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Mutiny at Dawn - Transpac Race 2013

253K views 1K replies 138 participants last post by  chall03 
#1 ·
My crewing/captaining luck finally ran out on me, I was shaken but not broken. I need reinvent my luck to continue to sail the great ocean ours.

Here is my daily log while on board a 2002 Jeanneau 43 DS on on route from Long Beach, CA to Diamond Head, Honolulu, HI during the 2013 Transpac Race.

I changed the names of the people involved for now.

Me - rockDawg or RD. as on-board navigator
Jake – Near coastal USCG licensed Captain. Serve as a crew.
Harry - Skipper/Owner – A Japanese national owns a Sushi Restaurant in LA, long time old traditional sailor, but no off shore or long passage experience. Serve as a skipper
Jane – Partner of Harry, co-owner of the Sushi Restaurant. Has no sailing experience. Serve a watch crew as needed
Sheryl – Mother of Jane, 86 yo. No official duty.
Jeanneau 43 – Corporation owned sailing vessel

==========================
Arrived LAX Friday July 5.
Skipper Harry picked us up at the airport. He looks older than his age and on a heavy side, but nevertheless, a kind and humble gentleman. A number of close calls on the way to the marina, he veered off into other lanes on the highway a few times. I hope Harry sails better than he drives, :) but I did not say anything and just sat quietly so he could concentrate on the road.
When we got the marina, Harry had a hard time to find a parking space. Coming from as an exNYC cabbie, he does not how to drive. We were late for the 'First Time Racer' party. The kitchen at the yacht club was closed but Jane, Harry's business partner bribed the kitchen, and they made us a chicken sandwich for each of us. Actually I would have preferred go to Sam Woo to dinner. Oh well, the guests did not have the choice.

-Day 2, Sat, July 6
Clear sunny sky in Long Beach. Oh boy, I really have a hard time understanding Harry's English. We need to develop some sign language. He apologized to us all the time about his language , but this is ridiculous. He has been in this Country for 16 years……hahaha. We leave his marina and head to Long beach. He had me on the helm until we entered Long Beach since I have no idea when I am going. At time I have to rely on my iPhone. His chart plotter on the helm sucks, it is B/W and the screen has no contrast, impossible to read. We moved the boat to Pine Ave Pier, where the race official marina was.

There were other boats there on the pier. Because of space we were docked stern in with dropping anchor at bow. I was not able to convey my idea to Harry, so I drew pictures to show him my suggestion. He agreed and we docked successfully.

I saw lots of big boy toys in the race with professional crews. Our Jeanneau 43 just did not fit in the race. But whet the hell, we are here.
We had the skipper meeting in the late afternoon. I recorded the meeting so that I wouldn’t miss anything. I had zero local knowledge and was not familiar with the local names, so it was hard for me to follow what they were saying without a chart/map.

Obviously the meeting was not geared towards newbies like us. After the meeting was the party. Good food and good entertainment but one has to buy your own drinks in the party. Jake bought me a coke for the evening.

-Day 1, Sunday, July 7:
A bit disorganized, lots of things to do were found not done. We tried to help as much as we could. I found out the provisioning was not done as planned. Sat phone and other safety equipment not installed done. Harry refused to buy a pair jack lines from West Marine. He insisted to use an old 3/8” round sheeting rope. Some of the re-inspection from the race committee was not just a joke. Just a check in the box deal. Totally unfocused, Jane hauled in a wind generator she obtained from eBay and asked me to install for the trip. Are you serious? I asked in my head.

We canceled our trial spinnaker run with Sam of Norht Sail in San Diego because Harry needed to go shopping for our food. Sam was a 17-time TransPac veteran. It was good that I could at least meet him in person. I tried to pick his brain as much as I could for the race. He gave me a lot of local knowledge. Jake and I wrote down as much as we could. I felt much better as I had sometime to study the chart and the weather report. It seemed to all come together well and scientifically made sense to follow the 1020 isobar.

Rocky start at the top: not sure what was going on, but there must have been big fight between Jane and Harry. Harry barred Jane from boarding the boat until 2 hours before the race started. I got a text message from Harry that was intended for Jane to read. Things were not looking good, I felt uneasy. I finally intervened and made both shake hand and start the team again.

Jake was also having second thoughts and considered backing out. I sacrificed so much for this race/voyage, I felt like I was being let down. Jake asked me what to do. I told him that I was committed to this trip and if he and Jane wanted to back out, I was comfortable sailing the boat alone with Harry. I told him I know Jeanneau well. We would be fine if Jake backed out.

