couldn’t move forward without the peace of mind.
Disclaimer: The remainder of this blog post is technical and may only be of interest to those that are replacing their rigging in the near future. Or if you are having trouble sleeping, this might do the trick. You’ve been warned.
Inspecting and Replacing Chainplates
Our mast is equipped with 2 spreaders and is supported by 4 shrouds on each side, a backstay, and two forestays (the second forestay was added for a stay sail). We have a forward lower shroud that attaches to its own chainplate. The aft lower, intermediate, and cap shrouds all attach to the main chainplate. While we were hauled out in Puerto Rico, we inspected and replaced the port side main chainplate after it showed surface rust on the deck. In Martinique, we first pulled and inspected the two forward chainplates and found several cracks. In fact, our starboard side plate was completely cracked through. The metal shop in the CarenAntilles facility fabricated two new ones for us. After those were installed, we inspected our starboard side main chainplate. We expected it to be in similar condition, but it was immaculate. We polished it up with some metal wax and carefully examined it, but we couldn’t find a single crack or sign of stress.
Now that we were feeling good about our chainplates, it was time to discuss our standing rigging. We initially decided to replace the two lower aft shrouds and the two cap shrouds. We would also inspect the remaining shrouds and write the previous previous owner (because of health problems the previous owner only owned the boat for a little over a year and never actually sailed it) to find out exactly when/if the rigging was replaced.
Inspecting our Standing Rigging
Rob was able to hoist me up to the first spreader and we replaced the lower aft shrouds without a problem. The top of our shrouds have two sleeves that rest in a hole on the mast spreader. The top shroud swage is too large to pass through the hole, so the shroud must be pulled through from the top.
Sea Services in Fort-de-France was able to turn the new shrouds around in two days. I’ve never been higher than the second spreader and I never intend to. Traveling 57 feet into the air to reach the cap shrouds was not something I was prepared to do. So, after securing the spinnaker halyard to the starboard side for support, our friend Ben winched Rob to the very top of the mast in order to remove the starboard cap shroud.
Rob found that the sleeves on the top of the shroud were corroded in place and because of their location in our mast head, it was too difficult to remove them. The bottom part of the shroud that attaches to the turnbuckle was too large to pass through the sleeve. Therefore, we couldn’t take down the shroud without cutting through it. He also discovered a broken strand on the cap shroud and a small crack in the backstay swage. While we were deciding what to do next, we received an email from Kairos’s previous previous owner saying that at the time of sale a rigging inspection was completed. The report suggested that all the rigging be replaced. Because of this, the sale price was lowered substantially. Something that the previous owner must have failed to pass along to us. With a cracked backstay swage, broken strands on the shrouds, and an inspection report that recommended the rigging be replaced 2 years ago, we knew what we needed to do. It was time to update our rigging…all of it.
We would be needing more help, especially with the forestay and backstay, than what Sea Services in Fort-de-France could provide. So, we packed up and moved down to the Yachting Center of the Windward Islands, Le Marin. Wow, there are a lot of sailboats in Le Marin. I couldn’t believe my eyes as we entered the channel. I don’t think we’ve seen that many masts in one place, not even in Marathon, Florida.
Replacing Lower and Intermediate Shrouds
As soon as we dropped anchor, Rob rushed off in the dinghy to talk to the rigging shop, Caribe Greement, about our options. We made an appointment for the following Thursday for them to help us replace the cap shrouds, backstay, and forestay. They estimated that it would take two guys a full day to do the work. In the meantime, we could remove the intermediate and lower aft shrouds ourselves and bring them in for fabrication. A few more trips up and down the mast and we had new lower aft and intermediate shrouds. Each time we used three halyards in the process. The spinnaker halyard was secured to a chock or chainplate to secure the side of the mast we were working on. The main halyard was secured to the Bosun’s chair and slowly lifted me up the mast as Rob worked the winch. And the jib halyard was used as a safety line in case the main halyard snapped.
SSB Insulators for the Backstay
We checked in with Caribe Greement on the day before our appointment so we could make arrangements to move the boat onto their dock. We learned that they forgot to order our backstay insulators and we had to reschedule the appointment for Monday. Our single side band (SSB) radio requires a large antenna and having one sticking off the back of the boat isn’t practical or attractive. Like most other boats, our SSB radio uses our backstay as an antenna. This isn’t a big deal when we are receiving transmissions, however, it’s a different story when we are transmitting. A lot of juice is required when transmitting over long distances and insulators are used to protect people and other electronics near the backstay. There’s one insulator near the top of the backstay and one about 10 feet from the bottom. Therefore, only the portion of the backstay between the two insulators is used as the SSB antenna. The insulators on our old backstay were permanently swaged on and couldn’t be reused. Thus, we needed the new insulators before installing the new backstay.
Replacing the Cap Shrouds
We moved onto the rigging dock bright and early Monday morning and then we waited and waited. The insulators didn’t arrive as expected and we were no further along in our re-rigging process. We should have known better than to expect a quick turnaround in the Caribbean. The insulators didn’t arrive Tuesday either, but the rigging company decided to work on the cap shrouds and forestay.
We had been nervous about removing the cap shrouds. The lower shrouds seemed like a breeze, because there were the cap shrouds above supporting the mast. But once the cap shrouds were removed, the top third of the mast appeared unsupported. But the riggers didn’t blink twice. They first loosened the port side cap shroud a little, then removed the starboard side cap shroud from the chainplate. They then secured our main halyard to the chainplate in the shroud’s place. Afterwards, the rigger climbed up the mast using the spinnaker halyard to help hoist him up (no safety line). We then used the jib halyard to lift and lower tools.
Once up the mast, the rigger came to the same conclusion we made a couple of weeks earlier. The sleeves were corroded to the mast and would have to be reused. Therefore, they cut the shroud in order to pull it through. The new replacement shroud had a different style of turn buckle, allowing the bottom swage on the shroud to pass through the remaining sleeve on top.
Replacing the Forestay
After the cap shrouds were replaced it was time to remove our forestay and the rolling furler. This is when being on the rigging dock became a necessity. The backstay was first loosened. Then we used the jib halyard to secure the front of the mast. The forestay was detached from the chainplate and loosely tied to the bow of the boat, while the rigger once again climbed to the top of the mast. He secured the main halyard to the top of the forestay before detaching it from the masthead. Then we slowly lowered the main halyard while someone else was holding the bottom of the forestay (and thus the rolling furler drum) and was walking it away from the boat. The 50-something foot furler came down in one piece and it took 3 men to walk it into the trailer for disassembly. It’s now obvious why the rigging trailers are so long and narrow. The new forestay went on much like it came off. Initially it was laid out on the ground in front of our boat. We used a halyard to raise it up, then the rigger secured it to the top of the mast prior to securing it to the chainplate.
Our new rigging was almost complete, but our backstay insulators had yet to arrive. It would be Thursday afternoon before our new insulators and backstay were finally installed…a full week after we expected to be done. The guys at Caribe Greement know their stuff and they did work hard on our boat. It’s a very busy shop and they have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to organization. However, they did give us a generous discount for the delay, which we thought was fair. Despite the frustration over timing and the insulators, we think it’s a knowledgeable and well equipped shop. We’d recommend it to anyone, as long as they aren’t in a hurry.
After pulling chainplates and several trips up and down the mast, replacing shrouds, we are confident in our rigging. Now it’s time for us to head north back along the path we’ve already traveled. Only this time we’ll have the wind at our backs and our sails full of air.
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