My scariest moment yet, shouldn't have been that scary...

[Dehler98AK]

Thanks for all the comments, tips and positive feedback.

I won't say I'm wishing for another "incident" to put some of the feedback into practice, but of course I'm sure it's inevitable...

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Dehler98AK

Honestly, its my first boat, and I hate that it has hydraulic steering, but I was none the wiser when I was buying it. There are just too many parts involved in the system. I'm pretty handy, and can fix most things, but a cable system would be so much simpler.

A tiller is even simpler.

But seriously, simpler is often safer. As you know, small things can cascade into larger things, especially in the wee hours when you are fatigued... AND singlehanding.

[CaptTom]

All good replies.

The thing which struck me was the two near-misses. The common thread here, and with many accidents, is losing sight of personal safety. A healthy respect for the boom comes with experience, and it's easy to forget in the wee hours, in a crisis. I'm not sure if you had lifelines you could have clipped into. Normally I'd also consider a PFD when working on deck, but in that situation it may not have helped if you had no way to re-board. Scary thought.

I think heading for shore was the right call, especially if the weather had the potential to worsen. Maybe there was an easy fix, but you couldn't know that. It didn't sound like anchoring or laying to were good options, so being able to set course toward someplace safer was a good way to stabilize the situation and buy yourself time to troubleshoot.

And, as others have said, the time to make that radio call was when things first started going badly.

[Dehler98AK]

Very true!

[Dehler98AK]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

All good replies.

The thing which struck me was the two near-misses. The common thread here, and with many accidents, is losing sight of personal safety. A healthy respect for the boom comes with experience, and it's easy to forget in the wee hours, in a crisis. I'm not sure if you had lifelines you could have clipped into. Normally I'd also consider a PFD when working on deck, but in that situation it may not have helped if you had no way to re-board. Scary thought.

I think heading for shore was the right call, especially if the weather had the potential to worsen. Maybe there was an easy fix, but you couldn't know that. It didn't sound like anchoring or laying to were good options, so being able to set course toward someplace safer was a good way to stabilize the situation and buy yourself time to troubleshoot.

And, as others have said, the time to make that radio call was when things first started going badly.

I 100% had my lifejacket on, I'm very rarely not wearing it, and I did actually have a preventer line rigged to the boom, but I think I forgot to tighten in the main sheets when I headed up into the wind to get the main down. I then had to leave the tiller to go to the mast and set the lazy jacks, and it was in this moment that I nearly took a whack.

I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't attach my safety line. I have it all rigged, with a strap along the deck, but in the heat of the moment, I completely forgot to hook myself on. Really dumb stuff...

[JPA Cate]

Even on Jim's 30 footer, he was able to rig double preventers, before going forward to the mast. You don't have to snug them all the way down, but they will limit the boom's travel. Best is to form the habit of staying low where it can't get you, till you're to the mast.

Ann

[Redline452]

Originally Posted by Dehler98AK

Haha, I love this landing quote..

Forgive the thread drift, but I heard the full quote as:

“Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
And if they can use the plane again, it’s a great one.”

[Cpt Mark]

I'd say good job! Not panicking is the most important thing. Going forward what I have always done is play what if? What if this happened now, what steps would I do? Do this all the time and create solutions but not just one because 1 might not work. If plan A doesn't work I immediately go to plan B. No point in trying plan A again, it already failed. Plan B doesn't work I'm onto plan C and while I'm executing plan C I'm thinking fast about what plans D and E are.

I was taught a long time ago in SCUBA to Stop, Think, Get control. All problems except no air are solved on the bottom. I've done this ever since and it has saved my life on more than 1 occasion. Usually it is not 1 thing that creates an emergency, it's the culmination of a bunch of little things going wrong that now look like are are a big thing. Unfortunately you have so many little things you don't know which is most important, you can't just fix 1 thing.

[rowboatload]

Unless my room to leeward is less than 2 miles, I HOVE TO to think.

[tthrale]

I use this. I’m a retired pilot. But first thing is to sit on your hands and then go through a process.

Netjets teach DODAR.

Diagnose, Options, Decide, Assign Tasks and Review. Simply put, it assists the crew in making decisions under pressure. The process is applicable to any environment really. Though it was specifically developed for aeronautical decision-making.

It slows you down and makes you think prior to action. It is extremely hard not to rush in, even more so when you are on your own. The fact that you are putting it out there means you are learning and improving.

Good luck next time.

[barnakiel]

You can get vastly better at managing iffy situations by VISUALISING these situations beforehand. Buddhists call it 'death meditation'. You basically imagine the bad thing happen, and you imagine the steps you will take to manage the situation.


