At the end of my last blog entry I wrote that Sea Star was struck by lightning. The strike was on July 18th and was quite extensive, though, luckily, no damage of a permanent nature (that couldn’t be fixed) to Sea Star or her owners! I’m not really sure about Maggie, the ship’s cat. She has become much more skittish when she hears thunder and it’s raining.
We arrived in Bocas on June 18th in hot and humid weather. There were a few days where wind for a short time was 20kn or so in the anchorage but there were almost daily light sprinkles-“Hey, it’s sprinkling, finally some fresh water wash for the boat!” The skies did not open up on a regular basis.
It seems to me that the wet season is early as we have been getting daily rain, especially night and morning, necessitating popping out of bed and attending to hatches. “Son of a b****. I just opened them up and it’s raining aagain!” Hatches HAVE to be opened as the nights are hot and sticky, and the wind has dropped off to very little. When it pours, cruisers, wearing nothing but a smile, run around their decks setting up rain catching “gear” as well as closing and opening the hatches. We call it the “hatch dance” and it accounts for many yawns and a “cruiser midnight” of about 8:30 PM.
When we decided to take Jamie’s suggestion to go to Boquete I luckily asked the right person to care for Maggie. Apparently as soon as we left the skies opened up and Thor sent thunde ,and lightning from his mighty bow right to the mast of poor Sea Star. Sue on Waldon was feeding Maggie while we were away and watching out for our boat. Things can happen; we could be boarded by the locals looking to sell their langostas, we could drag anchor or someone could run too close.
Sue was confused when she noticed that we hadn’t done things we had talked about doing before leaving. Our switch for the anchor light was off. Not a good thing in an anchorage -and we told her we would leave it on! Then she noticed that the refrigeration was off and wondered why we would do that! She tried to call our cell phone many times but we were by then out of range. She grabbed some food as the refrigeration warmed to save for me and continued to care for Maggie- and think about our boat and the fact that the weather on Friday and Saturday was terrible with a huge storm having moved through.
When Dan and I were at the Avis Rent-a-Car return after our fabulous trip to Boquete, we checked the messages and finally called her back. She was on the boat and Dan had her turn things on and off and ..well..it was obvious we had been struck and things were not good on Sea Star- by chance we learned later, the only boat to be struck.
So what did that mean to us? TRIAGE! What was not available that was essential? After calling Jackline Insurance and notifying them Dan got to work. When talking with Jackline they said they had an assessor “really close to us- in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
“Uhh.. not too close to us”, Dan countered-“600 or 700 miles, and the boat is not in sailable condition.” So the adjuster said to prepare our best estimate and submit it.
With Jamie on Windsong, and Jeff on Waldon’s help the trouble shooting began. We already knew we had no anchor light and that lights on the electronic panel were off. When the engine started Dan knew the engine was not getting charge to the batteries. LED lights on the boat were unable to be shut off and all sorts of weird readings came off our instrument panels. Our wind generator had shut down, we had no refrigeration or freezer (that was actually helpful as we had no way of keeping them charged up anyway), and one by one other items were discovered defective.
While Dan worked, so did I. I had three pounds of hamburger to cook, a turkey breast, easily ten pounds of beef, some for stew and some steaks. As I’m cooking away and in the middle of a turkey roast-the stove turned its circuit breaker off and stopped!
With an “oh, no, heard here and oh, shit heard there the guys did their best to assess the damages. We had NO autopilot, computer, Raymarine chart plotters-an E80 and E120 read seatalk failure, all depth, wind and speed gauges were out, tachometer and other engine sensors were no good- the VHF radio and SSB were not receiving, the entertainment centers-one TV and a satellite radio were not working- if Dan were writing this he could be more specific but you get the picture. There was to be no moving this boat-
On the positive side we did not see any outside or hull damage and since we had been anchored in 40’ water, a thru-hull failure would have been a disaster. We could have arrived back at Sea Star to see 20’ of mast above the water! So we can say with authority, “It could have been worse.”
Two weeks after the strike we had to get an estimate to Jackline. That was tricky because there was absolutely no way of knowing which components might work again if a part were fixed, or a wire was changed. We put together as conservative an estimate as we could to bring the boat back to her former glory-but in the meantime we had begun the ordering process for what were the essentials. The process was to check what equipment we had, search for serial numbers, and parts available, then list the item number on the sheet to put out for an estimate. This was an all encompassing task for Dan for a week. He ate, slept and perused the computer figuring out what we had, and what was the current replacement. Then I typed it, we submitted it to Jackline and sat on pins and needles—for less than a day- until the bottom line was approved!