Day 0, Monday, July 8: Race Day.
An unexpected and totally unnecessary event. Harry blew up over the coffee filter left on the coffee maker by Jake. It was a half hour rage and total shut down all operation. My goodness, the man needs an anger management course badly. He threw things all over and around him. He was insulting Jake and everyone else claiming this is his house,….. blah, bah.
I don’t think it was a big deal. The filter was still warm and he should have given Jake a chance to clean up. After all, we were being pulled all different directions for the last two days by two bosses. Well…. I didn’t care, I just want to sail the Pacific and nothing can stop me know.
{Edited: Never knew this was just the beginning of an ordeal that I have never expected}.

When my daughter was in her second grade, I think she had a better organization skills than that of Harry and Jane. We rushed and rushed in a totally disorganized way, I didn’t really have time to think. Somehow, I thought we would have plenty of time to work out the details once the rush is over when on route to Hawaii. Jake reminded Harry to top off the water tanks but he left the dock anyway to head to the starting point. Both Harry and Jane were equally controlling.

We were 20 min late to the start of the race, but I was happy to see that we were underway; at least I was thinking we will have time to learn or adapt Harry’s style. As I often said to other on the net. It is his boat, his house/castle, his rules unless my life is endangered.

Day 1 and 2, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 9 and 10:
I am totally confused with this trip. Stress and fatigue were high. We were pulled into different directions at all time, like working with two bosses. We were being watched at all time. Micromanagement is too mild a word on this boat. How about nano- or pico-management?

And how about constantly remind you:
1. You don't know and thing!!!
2. You are a very bad crew!!!
3. You are a crew and an employee, We don’t need your opinion, You should do what you are told.

Day 3, Thursday, July 11
Calling it quits.
Harry exploded with his temper. We had no idea what the hell he was screaming and jumping up and down and stomping his feet like a five year old. He does not use sentences to communicate, just a single words. He continued screaming at you louder and louder with the same mispronounced word. No one knew what he meant, including his partner for 13 years.

Day 4, Friday July 12
Weather is getting warmer. Water temp went up to 71 degree from 68. Partial sun is out for the first time. Our jib was tore and need to be repaired. Although it was a bit too early and we were far from the trades wind, at 2 pm. We flew the spinnaker with heading toward HI and wind was on 160 degree. Doing 6 to 8 knots. Argh, finally we got the speed that I was hope for.

Day 5, July 12.
Too upset and too exhausted to enter daily log. Micromanagement and constant yelling finally wore me down.

Day 6, July 13:
Conditions were not getting better despite Jane talking to Harry. There was a significant mistrust towards Jake and I. We were not allowed to talk to each other and not permitted to sit at the navigation table and must stay in our berth, per Jane orders. In despair, Jake contacted a military ship “HS V2 Swift” nearby for rescue, claiming unsafe environment. Unfortunately Harry and Jane refused to let us leave the boat. The captain of Swift talked on the radio that they would monitor for 3 hours. They took away the VHF radio and sent Swift away. We were officially their prisoners.

Without any hope of getting off the boat and still has at least 2 weeks of sailing, I tried to repair the jib and the jib track on jib furler. Jake hoisted me up to the forestay to repair the tract and lower down the jib. I ended up being hoisted 4 times. It was no fun and impossible to hold on. The bosun chair was so poorly made, it cut out my circulation from the waist down.

I was starting to put a doubt on this voyage what would if this bad situation continues. The boat was doing about 4 knots, and every day there are about 2 to 4 hour of yelling and the boat moved less than 3 knots. We are going to run out of food before seeing land.

Day 7, July 14:
Things seem getting better since I raised hell or should I say I exploded. Jake and I stopped working, Harry apologized to me telling me that he did not properly maintain his boat for this trip. The forestay track came apart because the loosen allen screws. He thanked me to go up the forestay to fix the track. Otherwise, we have to return to Long Beach.

I warned him that I made no apology of my behavior of rising hell if he ever endangers my life again. He ordered me to go on the dock immediately to take the spinnaker down with my harrass. At the moment of his rage, I obliged and went on the deck with Jake to take the spinnaker down. That was stupid of me.