As you do it beforehand, there is plenty of time to study the best, and the second best, solutions to each challenge (mast loss, flooding, fire onboard, MOB, keel loss, rudder loss, an unexpected call from the tax office, etc.).


Now and then you will come across a challenge that cannot be foreseen. Then it helps if you are a religious person.


Mind it is so much easier to handle anything as long as there is plenty of water between you and the rock. So give wide berth to all and any obstacles and avoid doing risky things. Quite often there are more than one way to do anything, and any sailor who wants to get old will elect the less risky way.


You can also improve your EMOTIONAL reaction to events - by remembering all the times you were in trouble and yet you made it safely to the harbour. As you noted yourself, SLOW DOWN and BREATHE may sound silly and academic and yet they do work.


So my tips are : VISUALISE accidents and imagine what you could do in each case, and when the brown thing hits the fan : BREATHE and SLOW DOWN.


You will be fine. You know it.


Cheers,
b.

[HabibiDah]

I'll jump in with all the other former pilots to comment on your actions, and analysis.

First, you did the right thing by telling yourself to slow down. "No fast hands in the cockpit.!"

Second, you are doing the right thing by doing a post analysis. There is ALWAYS something you think of you could have done at the time, but that is just arm-chair analysis. It is different in the heat of the moment.

Third, you survived. :-) Your arrivals = your departures.

Fourth, Remember this: "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." In this case I don't think you had any bad judgement...its just a fun saying.

You did great. You are here. Your boat is here. You've got a good story, and you've got priceless experience. All in all, a Win.

It's never an adventure when it's happening. It's only an adventure when you are telling about it later!

[nofacey]

I think you did great - you knew your boat, you had a back up plan in place (emergency tiller) and you executed it solo. Great job!

Will you do even better next time? Zero doubt.

Keep going!

[gordonhinds]

Get rid of the hydraulic steering. Check the fluid that escaped - it’s very corrosive.

[Tanqueray]

Originally Posted by Dehler98AK

So last night I had my first actual scare at sea.

I was single handing about 4 miles off the coast of Sweden in my 30ft sailing boat, and just about to gybe when I lost all steering capabilities, both the wheel and the autopilot. Both are hydraulic.

It was blowing about 15 - 20 knots, it was 1:30am and pitch dark, with rough enough seas, but not overly dramatic.

It took me just a couple of minutes of flailing about in the wind and waves to assess the situation and realise what was happening. I think I reacted quite well, as in, I got out the emergency tiller, got it connected, got the main down, and left out just a little bit of foresail to stabalise the boat. I then checked the water for any ropes over the side before I started the engine and headed for the closest harbour, which unfortunately, was about 90 degrees to the waves. It was kind of a struggle as the emergency tiller is not very long, and in a moderate sea it's quite energy sapping to steer with, but I got in eventually following the sector light, and then once safely in the harbour, set about preparing my lines to get into a berth. I think I done ok, but there are two main points of concern for me.

Firstly, I really had to just keep telling myself to stop, slow down, stop, slow down as I was kind of rushing around on deck, tripping over things, and I could have easily turned a perfectly manageable situation into a life threatening one if I had fallen overboard or something. At one point the boom swung, and luckily I was standing directly at the mast, and it didn't take me out, but this was 100% just luck, not any strategy on my part

Secondly, in the end the problem was just a loose pipe connection which I could have easily fixed in a couple of minutes, topped up the oil, and carried on on my journey, but this didn't even cross my mind. As soon as I smelled the hydraulic oil I thought catastrophic failure, and could think of nothing other than heading for the nearest harbour and actually, considering the night time approach and weather, it was maybe not the best idea.

How can I train myself to think more methodically in such situations?

I didn't panic, as in immediately thought I was going to die or anything like that, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but how I nearly compounded my problems by moving around clumsy really annoys me Also, that I didn't just search for the problem to fix it, but immediately headed for shore, which once again seems now like a wrong decision.

I want to be better. I just really want to be better and handling these types of situations....

Sounds like you did very well under trying conditions.

Going through it like this, and sort of doing a post-mortem is helpful so you can identify the good and not-so-good decisions. But remember. You got safely into port, you were not injured, and your boat is still afloat…so a good outcome.

I was in challenging sea conditions the other day, bashing through waves, close to a Lee shore under auxiliary. As I was bashing through the waves, I was thinking about plan B should the engine fail. Anchoring not a good choice in these seas, but I could get a bit of the jib out and bear off away from the Lee shore, get some seaway to work with, etc.

I think considering the Plan AB’s before you need them can make anyone a better and more prepared mariner.

Glad you made it into safe harbor.

Greg