How does a person get packages shipped into Panama? What will customs charge for a Yacht in Transit? Where the hell is Bocas Del Toro?? Other cruisers gave us leads and that was the best way to have discovered Arturo at Marine Warehouse, PackYa and other ways (ship and truck) to get items from the US to Panama City and then on to Bocas Del Toro by air- in the middle paying a great deal to Fed-Ex for timely shipments.
On one day we received the six packages from two different shippers by the Panama Air cargo at the Bocas Airport. Four of them were late in arriving because Panama City was having a severe storm, so in the morning we took our two huge packages to the boat followed by four more even heavier in the afternoon. Into a taxi and to the Pirate’s Restaurant dock we lugged them all, into the dinghy and onto the boat to open them, just hoping all would be as expected. About that time Jamie arrived, seeing our loot and because he is young, agile and really nice by that evening we had our anchor light and VHF operative.
Before we could really rest on our laurels, our second shipment came. This time it arrived by ship. BEFORE the strike we had ordered new batteries to replace our only 3 ½ year old AGM battery bank of seven batteries. Each battery is 35 lbs and needed to be taken from the truck that carried them on the supply ship, carried down a rickety dock and lowered three feet into dinghy. Dan and Jamie lugged them aboard Sea Star and installed them in place of the seven old batteries without blowing up the boat while working in such tight a space with such volatile wiring.
So now every cabinet in the boat was open and every tool in use or cast aside temporarily, leaving Maggie and me absolutely no place to be. From the forward cabin the mattress was ajar and folded to access the storage under the bed. The forward head had been acting up and was stripped of its plastic covering and unusable, large and small boxes of Raymarine equipment were piled throughout the salon and the new refrigeration units were sitting on the galley countertops. Electric pumps; bilge pumps, pressurized water had been shut down for safety, either the seven new or the old batteries were in the salon depending on how the project was progressing, the aft cabin was holding all the “usual stuff”, like the pillows and table from the salon, the water making bottles, cat carrier, diesel jugs and plastics from the aft lazzaret, and by now the guys were installing the refrigeration in the starboard lazzaret, working around the pedestal in the cockpit- and it was pouring allowing no hatches to be opened for ventilation.
At the end of Tuesday the 18th, Dan and I were out motoring around and calibrating the new autopilot, speed and depth gauges. The mess throughout the boat remains, but it’s a little less. Jamie, with problems of his own- NO engine and he “lost” his propeller right off his shaft a few weeks ago is waiting for us to get it together so he can move to where his new shaft is waiting- in Colon, sailing, only there is no wind. He kept himself busy climbing another cruiser’s mast today. Tregoning, the other boat we have been in company with, are awaiting the return of their broken inverter and for some mail, then they will head to Colon.
As I write tonight, we are planning a Thursday departure to Colon if possible. All the newly installed gear is being tested. Some works fine and some is acting funny. We’re hoping the windlass works and brings up the anchor, and the new components in the bow thruster can steer us to the diesel dock. We have not totally cleaned the boat of “old stuff” (only three years old), and I’m trying to make room in storage for items we may be able to resurrect “someday.” We can see the full fix is a long road ahead.
Why did Sea Star get the hit? Why not? From what we hear there is no way to prevent a strike. It’s the luck of the draw. I hate to site this couple, but a few days before our strike we met a couple on an Oyster sailboat who have been struck three times! Now that’s unlucky.
Sea Star is a well made Island Packet sailboat, has the proper grounding of equipment and a little brush instrument on the top of the mast that is reported to dissipate lightning. Dan and I are aware of the dangers. Before we left we tucked a few removable items in the oven, a make-shift Faraday Cage, “in case of possible lightning”, but the built-ins can’t be protected.
Cruiser’s laugh when the old saw is repeated, that “Cruising is the fixing of your boat in exotic places” and I used to laugh, too. Let’s hope these repairs to our three year old boat is all the “fun” we have like that for awhile, and Sea Star continues sail on without incident.
Here are a few pic of the repairs. And just to show you we still can have fun in adversity- check out the other fire story from Bocas Marina, Calipso Cantina. Hot, Hot, Hot!
 |
| lightning July 18th, 2009 |
No comments:
Post a Comment