CHAPTER 3 - DISASTER

How our first Atlantic crossing came to a grinding halt

One of the main reasons we bought the boat was to challenge ourselves. To push ourselves beyond the limit and see how we, as humans, respond. It is incredibly hard to find that out when you have any sort of safety net around you.

However, in the first 3 months of being in the water we got what we asked for and more - one tremendous challenge at a time.

—

Taking Jacqeau for our first sea trial was incredible. After spending so much time on other people’s boats, it was surreal to be radioing ahead to an upcoming drawbridge saying our boat’s name officially for the first time on VHF. This was it - it was really happening.

We gently motored down the river towards Narraganset Bay. This body of water is a huge part of sailing history, playing host to the America’s Cup for 132 years, it is nautical equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And a moment of history for us too, as we hoisted our sails for the first time on what would be a round the world adventure.

As a sailor, the sound of turning off the engine and then watching your boat get propelled forward by the natural elements is second to none. For us, after months of drilling, grinding, sawing and winching, the sound of silence when the engine went off was incomparable. We tacked, we gybed, we helmed, we leaped with joy – it works! Not only does it work but she sailed like a dream.

Our first sea trial filled with joy

Nevertheless, the hurricane season was breathing down our necks, so it was shortly after this sea trial that we set off. We had advertised on facebook for crew and, after lots of responses had settled on 2. Grant, a plumber from the UK who was fairly new to sailing but had spent the summer learning the ropes sailing the coast of Mexico and Colin from Connecticut who raced locally but wanted to experience some offshore sailing. Colin convinced us quickly that he was the man for the job when he boldly announced during our first phone call that he could “fix anything”. When you’ve just refit a whole boat and you’re going straight into an ocean crossing, this is exactly what you want to hear.

They joined us early in the morning, and after a quick meet, greet, and farewell to Colin’s family and fiancé we were off. Our plan was to do a shakedown sail from Newport to Provincetown via the Cape Cod Canal. All being well after that we’d fuel up and set off back home taking the northerly route across the Atlantic.

Crew assembled and ready to go - from left to right Charlotte, Colin, Grant & JP

We left Newport just before dusk for Buzzard’s Bay and had a night of sailing which immediately tested our partnership as a team and with the boat. Beating upwind in an unfavourable sea state, hearing creaks and bangs and determining whether they were normal or abnormal. At 6am I came off watch and swapped with JP. The Cape Cod Canal Bridge towered ahead of us and the wind that we had battled all night dissipated leaving a breathless sky flooded with peachy tones.

Famous for its’ fast-flowing tides, timing is everything when you transit the canal and we were happy to be entering exactly when we had planned: with a tide of up to 6knots flowing with us for the duration. Spirits were high and as I went down below I heard JP cheerily chatting on the phone to his mum for what was meant to be his last phone call before an Atlantic Crossing.

He hung up just as we passed under the first bridge. We entered the canal under motor with its steep rocky sides guiding us north. Suddenly, JP heard an unusual ringing in the rig. When you have been around boats for so long you are used to lots of noises; you can quite happily sleep with the sound of a generator or a certain buzzing or tapping so long as you know what it is and that it’s safe. However, us sailors also have fine-tuned ears to something that is “off” or doesn’t sit right. This ringing in the rig wasn’t normal at all – all of the sudden the boat had an ominous vibration. He put us into neutral and then back ahead and that’s when a soul shattering “bang” shuddered its way through the boat. I rushed upstairs as he rushed down. It didn’t take him long to see what was wrong. The shaft was rotating as it were going round a tennis ball, water was erupting from the floor like we had installed a water feature in the middle of our bedroom. We were sinking, fast. And on top of that we were in one of the fastest flowing canals in the world with no engine and no wind.