LEARNING CURVELEARNING CURVEJANUARY 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 39nautopilot but as a short-handed crew we had little choice. Knockdown aside, we Perhaps we were wrong to rely on our
handled things quite well. Once running north and battened down, we felt comfortable, if not safe.
nhad conditions deteriorated. Heaving to is not an option for our fin-keeler. We would have deployed our drogue
nwe haven’t found her limits. Despite enormous strain on her spade rudder when running before, there seems to be Sänna is not the toughest boat, but
no damage, and our keel didn’t fall off!ncookie, calm in a crisis. My wonderful wife Marie is a toughLessons learnedDave and Marie Ungless are circumnavigating west to east on a customised Bavaria Ocean 50. Their Sänna,
nine-year voyage has taken them from the Med to Alaska so far. Dave, an RYA Yachtmaster, has sailed extensively in high latitudes and has over 70,000
ocean miles logged, and Marie 30,000.Follow them on http://www.sanna-uk.comDave and Marie UnglessKnockdownI was thrown down the companionway and across the cabin, into the heads, which meant Sänna was on her side. Objects
flew across the cabin and out of the bilges. As I lay there, seawater poured through the companionway and I thought, quite calmly, this was it. Would Sänna capsize?
I feared she’d never recover because of the weight we carried, particularly on deck, but the big loveable piece of German plastic slowly came upright and I fell into a
heap on the cabin sole.but, as Marie ran up to the cockpit. She got us The pain in my left leg was excruciating Sänna lurched, out of control,
back on track and engaged autopilot. Then she came down to drag me out the heads, checked my leg and told me that I was fine. The wind was now over 60 knots. Back
on deck, Marie furled the staysail and all but a scrap of main, and we ran north before 7-8-metre seas at 7 knots. We had
prepared our Jordan series drogue but SännaThere were only two of us and we needed We decided to leave the autopilot on. was handling it well.
to take stock. We had taken a lot of water below deck and needed to know what worked and what didn’t. All the electronics were fine and our two bilge pumps were
running. kit was flying around but gradually we organised ourselves. We closed the hatch for some much-needed rest: we’d probably Sänna turned and twisted, and
make it through the night somehow. LandfallOur wind instrument recorded a
maximum of 69 knots and consistent winds in the low 60s for a short time. We continued to run north-east and finally reached Graham Island, British Columbia,
where we rounded Langara Point and finally reached the safety of Prince Rupert, some 500 miles north of Victoria. WPHOTO: AlAmyWe made it through the treacherous conditions and were thrilled to see British Columbia’s spectacular sceneryStrong winds can create huge seas, like these seen during the 2004 Sydney Hobart