Day 8, July 15:
Cloudy again
Since I was ordered to stay in my berth, I did not do any watch. When I was up, I was informed the spinnaker was down, Harry claimed it was a wild gybe or should I say he was not good enough to sail at night with the spinnaker. I told him to use autohelm if needed to control the sudden wind changes. But he avoids and claim that autohelm is dangerous.

The repaired jib at least held up. But we were moving very slowly again.

Conditions are getting worse. Blame games begins. It is apparent that it is their boat, it is their decision. They don't care how long it takes to get to Hawaii. Both Jake and I want to get out this situation as soon as possible.
Jake and I set up the spinnaker again. We were doing quite well and got the speed up. A few hours later, one of the snap shackles came loose and caused the spinnaker fly like a kite. We carefully got spinnaker safely on deck and just used the jib and main sail. Wind was good and we are doing about 6 to 7 knots.

Day 9, July 16:
Every day seems like just another explosion. Life on this boat sucks big time. They think we are here to be their servants. Constantly being humiliated, we can't even trim the sails until we are asked. WTF!!!
Jake and I sewed and repair the bottom part of the spinnaker so that it won't rip further up the sail. We have no control where we are heading where the wind is. Harry just take to rhumb line 243 degree, But we worked all day.

Jane took away the sat phone preventing Jake from downloading the weather grib file. Harry has a problem controlling his temper and totally lacks people skills, but Harry is not a bad person. Jane is an evil, manipulative, and controlling liar. She appears she controls Harry until he blows up.

Day 10, July 17
Got up early in the morning and found out Harry took us directly north for almost 45 nm. WTF. Now we need to spend a whole day sailing back south. Wind died again.

We saw a j40 passing us. They did not even look at us or wave. They depart 2 days behind us. We are hardly moving.

Day 11, July 18:
Jake and I stayed watch from 10 to 4 am. We had a good run with the spinnaker doing 6 to 7.5 knots at all time, we use the autohelm to get us through some hairly situation. It was the best we had for this trip. After more than 7 hrs, Harry came to relieve us. Less than 5 min at the helm. He lost control of the spinnaker and it suffered a total system collapse. We rush back on deck with total disbelief. We knew it would require 5 to 6 hours of me and Jake working hard to get the spinnaker up again to sail in decent speed.

Both me and Jake worked franticly to prevent any further damage to the spinnaker under a total darkness with 17 plus wind. I almost killed myself and I decided I must quit in the dangerous situation. Jake and I want back to the cockpit and told Jane we could not work under this condition. In less than two hours, it would be dawn. We would try again to fix the fouled spinnaker.

At day break, Jake woke me up and get ready to rescue the spinnaker that was stuck permanently on the forestay. After 3 hours, fight with the wind we got it down and fly the spinnaker again.
The rest of the day, we sailed ok. Me and jake tried to dominate at helm as much as we could. Because we don’t want harry at the helm to fuuk thing up. If things fuuked up, it is me and Jake to fix the problem.

Day 12, Friday, July 19:
Mutiny at dawn
Got 2 hours sleep in 24 hours, me and Jakeues were on the helm all night until 4 am. Handed the helm to Harry and within 30 min the emergency whistle blew and rushed to deck with my half naked body and harness. The spinnaker collapsed and fouled. The guy line fell. WTF!!!
Jake and I fought like hell and battled 15 knots wind with huge sail of the spinnaker, and tried to save the spinnaker. We finally reattached the guy and cleared the fouled lines went back down to sleep. We were very lucky this time.

Must be less than 5 mins, the whistle was blew again, what the **** now. I bet my blood pressure went through the roof. The spinnaker was hopeless wrapped on the forestry. After 2 hours, Jake and I took down the damaged, torn spinnaker.

Mutiny is the only way to survive. I begged Harry to use the autohelm to control the spinnaker or we quit. We gladly put our lives on the line so many times (6) and we were only half way to Hawaii. We could not do this anymore. Like all the other times, they refused to use autohelm. I instructed Jake to use my satphone to call Dave Cort (Race Committee) The boat's satphone was no Longer accessible to us. I spoke to Dave begging him to help us to resolve the problem. He refused and claimed that is not their problem and we must resolve ourselves. I told him that this had become a safety issue for the crew members. I asked him to contact the CG for us and have the CG to call the owner. He hung up on me.

