“My Wife Was Not Happy”

"We had a passage from hell after leaving Panama for Hawaii," reports Randal Barnhart, 69, of the Alaska-based Yankee Clipper Westwind. When we met him and his wife Carole almost a year ago at our annual Pacific Puddle Jump party in Panama, they were poised to cross the outbound track of their 15-year circumnavigation.

Our interview with Randal and Carole was one of the most fascinating chats we had during that busy day — we talked to nearly 50 crews — so we were eager to follow up via email. But they didn’t get around to emailing us back until this week, having now returned to their homeport of Petersburg, in Southeast Alaska.

Randal and Carole did cross their outbound track on May 24, but there was no time for celebration because they were struggling to survive while in the throes of Hurricane Alvin’s violent winds. The first hurricane of the Pacific season, Alvin came down on them north of remote Clipperton Island, mercilessly battering the 49-ft fiberglass ketch and her crew.

Randal explains, "We took 65 days to get [from Panama] to Hawaii in survival mode, with forestay damage, the genset down, fuel nearly gone, very low on water, our main engine starter gone bad, our emergency 500 watermaker having failed, hand steering, and with an injured ankle from a hatch slamming on it. All after the hurricane hit us with 80–knot winds. I had to use all my knowledge to get us to Hilo alive," says the retired paramedic. "My wife was not happy. On the good side, though, it was a great weight-loss program, as I lost about 35 lbs. Who said sailing is boring?"

This raucous finale to the couple’s 15-year cruise was one of many wild adventures they experienced, including surviving the devastating 2004 tsunami in Malaysia, dodging pirates in the Mozambique Channel, and Randal going temporarily blind due to a diving incident. Read more about their trip in the upcoming issue of Latitude 38 magazine.