Happy 4th of July
Rem here....
Here in Curuthersville for 2 days. Its an intersting story how we actually got here. After nearly traveling 60 miles on the 4th of July the mast broke. A large storm kicked up some incredible winds and although we gave a good show for the tows we met our demise....the mast broke at the spreaders and I then helplessly watched the mast fall into the water on the port side of the boat. "BOOM" happy 4th of July!!! At first we were traveling with the wind at approximately 7-8 knots and moving faster than the barges that were in the channel. The wind picked up to approximately 30-40 mph with gusts up to 50 and I turned the boat into an upwind direction, letting some of the force of wind dump off the back of the sail. The stronger gusts at one point moved the boat completely sideways with the wind as wind scooped under the boat and kept us at a heel of about 40-50 degrees for an extended period of time (approximately 2-3 VERY LONG minutes). When I turned the boat back downwind as the storm was slowing we were gaining speed then the mast broke at the spreader where I later found out the top baton came out of the sail. We limped our way to a sandbar on the edge of Island 14 and spent a long night anchored there, contacting the US Coast Guard, who had been wondereing about our location and condition. We spoke with some barges that relayed the information to the Coast Guard for us and woke the next morning, drifting the nearly 13 miles to Caruthersville. In the Until yesterday we were able to manage an average of 35 miles a day and are currently in the process of trying to get a mast sent to Memphis, TN where we hope there can be a fully rigged mast there for us on our arrival Friday. We are planning on motoring/drifting down the river.....exactly the opposite of what this trip was designed for but......we have to do what has to be done.
Its clear that if we are not delayed too long that the New Orleans destination is a definate possiblilty within the timeframe we've alloted for the trip.....of course if a mast can not be found then the trip will have to come to an early end.
Excellent helpful people along the way.....I'd love to mention them all but am running short on my time at the Carutherville Public Library......yay for public libraries!!! Phone issues have prevented us from blogging......I was unable to charge my phone the Wednesday before we left for the trip....I went into verizon and was told those phones were out of stock but I could have one by Saturday......obviously that was not going to work........SO........I had the phone FedEx'd to the Paducah Airport and recieved the phone there....but still had to activate it....and being on the river there are many dead spots. The phone is working now and will probably try an audio blog later this evening. Pictures will be on the way too....We're hoping to catch the two PhD students, Jessica and John as they canoe down the river.... 5 gallons of gas.......9 gallons of water........Osceola.....here we come!!!!
120 river miles covered up to this point........and by the way.....whoever it was that called my cell phone and left a message wishing us luck and that there were no blogs yet.....PLEASE call again and tell us who you are!!!! I accidently deleted the message and was not able to identify who it was that called....but thank you for the well wishes...putt putt putt goes the motor :(
Here in Curuthersville for 2 days. Its an intersting story how we actually got here. After nearly traveling 60 miles on the 4th of July the mast broke. A large storm kicked up some incredible winds and although we gave a good show for the tows we met our demise....the mast broke at the spreaders and I then helplessly watched the mast fall into the water on the port side of the boat. "BOOM" happy 4th of July!!! At first we were traveling with the wind at approximately 7-8 knots and moving faster than the barges that were in the channel. The wind picked up to approximately 30-40 mph with gusts up to 50 and I turned the boat into an upwind direction, letting some of the force of wind dump off the back of the sail. The stronger gusts at one point moved the boat completely sideways with the wind as wind scooped under the boat and kept us at a heel of about 40-50 degrees for an extended period of time (approximately 2-3 VERY LONG minutes). When I turned the boat back downwind as the storm was slowing we were gaining speed then the mast broke at the spreader where I later found out the top baton came out of the sail. We limped our way to a sandbar on the edge of Island 14 and spent a long night anchored there, contacting the US Coast Guard, who had been wondereing about our location and condition. We spoke with some barges that relayed the information to the Coast Guard for us and woke the next morning, drifting the nearly 13 miles to Caruthersville. In the Until yesterday we were able to manage an average of 35 miles a day and are currently in the process of trying to get a mast sent to Memphis, TN where we hope there can be a fully rigged mast there for us on our arrival Friday. We are planning on motoring/drifting down the river.....exactly the opposite of what this trip was designed for but......we have to do what has to be done.
Its clear that if we are not delayed too long that the New Orleans destination is a definate possiblilty within the timeframe we've alloted for the trip.....of course if a mast can not be found then the trip will have to come to an early end.
Excellent helpful people along the way.....I'd love to mention them all but am running short on my time at the Carutherville Public Library......yay for public libraries!!! Phone issues have prevented us from blogging......I was unable to charge my phone the Wednesday before we left for the trip....I went into verizon and was told those phones were out of stock but I could have one by Saturday......obviously that was not going to work........SO........I had the phone FedEx'd to the Paducah Airport and recieved the phone there....but still had to activate it....and being on the river there are many dead spots. The phone is working now and will probably try an audio blog later this evening. Pictures will be on the way too....We're hoping to catch the two PhD students, Jessica and John as they canoe down the river.... 5 gallons of gas.......9 gallons of water........Osceola.....here we come!!!!
120 river miles covered up to this point........and by the way.....whoever it was that called my cell phone and left a message wishing us luck and that there were no blogs yet.....PLEASE call again and tell us who you are!!!! I accidently deleted the message and was not able to identify who it was that called....but thank you for the well wishes...putt putt putt goes the motor :(
posted by Rem and Michael at 7/06/2005 04:00:00 PM
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