Because of poor reception, we moved up to cockpit to call the CG. Harry came behind and attacked Jake and use his arm around his neck and tried to get our sat phone and throw it over board. I struggled with him and he turned around and picked up the winch handle trying to strike Jake's head. I blocked his arm from hitting Jake. I dared him to strike me. But I was in a combat mode to block and struck his nose. He hesitated for a second and I grabbed and threw the handle away. Jane jumped in the midst of this for our phone, I grabbed her hands and pushed her to the starboard side of the cockpit and sat still. I told Jake to escape into the v-berth with the phone.
I shouted both of them with fouled language that they were no match with my strength and speed. 'Don't be stupid'!!!

I went to the v-berth after Jake and locked ourselves in. Harry stepped on the hatch, preventing us from opening the hatch for air and better reception.

I had my iPhone with me and CG number. We contacted the Norfolk region and worked ourselves to west coast region. I asked Jake to call CG, since he speaks perfect English with un-detectable Jewish New Yorker accent.

After explaining the situation to CG, the remaining question was to ask CG for advice on how to take control of the boat legally. Under what situation we must follow to get us safely to Hawaii.

If we don’t take control for the boat and sail her properly, our sails will suffer more damage and water supply will become an issue. We would be in trouble. We were totally out of CG Helo range. The wild gybe that Harry causes because his inability to sail at night, put me and Jake a greater danger.

Our water is dangerously low. Jake only given 1.5 L bottle of water to drink each day. And we are carrying an 86 year old lady who has no idea what is going on around her.

The CG informed us to deescalate the situation best I know how while he seeks legal advice. Lt. Daniel Han asked us to call back in an hour.
=======================

I will download the rest from my iPhone later.
 
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#6 ·
I just don't think you can make this sh!t up. An 86 year old Japanese lady that doesn't know what 's going on? The Evil Jane? I love it. He does need his own boat. Get a little under 30 bare bones sloop or something dude. Easy to handle, cheap to maintain. And def. needs to be more picky about who he goes to sea with, of course he undoubtedly knows that now.
 
#8 ·
Aaron, don't tell him to get his own boat! If he does, we won't get stories like this any more. Instead, they'll be about some jacka$$ that he kindly took on as crew after 3-4 months of begging and whining who assaulted him and locked him and took over command of his boat!

Seriously RD, even if it's totally BS, glad you're back in one piece.
 
#12 ·
The first temper tantrum was your cue to leave. There is absolutely no reason to stay aboard after that.
As you experienced, things go wrong fast and can get out of control fast, good or bad crew.

Please learn from this, you can point fingers at the crazy people, but you stayed aboard. if there is a next time, leave and don't look back.
 
#13 · (Edited)
EXACTLY...

Particularly ironic, that this story comes from one who - through the various 'Bluewater vs. Production Boats' threads that routinely occur here - has maintained that the choice of boat matters little for offshore passagemaking, instead it's all about the CREW... (grin, bigtime)

I would suggest you continue to read and read and then read some more. It will soon realize that it is not the blue water boat that is important in crossing the pond. It is the sailor who knows how to sail blue water.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Holy Aquari-tantrums, Batman!!

OK, I totally realize that this is "armchair quarterbacking" (or navigating, or whatever), but...

1) If there is friction among the crew before you even leave the dock, it should be a HUGE red flag. The tension of being away from land and in close quarters is bound to only magnify such friction.

B) If the owner/skipper has the boat nowhere near prepared, and is skimping on basics like jack-lines, for a 2000+ nm passage (much less a race) you should be way beyond red flags and in the shooting off of flares territory (or "Help Mr. Wizard, I don't wanna be a TransPac sailor anymore!!!" territory).

III) If you say the magic words "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" the USCG is obligated to respond and at least come check things out. If the skipper/owner was truly putting you and the others in mortal danger, it might just be time to call in the calvary (granted, I wasn't there, but the story is sounding pretty close to that "mortal danger" threshold to me), or just hog-tie "Capt. Queeg" and sail the damned boat yourself to Hawaii. Either option is gonna force you to do some serious "splainin' " once you get to dry land, but if there is real doubt as to whether you're gonna' get to dry land under the circumstances as they are, it's probably worth it.

In any case, I'm gonna nuke some popcorn and get ready for the rest of the story.....
 
#19 · (Edited)
Holy Aquari-tantrums, Batman!!

OK, I totally realize that this is "armchair quarterbacking" (or navigating, or whatever), but...

1) If there is friction among the crew before you even leave the dock, it should be a HUGE red flag. The tension of being away from land and in close quarters is bound to only magnify such friction.
.....
True enough, but to fair on poor 'ol Dawg, it's not uncommon for the pressures of race prep for a major race like the TransPac to cause some level of "pre-race tension" that one might expect would settle out after the yacht was headed west.

