Propane and a Loaf of Bread

It wasn't exactly a rescue on the high seas nor a damsel in distress, but we did manage to get a bottle of propane and a loaf of bread over to the partially disabled sail boat "Bobby" last night. SV Bobby, single handed by Emily, had left the Galapagos a couple of weeks before us. A week out her forestay broke at the mast head connection and she has been running under a jury rig sail configuration ever since. Much discussion was had over the radio between the five boats that were currently making the passage to Easter Island brainstorming how to help her out. One of the ideas was for SV Bobby to motor towards her destination and those boats behind her could pass along some jugs of fuel as they came near. This would have worked except 24 hours later SV Bobby developed mechanical problems which meant she had to sail the remaining distance.

A vessel in front of us passed over a jug of water on their way by last week and Emily stated that was all she required. Then the other day, when we were within 150 miles of SV Bobby (a "relatively" close distance on a 2000 mile trip), we asked if there was anything else that was needed. Emily said that she had run out of propane that day but wasn't too concerned since she mainly used it for making coffee. We joked about having iced coffee for breakfast.

Well, the following morning it was obvious that cold coffee was not an enjoyable experience and Emily sounded fairly depressed. We decided to divert Curare the 60 miles west and pass over our spare propane bottle. We put SV Bobby's morning position into our chart plotter and gybed over to starboard tack, the first sail change in 10 days or so. At the midday radio sched we adjusted Bobby's position and our course over ground but even then overshot her by 11 miles near the late afternoon rendezvous time. We gybed again and raced after her to get there before dark, to no avail, as it was 8:15 PM local time and well after sunset when we saw her on the horizon. Of course this was just when all the squalls were developing, like they do every evening, which made the wind speeds erratic and steering difficult. Upon reaching the rendezvous we made four attempts to drag a line between the moving boats with the bottle of propane and a loaf of Linda's homemade bread attached. After four attempts, and some very dangerous close encounters, we made one last try by coming as close as we dared in the rough seas while Geoff tossed a line between boats. Success!!

Emily hauled in the line with the goodies attached and we parted company, sailing off towards Hanga Roa on Easter Island. We had expected to arrive there early this morning (April 2) and our diversion has cost us a few hours but what is one more day when we have already been out for 17?

Emily reported on the morning sched that she had a fresh cup of hot coffee and a slice of warm bread to start off her day and she sounded in a much better frame of mind. With 120 miles for her to go, we hope to see SV Bobby in port within the next few days.

One other thing that was learned from this experience: Linda has a new appreciation for high seas rescue efforts because it was extremely difficult to get the boats close enough for this relatively easy transfer without colliding due to wind and sea state. There was no possible way that she could have brought the boats close enough for a hand off and if, in a situation like this, a person was injured and had to be removed it means they would have to get into the heaving ocean and then be hauled aboard the other boat, not an ideal situation.