Delta Ditch Run - the way back

The way back from the delta ditch was a slightly different story.

It started in light air, about 8 knots of breeze and finally a cool temperature, just pleasant. Except that Nat got some kind of heat exhaustion and had started to feel a little sick for a while - however, during the race, the adrenaline was masking a lot of the symptoms. Post race, she started to feel really sick just as the grill was going out, beer bottles were opening up and a fantastic dinner planned by Nathan was about to unfold.

Grilled steaks and salmon with potato salad, cake and strawberries! Delicious.

Nat couldn't keep it in though. A headache also started - Mike had electrolyte tablets and she took a couple, just trying to rest.

Elise was motoring back with her little 4 horse power.

The wind picked up to 20 knots as we were making our way down the delta. The night set in and we started a watch system. Nat and Mike took the first shift. The wind increased to 30 knots and the water became really choppy, probably 3 to 4 foot swells. Fortunately Elise's engine is a long shaft and only a couple of waves pulled it out of the water while Mike was down below to get more gas up on deck.

We saw Libra and Abigail Morgan (with bigger engines) go by (with a 6 horse power)

On a couple of occasions Mike complained that the helm wasn't responsive. It didn't look at all like rudder failure and looking down, the engine had turned and was pushing the boat sideways, working against the rudder.

The problem is that the wave and the way the engine was mounted contributed to the engine swinging out of its mount - lying on its side in the water. It stopped immediately.

Mike quickly grabbed the engine in the most amazing athletic feat - this is a) an 80 pound beast and b) an uncomfortable position and c) everything happened fast.

Nat called for all hands on deck but Nathan and Jiri had already heard it happen from below and were already jumping out on the cockpit.

Elise was following the channel markers and was unfortunately near one when all this happened so not a whole lot of room to maneuver before we hit something on the bank of the river.

Priority #1: not create a bigger problem than the one we had to deal with. Nat pointed the boat downwind and the waves helped. Nathan and Jiri quickly helped get the jib up (we had both sails ready to go up in the event of an emergency, but the main was flaked with sail ties and takes much longer to hoist) - the boat started to sail downwind under jib pushed by the waves. Visibility was good so any immediate danger of running aground (just getting stuck in the mud really) was avoided.

Next: relieve Mike who was still fighting with the engine, preventing it from falling completely off the mount.

Jiri and Nathan helped get the engine up in the cockpit. OK - that was that one temporarily solved.

Next: as we didn't really want to sail all the way back to Stockton, nor we were ready to completely sail upwind, we needed to stabilize the situation. An anchor was the best solution - except that most of the width of the river is a shipping channel at that point! We were in 50 feet of water - we rig an 80 foot tow line to the anchor line and chain, pointed the boat upwind and drop the anchor. The boat quickly dropped downwind with the waves and we paid out the anchor line.

The anchor seems to hold - so things got a little quieter and we all gathered in the cockpit to examine the situation. We also paid close attention to landmarks to make sure that the boat was not going backwards with a loose anchor.

The wind hadn't abated and we were still pretty much in 27 knots of wind, gusting 30 - our 'anchorage' wasn't sheltered at all and the boat was right on the edge of the channel (with the anchor near the channel) - we couldn't pay out any more line without ending up in mashland.

We really had three choices.

1) sail downwind back to Stockton and figure something out. Pros: it is sailing downwind which is much more comfortable in these winds. It is also a shorter distance and we can probably leave the boat there, because it is a friendly crowd. Cons: it is 20 miles in the wrong direction.

2) sail upwind back to the city with 347 tacks, hoisting a #3 and potentially taking a reef in for a more comfortable sail. Pros: gets us closer to the city. Cons: it is the most uncomfortable way to travel and the team was exhausted from the heat and the long day of racing. The two people on watch might have to tack the boat fairly often and it is a bit more tiring than just holding the tiller with the engine going... and Nat was still sick (although when the 'engine incident happened', the adrenaline kicked in and Nat felt absolutely fine for a few minutes, in full possession of all her sense. Weird...)

3) call for a tow to a nearby marina. We didn't want to sail into a marina in the dark and in shallow water.

Pros: we could leave the boat there, fix the engine and come back the following weekend to finish the delivery. Rest and all that good stuff. Cons: it is costly and it forces us to come back the following weekend for the boat.

In any case, we called in Vessel Assist (Elise has insurance and towing is included) and found out that they could only come in the morning.

So we decided to stay at anchor as everyone was tired, no one wanted to head backwards and negate all progress made so far and no one wanted to sail upwind in choppy wet waters for a delivery.

We were still in heavy wind and the boat was swinging hard. The anchor seemed to hold but we had to keep our watch system with one person trying to minimize swing (pretty touch..as little water goes through the rudder even with waves and strong current) and one person making sure the anchor wasn't dragging. 

Nathan during his watch changed to the #3 jib so that we could hoist the jib fast if at any point in time we thought that the anchor wasn't holding anymore.

We took turns every couple of hours.

Wet and uncomfortable night. Nat still not feeling well - tried to first rest on deck, or tried to make herself throw up to feel better for a short while and fall asleep! Unfortunately getting sick made the dehydration and the headache worse. Sleeping helped a lot.

Long and boring watches staring at the same friggin' blinking channel markers. But Elise's anchor behaved admirably and dawn came with the boat still where it was. We were facing Mount Diablo and started to wait for the little tow boat.

Just as the anchor started to slip and Elise was now slowly heading toward the lee shore (mud really...) rudder first (not good), the tow boat arrived.

Luck!

Conditions never look quite bad in pictures :)

Jiri looking at Mount Diablo

 Vessel Assist towed Elise into the nearest marina in Isleton.

And Elise pulled into this marina - the boat itself (minus the twing block) was absolutely fine despite the rough conditions of the night. (@Express 27 - #love)

We called Elise's caretaker who jumped on his truck and headed over to Isleton to meet us,

Last photo courtesy of Ultimate Yachtshots.