Rigging Failure Sailing Solo While My Wife is Crewing on Delos! (Calico Skies Sailing, Ep. 67)

It’s day four of our offshore passage north from the Bahamas headed up along the east coast of the US. Bill is about 30 miles offshore from North Carolina when the rod head on the forward lower shroud exploded. He’s sailing Calico Skies solo and Grace is crewing on our friends boat, s/v Delos. We’ve become separated over the course of this passage and Delos is now over 30 miles ahead, closer to the notorious Cape Hatteras. While the crew of Delos is struggling with terrible weather and and recently a ripped jib, Bill is arguably in a worse position being low on gas and unable to sail thanks to the failure in the rod rigging.

In this episode, both Calico Skies and Delos deal with steep seas, high wind and generally nasty conditions, and see 25 – 30 knots on the nose. In addition, the boats have not been in communication with each other for a full 24 hours. Bill’s satellite phone is functioning normally but connection has been lost on Delos and they are offline. Grace, Brian & Kazza have no idea that Bills’ had a rig failure and is diverting course to Beaufort and will not be rounding the Cape and arriving into the Chesapeake with Delos.

On Calico Skies, Bill makes his way back to shore, and clears in with US customs using the CBP Roam App. On Delos, after bashing our way around Cape Hatteras we are welcomed home with open arms and provided a slip by some kind folks who called us over the radio as we were arriving.

0:00 Intro
1:17 Recap
1:59 Aftermath of rigging failure
2:50 Delos hoisting spare jib in rough weather
4:34 Calico Skies slog to Cape Lookout with big waves on the beam
5:58 Delos fighting to get around Cape Hatteras
7:30 Calico Skies, Land HO!
8:20 Grace gets the bad news of Rig Failure
10:06 Back in the USA!

~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Thanks to our Patrons!

Enjoying our channel? Consider joining the Calico Skies Patreon family for as little as $2 a month to get lots of extra goodies 🙂

https://www.patreon.com/CalicoSkiesSailing

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Patreon too much of a commitment? Show your support and buy us a beer or some diesel 🙂

https://paypal.me/calicoskiessailing

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Check out our store and shop our merch at https://sailing-calico-skies.myshopify.com/