Quote:
Originally Posted by waterman46
He wrote that water was well over the floorboards, as I recall, and that pumping was not keeping up. In an old wooden boat that means very serious trouble. They couldn't get the big oump after 3 tries from the C130.
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No, water well over the floorboards is not a good reason to abandon. In these conditions old wooden boats make water from "the working of the ship" and
leaks of course. If I understand it correctly, they could not get any of the pumps to
work, due to not priming properly, and used a
toilet pump instead. No mention of buckets? If you sail old wooden working boats, you need to be prepared to deal with water ingress. In heavy conditions, the chances are you will spew caulking, for example. Hatches and the
deck are not watertight, lots of water will find its way down from above. Also, you need
training in how to deal with this and have contingency plans.
My guess is that the abandoning of the vessel was due to fatigue, fear and opportunity as the CG was around to drop them a
pump. Maybe it was the right decision anyway. But probably the risk of abandoning was as high as the risk of staying onboard.
Then you have the psychological pressure on the
skipper. The crew is frightened for their lives and they see a way to get out of this situation. I have been in a similar situation, in a heavy storm. We were in no danger, but the situation was extremely uncomfortable. The
crew wanted me to run down towards a port for shelter. One person also wanted to send a MayDay. Of course, running down towards a lee shore was no option. But it was not easy to keep control of the situation and not give in to the demands.
What is obviously reasonable to one person, may not be to another.