One obvious lesson out of this is to insist on the whole boat getting out for a 'shakedown' preparation sail a few days beforehand so you can gauge how you all work together and iron out any 'issues' with the boat (in fact some of our major races include one or two harbour races beforehand to encourage exactly this) - and bail in plenty of time if you have to - but all too often there simply isn't time, and in that case you simply hope this will never happen...

FWIW, I've yet to be convinced you could legitimately call a "Mayday" in this situation even if you had access to a radio, but it'll be interesting to see what others think.
 
#20 ·
Part 2 will be interesting, as I noticed the boat is NOT at the finish line in hawaii! but on the BIG island to the south, not at the finish on the northern island...............oh boy! the phun is just beginning!

Marty
 
#21 ·
Hehehe...

Scroll to the bottom of the page...22 people are waiting for part 2.
 
#23 ·
Sorry if I came off preachy, I only say it because I too have made the very same mistakes. I was off shore for two weeks with a psycho. Before departure, all the signs were there, I even implored the captain, days before we left, to leave him behind and just do the leg with the two of us ( captain and I). So, the two weeks of fear, misery, and nearly getting dead a couple times, was all my fault. I should of never been on that boat. Lesson learned..well actually, took a couple more bad deliveries to learn, but then I got wise:D
Sorry you had a terrible trip, being offshore can be fun and beautiful, I hope your next trip is just that.
 
#27 ·
The story checks out. A little Google detective work and the players names come up. I was a little skeptical when the navigator had a backgound as a prankster and comedic writer but he also shows up as a sailing instructor and licensed captain. In the Transpac press releases there are quotes from the 86 year old woman listed as the pit person.Talk about no synergy in a crew. It makes you wonder what qualifications the Transpac committee uses in determining who can enter.
 
#28 ·
Wow! I was wondering when the Dawg was going to report in. Geez, what a crappy trip. Funny that a guy who had done a lot to prepare, interviewed for the job and had to submit his qualifications, did not get the same kind of information about the boat, skipper or other crew members before deciding to join this boat. I guess the "opportunity" was to great and he threw common sense out the window?
Hopefully the rest of the story is better.....
 
#30 · (Edited)
Sorry for the delay. Wifey had work for me to do at home :)

Here is the second part and more stuff (pics and others) will follows
============

Day 13, July 20
It was exhausted and very tensed day yesterday. Jake and I felt good the new outlook, but remained caution, just because Harry's split personality and temper. Last night decent wind with 6 to 7.5 SOG running autohelm . We did good and doing more than 150 nm. 728 nm to go.

Today it was the first morning that there was no wild gybe overnite after the physical confrontation yesterday, and we use my own sat phone to inform CG. It was the first morning that I did not need to risk my life on deck to unwrap the spinnaker.

@10 am: I catch up my daily log. After the call to USCG, and be advised to deescalate the confrontation. Me and jake sat in the v-berth discussing our option. We are not immediately in danger, although physical violence has erupted. We are too far from Helo range. Our love ones and the CG know own side of the story. If anything happens to us, they have the lead. They know our sails have been compromised and water tanks were not up off. Water will eventually become an issues. The CG knows our GPS tracking URL.
Now we just have to survive and take to boat the Hawaii. I opened the door and saw Harry sat on the Navigation table. I informed him that we just spoke to the USCG and emails the details to my secretary and Jake's friends. My secretary and his friend were in voice contact with the CG. I will take over the boat with or without your approval. My job is to reach landfall ASAP. Harry was shaking his head and I am not sure what he was saying. I told I am willing to talk gentleman to gentleman alone with Jane and Jake around. Finally we spoke alone. We agreed that only he and I talk, all other opinions must go through one of us.

1. No fighting.
2. Autohelm must be used at night, I insisted that will be no compromise on this. J
3. Harry and me will share the responsibility captain the boat to Hawaii

We shook hand. (What a fuucker :mad:)

Jake and I will not get out onto the deck to unwrap the spinnakers again at nite or we can risk our sails!!! If the sail is damage beyond repair, we are doomed. We don't have enough fuel to motor.

Evening: no wind less than 3 kn, weather grib file gave us no warning. We are low on water with 60 g of fuel.

