A tale of an offshore delivery trip Weds and Thursday

[CharlieJ]

Hi folks- I've been offshore the last couple days, helping to deliver a Hunter 37 up the coast. We had a pretty good trip, all things considered. If you are interested, here's a cut ands paste of the post I made on Trailer Sailor about the trip-

The boat was a mid 80's Hunter Cherubini 37 that had been lived aboard for some years, but not actively sailed lately due to back problems of the 69 year old owner. The new owner was having difficulties with the boat and when her original delivery crew was forced to return to work, a pick up crew from our marina was gathered. Laura found out that the two other guys didn't have serious sailing experience offshore and the new owner had none, so she "volunteered" me for the trip. Insistently.

Weds am 0800 we dropped the lines and left the marina. About 15 minutes down the channel it was discovered that water was pouring in the stern bearing- the packing nut had backed completely off. So we anchored to one side of the channel while one of the other guys who had worked on repairing the previous troubles crawled back under, reapplied and tightened the nut.

Engine restart- no more water so anchor hoisted and away we went. Anchor hoisting is a bit of a "joy" as the switch for the electric windlass is in the cockpit, the helm cannot see the anchor, nor hear anything said from the bow. Anyway, suffice it to say we got it back aboard finally, and all fingers were still where they belonged.

15 minutes later, we noticed the the engine temp had climbed quickly and just as we noticed, the engine quit!!! By this time we had rolled out the jib and had been motor sailing down the channel since the wind was finally from somewhere that we COULD sail. At anyrate, after checking coolant levels, etc, the diesel was restarted and allowed to idle. It ran at temp so we brought her up to 1500 RPM- still good, 1800 rpms- getting hot. Back to 1500 and ok, up to 1700 and good. 1800 and above- overheat. So at 1700 RPM and a full jib we proceeded down channel. Eventually setting the main, but continuing to motor sail since we really need to make the jetties at slack high water.

We didn't-

We arrived at about 1 hour AFTER slack high water and the current had started out. With the wind blowing right up the channel the waves in the Matagorda Jetties can be truly awesome!! Suffice it to say we saw some that were probably 10 footers, stuffed the bow of that 37 footer three times, but exited into the open gulf unbloodied and sailing at around 1330 or so. By the way, the 1/2 to one mile outside those jetties is known as "the washing machine" by the local fishing guides. It can get truly rough there. Ask Walter Jones about it

But anyway, we exited and set our course for the Galveston jetties 102 nautical miles up the coast. Sailing was great- fast and rather lumpy but the 37 was really reeling off the miles, when later in the day the new owner says to me- "there's a rip in the jib". A fast furl of the front half of the jib rolled the tear inside and left us with basically a storm jib. Since we were making 5.5 to 6 knots like that, we sailed on ( Hi Travis)

Reasonably uneventful throughout the night as the wind dropped slightly, the moon was almost full and lovely on the water, MOST of the rigs were lit ( not all- most) but the unlit ones were easily seen and the radar was helping to pick them all out.

Till it decided to not show anything on the screen anymore.

We four took turns on the helm since the auto pilot had decided that it's operation consisted of a hard over helm to starboard any time it was engaged. Debating whether to do the two 360 turns required to "Calibrate it" it was decided that the two gybes we'd have to make in the seas that we had and the winds we had, would NOT have been fun.

After a bit of excitement when it was discovered we were about 1 mile inshore of the actual end of the completely awash jetties, and a few tacks to get OUT to the end so we could get inside, we cleared the inner end of the Galveston jetties at about 0821 this morning, which meant we ran the 102 miles, plus the 4 or 5 miles of jetty, in 24 hours and some 9 minutes- not shabby for sailing with a storm jib in whole jib winds.

Edited  note: I just noticed the times I gave here. That 24 hours and 9 minutes was including both engine problem stops AND the 25 miile run down Matagorda Bay. So the actually offshore time was from about 1330 til 0821 the next morning. We did the 102 offshore miles in about 19 hours.

We then made a broad reach up Galveston Bay to Kemah, dropped sails and motored up Clear Lake about 5 miles to the boats new slip, put her to bed and started home. Got ourselves back to Port L around 2000- all in all a long tiring, but totally fun couple of days.

The older Hunters are pretty nice sailboats and handle very well rail down and spray flying

And now to bed, cause I'm pooped

[AdriftAtSea]

Don't you love when your family volunteers you for something with little or no warning or say in the matter. ;)  Good post... sounds like a good time, in spite of the boat's mechanical difficulties.