Torries

On Watch

34

january/february 2017

cruisingworld.com

W

e all know that “stuff ” happens off shore

— a fact literally brought home to me on

passage in the Indian Ocean recently,

when a clogged head hose turned into a quasi balloon

in the semidarkness and then exploded loudly at

0300, speckling me, our aft head and a sizable section

of the aft cabin with the stinking remnants of meals

long passed.

I screamed. My caked eyes were squeezed tightly

shut. It was diffi cult to keep my balance. I didn’t

want to touch anything. I careened out of the com-

partment like a swaying zombie, desperate to gain

the deck. In the narrow walk-through from our stern

cabin, I bumped into my wife dashing aft to investi-

gate. She screamed as our bodies collided in the glare

of her fl ashlight.

“Oh, s---!” Carolyn cried in disgust.

“Exactly!” I cried back, then added stupidly, “There

was an explosion!”

By the time I reached the cockpit, Carolyn was

Yikes! We’d been running downwind in lumpy seas with our big jib poled out, and now, unfortunately, the

spinnaker track on our mast had pulled away, bent severely, and was in danger of shearing off.

BY CAP’N FATTY GOODLANDER

AH, the CRUISING LIFE

On Watch

CAROLYN GOODLANDER

Clockwise from

top right: When

the spinnaker

track on Ganesh

separated from

the mast, the fi rst

step was to cleat

off the pole’s end

fi tting and car to

prevent the track

from bending

more. Using an

electric drill,

Fatty removed

broken rivets

from the track

and mast. As

Carolyn winched

the track back

into position,

Fatty refastened

it with his accor-

dion rivet gun.

In no time, the

track was as good

as new.

CRW0217_ONW.indd 34 11/22/16 2:01 PM