Very light wind thro out the the day. Harry insisted go rhumb line despite all of us head more south. I managed head south while he is not looking.
At nite after dinner winds picked up with 10 to 12 kn, perfect a) I have you aiming at 31N/125W and if we can be a bit further N, that would be better condition for our spinnaker. Jake and I sailed her nicely at 6.5 kn and above. I stayed up and watched from 8 pm till Jake relief me at 3 am.

Day 14, July 21
No wild gybe and no need to go on deck at nite for the 3rd nite since the mutiny. :).

We are finally in the trade wind region. Had they let me sail the boat, we could have been here 3 or 4 days ago. So much time wasted, and so much anger has been expressed. It is just sad. Fuccking worst time in my life. I wonder what my wife would say next time I go crewing for others. Good thing she is on the road traveling and I have my sectary instead.

Looking forward to having another good day. I started taking pic and fish trolling since the stress was gone and arrival to Hawaii is doable.

I had a few small talks with Harry. He apologized numerous times for his behavior and praised my seamanship and leadership. He said perhaps I have more experience in running bigger operations. I was nit touched by his words.

We have good wind all day long doing 6.5 to 8 kn SOG with port tack with Spinnaker. At 7 pm dinner time, big swell coming, pretty rough sea. True wind at 10 to 12 knot. Water temp at 84.3F. Still moving fast.

Day 15, July 22:
At 11 am HST 428 nm from Molokai light. Water temp 84 F. Wind is still good near 20 knot behind us. A bit high for spinnaker but autohelm handled well. We are doing 7 to 8 knots.

Don't believe this, food is running low and this is the first time I willingly eat the food I hate. **** these people do not know how to provision food. Gourmet sushi chef my foot. :(. According to Jake. The best three dinners in this trip were my food I brought from home).

Oh yeah, they hid the bottled water, so me and Jake can only drink water from tap. We are not allowed to cook and they controlled the galley and cook us a small portion meal every day, no seconds. We survived by eating snack and the nuts my wife packed for me. I have never lived so poorly in my life. If I tell my friends and family, no one will believe us. It is a good thing that Jake has a Hero 3 GoPRo and captured everything including all these yelling and screaming for the world to hear. I told him to block my ugly mug.

Just a few more days to go. How could one could treat another human being like this way is beyond me. Jake and I on watch most of the time, and do all cleaning and upkeep. Just feel like a servant. Fortunately, the sky is still beautiful as ever. Can't wait to get home.

After quiet 3 days without incidences, and fight broke out again. Jane decided to tape shut the faucet in the galley to prevent us to use any water while they sleep. All the faucets in the head were taped shut a few days again. So we can't even get water to drink since the bottled water is hidden from us. It is just ridiculous. Jake raised hell and Harry agreed not to do that. But the argument continues between Jake, Jane and Harry. This lasted for good half hours.

This is such unprofessional, petty, and childish behavior. :(. Fuuuk!!! 360 nm to go.

Day 16, July 23
283 nm to go. Water temp 85.4F.

Since the heated oral exchange between Jakeues and the owners, they escalated his punishment. His night watch duty has been removed. Fucck lucky him... Now I have to do more ... Haha.

They intend to impose more rules to make him more miserable. It is all about control. Instead of being a leader to bring out the best in others, they bring the worse from their crew. It certainly not a right way to be a host or a leader. I guess some are destined to be great men and some are destined to be little 'men' in their own little world.

Back to original topic. Wind is good, we were moving fast. Wind from east at 15 to 19 knots. Still has current behind us at 0.6 Kn.

At the current condition, we may be at Molokai light at Thursday dawn. Be in marina at dusk.

I studied charts yesterday to work out my approach. Book says don't go in harbor at night, not sure what is the deal. The harbor is well marked, plenty of water and we will have almost full moon at nite. I will let Harry makes the decision. But at the worst, I am comfortable to go in in the dark.

At noon, Harry was at the helm and totally lost control. The spinnaker was hopelessly wrapped around the forestay. This man couldn't control the spinnaker. He practically fears of the spinnaker. Remember that man can't even drive in the parking lot.

I called Jake who has been banned from cockpit up on deck to help me free the spinnaker. After a grueling struggle again, we managed to take the spinnaker. Harry kept saying the spinnaker was very dangerous to us. In my mind, he is very dangerous and stupid. He was the one with the problem, but too dumb and proud to see the truth. This was the last I see the spineaker. We are sailing the crippled jib and main now. Harry turned on his engine to do some motor sailing.

