Narwhal Saved from Sinking
Considering how nervous sailors are about sinking, it’s ironic how many holes we happily put in our boats below the waterline — for sink drains, depthsounders, raw water intakes, prop shafts and more. Then again, maybe all those holes are the reason sailors are so nervous about sinking. As Mike Latta found out last month during a crossing of the Sea of Cortez aboard his 22-ft Falmouth Cutter Narwhal, those fears are well founded.
"I left Mazatlan on the morning of July 21 with a pleasant 6- to 8-knot southerly sending me motorsailing north to Puerto Escondido," Mike tells us. "Early the following morning, I checked the bilge sump in front of my Yanmar and it was full of water and about to spill over. It turns out that the stuffing box, re-packed by the yard a year ago, wasn’t just dripping — it was gurgling. I started working my manual pump but after three or four strokes, the handle suddenly flopped loosely in my hand, all suction lost.
"I got out my ‘back-up’ portable electric pump, which has a hose just long enough to pour water into a bucket placed on the floor boards. With two buckets I could be dumping one while the other filled. In this fashion I was able to reduce the level and keep the water down in the sump.
"I tried my ancient best to tighten the stuffing box, but I just couldn’t do it. I considering turning back to Mazatlan but I was going twice as fast toward Baja, than I would have made if I’d turned around. By 3 p.m. Thursday, I’d probably lifted a few thousand buckets of water into the galley sink, hour after hour after hour, trying to keep ahead of it before eventually realizing it was a losing battle.
"It came down to two choices: keep bailing until Narwhal was overwhelmed and sank while I splashed around in the sea waiting for something hideous and bigger than me to come by; or whine for help now and see if anybody with a pump shows up before option one becomes a reality."
Mike eventually decided to call a mayday that was answered by the oil tanker Port Shanghai. After it arrived on scene a couple of hours later, a crewman carrying an industrial-sized pump was lowered aboard Narwhal, and within minutes the water that had been up to Mike’s knees was gone — for the moment. But the relief was only temporary as the crewman had to take the pump back to the ship. Serendipitously, Ib and Yadranka Svane on the Hans Christian 38 Aeolus were nearby and offered the use of a small portable bilge pump, which is what kept Narwhal afloat for the remainder of her crossing to La Paz.
"I circled off the Abaroa dockyards in La Paz at 3 p.m. Friday and they immediately hauled me out. The yard is now working on the problems. It turned out to be a combination of problems involving the shaft, cutlass bearing, and the hose connection to the stuffing box — all are now being replaced. The incredible people who responded to my mayday have gone their separate ways. I’ll never forget them. As for tomorrow, who knows? Right now I’m just happy to be alive aboard my Narwhal."