Century Club: Jen Hendershot

A true maintenance day.  Today involves an injury.  It was as much funny as it was painful.  While working on the boat, cleaning out the bilge and winterizing the fuel, my husband Alec slipped stepping off the boat onto the finger dock and did the splits.  he seriously bruised himself but somehow didn't fall in the water.  The pictues I have are not appropriate to post here.  Good news is that he wasn't seriously injured.  And the better news was that it was VERY funny.  like seriously funny.  I mean, I practically gave myself a hernia laughing.  It was so funny that Hartge's sent out a note to the WHOLE marina about being careful of slippery docks.  

Kayaked with my friend Sean for Thanksgiving.  Cold but fun!

Day 1- Arrived to the 45 foot Leopard catamaran to help prepare and provision for our journey.  I powerwashed the entire boat from top to bottom.  Tide was crazy high.

Day 2- Provisioned more.  We left for our trip in the weather window in the afternoon.  Getting the boat out of the slip at Pier 7 was a challenge.  We headed down under sail towards the mouth of the Chesapeake.  

Day 3- Sleeping was difficult in the forward cabin.  My shift started at 5am when we were at the mouth of the Potomac and we made it to the mouth of the Chesapeake.  There were many waves.  The microwave fell and many things were rearranges.

Day 4- My overnight sail started at 5am and it was uneventful, but a nice opportunity to work on sail trim.  Our code zero sail is tangled and we can't get it down, which means we can't use the spinnaker. We rounded Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout.

Day 5- My overnight shift started at 4am.  Crew went up the botswains chair to untangle the code zero halyard.  We were able to bring that down underway.  Rounded Cape Fear.  Very rough conditions.

Day 6- 4am shift.  Our port engine will not start.  There is a hydrolock, or sea water that came in from the exhaust in the extremely rough conditions.  A crew member was able to take the fuel injectors out and pump the water out.  We all worked as a team to find the right tools and solutions to seemlingly many problems while still under way.

Day 7- Midnight my shift started.  It was uneventful.  We had birds land on the boat.  We also had dolphins playing off the bow.

Day 8- Midnight to 4am was my shift.  We lost wind at the waypoint and I had to start the motor.  I noticed on my shift that the genoa was torn in a couple places along the leech at the seam.  We have been heading south to avoid the rough conditions expected when the north winds meet the Gulf Stream.  However our captain decided to change plans and go through the Gulf Stream earlier.  So we turned away from the coast of Florida towards the Bahamas.  We had a supermoon this night and I got great photos.

Day 9- Midnight to 4am shift.  The moon was large and was a pleasure to sail with it lighting up the big nothing.  We stalled the boat to avoid a cargo ship and we took the opportunity to swim in the deep deep ocean.  It was very exciting.  We are now north of Abaco.  Conditions worsened progressively.  I could not sleep before my shift.  Water is getting into the hatches and into the bilge.  Someone broke their hand by having it sucked into the electric winch.  I assisted with the first aid for our injured crew member.  No one could sleep anyways.  Captain decided to make a run for Abaco early, which means big waves ad rough conditions.  

Day 10- My shift was from 4-8am.  Conditions were horrible.  I didn't sleep for even one minute.  Water is in the bilge, water in pouring into my shower hatch as we are taking waves crashing over the bow.  We got through the cut just after 8am.  Once we did we were able to relax a bit and calm down.  We made it to Marsh Harbor and anchored with our Q flag.  We processed through immigrations which was easy and made a quick stop at the grocery for ice.

Day 11- We moved the boat from Marsh Harbor to Man O' War Cay.  It is beautiful here but not well protected.  We went swimming near several reefs and took the dinghy in to walk the island.  We got to the ocean side and it was fantastic.

Day 12- Was up at 9 to lower the headsail.  We have to take the boat in today to have repairs.  

Day 13-

Day 14- 

Day 15-

Day 16- Leaving the boat to get on a flight to return home. 

We spent lots of time washing out the bilge and trying to figure out the fuel leak.  I watched so many videos about the fuel path but I can't figure it out.