At 4 pm, I woke up to loud yelling from a mad man. He was totally out of control with a face so bright red. It turn out his target was not Jake, but Jane. He yelled Jane does not do anything and don't touch anything and immediately come down below. I immediately jumped on the cockpit and to control of the helm. It was set to auto. I was afraid to change anything except to trim to sail to quiet it down. I saw jake was busy taping…. LOL
We are so close and yet so far from land. It moves so slowly now without the spinnaker at just above 5 knots.

I am in survival mode, laying low and trying to get thing done correctly to get home ASAP. What else can one do in this situation? :(.

232 nm to go. Heading 230 degree, will do a gybe sometime tonight.
Hope this is the last entry for the day. I am so tired with this drama.
Day 17,July 24:

I woke up at 2 am to start my watch. Wind died down we are moving slowly with just jib and main. Harry suggested we go to Hilo island since the boat is heading to Hilo.

Another day of beautiful day. Sea calm and not much fun. We are definitely sailing to Hilo. It will get us to land and ends our misery sooner, but it will cost me more money to get home. Hilo has no marina, which will also pose a problem: no area for us to clean up before boarding the plane. Water is so short we are not allow to wash our face or brush teeth let alone sponge bath or shower on board.

At 11:20 am, 364 nm from Hawaii. we saw a CG boat headed east passed us on starboard side about 5 nm. Not sure if they are checking on us. CG at west coast told my secretary that they have notified Hawaii CG our situation. Not sure why the CG motored so far from their base. I plan to call CG upon our arrival in the marina.

Harry asked me to start packing. He didn't want me to leave anything behind. He also asked to return a mesh t-shirt and an ugly Hawaii shirt back that he got them from Dollars store.

Since Jake and I will be leaving tomorrow morning when we arrive Hilo. The attack has switched onto Jane NOW. The Poor woman took all the beating today. There were more the five episodes of explosive yelling. 30 min ago Jane was preparing Alfredo for the "last night dinner on board". It was apparently Harry wants her to use microwave to make it. Since the engine was not running and can't use the microwave based on Harry rules. She did not want to start the engine because she was afraid to wake him up.

He found out she used the stove to cook the meal. He got all upset for disobeying his order. He got physical but I am not if Jane got beaten. He took the pan and slammed on the counter, the food flew all around. Then he ordered her to throw the dinner over board. There went our dinner.

This man is a very sick man. No wonder he is single without friends or family. I can't imagine how it will be like working in his Sushi restaurant; it must be hell. I am glad I am getting out tomorrow.

Jake and I will stay up tonight to make sure we can arrive Hilo as planned.

At 8:10 pm. All quiet and I am alone at the helm. Moon has not made her appearance yet. There are so many stars. Vega shines so bright on my right and North Star was dimly light starboard aft. Of course Satan[Saturn] is shinning above my head. This is what I live for. It is so bad that this is the worst crewing experience I have ever had. I hope my wife does not get too concerned about me crewing in the future. She has always trusted that I know how to take care of myself.

Day 18, Thursday, July 25:
I woke up at day break, big island was in a distant view. What a sight!!! Although I love the sea, seeing land after so many days at sea is special, especially after this troubled voyage. We motored into Hilo bay at the end of the breaker where the coast guard station is. We were practically being kicked off the boat and they refused to book me the ticket home. I was in no mood to argue and will deal with it later when I get home.

We stopped by homeland security to ensure we are cleared properly. The kind officer showed us where the CG office is.

We stopped by USCG to close our distress call. Lt Han of the west coast CG had notified Honolulu CG of our trouble with the captain, insufficient water and damaged sails.

We also give the short version of the incidence to the CG. . Officers Will and Jensen listened tentatively, and ask what could the CG do in the future to avoid this problem.

I told the CG that there is nothing they could do. However by the action of calling the CG, it was sufficient to get the owner take us seriously and that an authority knows our sailing vessel had problems. Jake was able to fly in one of his film crew from Honolulu to Hilo, was arrived just in time to film while we were interviewed by the CG.

After a couple calls and texts with my wife, my travel arrangement was set. Taking a short flight to Honolulu, to Seattle today and then to Philly. I will be home on Friday at 5 pm, just in time to stop by Philly to have a nice dinner.
This concluded my very first bad experience and the very worst crewing adventure. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the last.

My next delivery is from TCI to PR shortly after hurricane Dorian.
 
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