A NEAR FATAL JIBE

By Dr. Robert E. Plucker

               Joey was in our son John's high school class, and had the reputation which he still has, of being an adventurer.  He also was, and is quite skillful working with wood.  Joey had been sailing with us quite often, and since his father owned a workboat, it seemed fore-ordained that Joey would try his hand at building a boat, a sailboat.  I don't know how much help, if any, Joey had in building the boat, but it turned out to be a beautiful work of art.  It was a small enough boat to not require a weighted keel, but the ballast of the passengers shifting their weight from side to side would keep the boat upright in conditions where sailing a boat this small is at all practicable.

               Joey came over one day to pick up John and Lee; they were to go sailing in Joey's new boat.  "Good luck", I thought to myself, as there seemed to be zero wind on Lynn Canal.  I went down to the dock to see them off.  As predicted, there was virtually no wind, and they had to row out a fair distance before catching the slightest hint of a breeze.  I got bored watching them, and walked back home.

               I noticed later in the afternoon that there was a bit of a breeze.  I did not know that the boys had come back to pick up Lucinda, also in their high school class.  That made four adult-sized people aboard, and Lee is no lightweight. There would be plenty of ballast, but the boat would be fairly low in the water.  Later in the afternoon I was out for a walk and glanced out over the water as I so often do.  I thought I might be able to glimpse the small white sails of Joey's boat.  What I saw was the Chilkat Cruises fast ferry coming back from Skagway roaring back to their Haines dock as usual, but with a major difference.  It slowed dramatically, turned around, and seemed to drift in one spot for a while.  Eventually I got tired of trying to figure out why they didn't stick to their usual rush to the dock and went home.

               In perhaps forty-five minutes or so, Lucinda, Lee, Joey and John came to our door, looking harried, bedraggled and damp, trying to act super-cool.  After all, that's what teen-agers do, they act cool.  They wanted to know if it would be OK for Joey to take a shower now, in our bathroom.  "We will explain everything later", they said.  So Joey spent some time in the shower while the other three were lined up on the couch, trying to huddle together under a blanket.  They assured us they would tell everything only after Joey got out of the shower.

               Joey had been very cold, the coldest of the four. They tried to make light of their adventure, but the further they got into the story the more I was convinced that they were alive only by the grace of God.  The wind had increased significantly, and Lucinda suggested they turn back.  Lucinda knew the wind on Lynn Canal perhaps better than the boys, as she had had a good bit of sea-time on her father's fish-boat.  Eventually even fearless Joey agreed to head back to the Haines Boat Harbor.  They had been sailing with the wind on the starboard quarter, nearly directly ahead of the wind.  They were probably deceived as to the strength of the wind as the boat speed subtracted from the actual wind velocity gives an apparent wind that seems much less than it is. Of course the wind always feels better if it is blowing on your back instead of having to face into it.

               What they attempted to do was to turn to the starboard, as the mainsail was on the port side, and they could have easily come up into the wind, tightened up the main and jib sheets, built up a little speed, and then come about through the eye of the wind and be headed straight for home.  From what I gathered from their account of it, Joey had attempted to do the whole maneuver in one step. Turn to starboard, leave the sheets slack, go through the eye of the wind, wind up on the port tack and be headed for home.  For some reason it did not work; the boat did not have momentum enough to go all that distance through the eye of the wind, finally catching the wind on the port side.  Apparently a 270 degree turn was just too much; they fell back on the original course, wind on the starboard quarter, and were sailing full speed away from shelter.

               Next they tried jibing.  This is a tricky maneuver in a strong wind, and is usually a bad idea.  It involves turning the boat in the direction of the mainsail.  That is, if the sail is spread out on the left, turn to the left. Eventually the wind will catch the back side of the sail and will blow sail and boom across to the other side at great speed and with devastating effect if some person happens to be standing in the way.  There are ways to limit this danger, but Joey and company were not experienced enough to know much about them.  When Joey's boat was broadside to the wind, evidently two bad things happened: the main sheet did not freely run out as it should have, and the ballast/passengers were too slow about shifting their weight to the windward side.  With the mainsail catching the full side force of the wind and the ballast on the wrong side, the boat had to suffer a severe knock-down, ending up with the mast and sails floating in the water, the hull floating on its side.  Being wood, the boat would not sink, and they had a fighting chance to right the boat.  

               According to their accounts, they did succeed in getting the boat upright, temporarily, but it was full of water, and they couldn't bail the water out as fast as the waves filled it.  Miraculously, they were all wearing life jackets, which is not usually the cool teen-age thing to do.  Lee, Lucinda and John managed to get out of the coldest water, somehow climbing onto the side-ways floating hull.  Joey could perhaps have done the same, but he was too engaged in trying to save his oars, and was hanging onto the mast with one hand and holding onto the oars with the other.  This seems irrational, but people do unexpected things when under extreme pressure sometimes.  This was why he was so much colder than the others, probably he was close to serious hypothermia. It should be noted that in the cold waters of the Lynn Canal, the average survival time has been estimated at ten to twenty minutes.

               So there they were, adrift in a very precarious position, but still not aware they could all be dead in a very short time.  It may have been Lee who pointed out with confidence that the Chilkat Cruise’s last ferry trip of the day would be due soon, and they would be rescued.  Sure enough, here came the fast ferry, hell-bent-for-election as usual.  Captain Molly and the crew saw neither the capsized sailboat nor the three miserable creatures perched on the side.  Joey and the sail in the water would have been virtually invisible.  By great good fortune, or by the guidance of a guardian angel, one of the ferry passengers happened to see them, rushed to Captain Molly and the rescue operation was started.  If I had had my binoculars with me on that walk, I could have watched the whole procedure.  Remember, I had wondered why the ferry had turned around and stopped.

               John was not impressed by the rescue operation.  He said the crew kept throwing things at them in the water.  Life jackets, which they already were wearing, and other flotation devices which they didn't need at that point.  Finally, after a lot of yelling John said he got them to throw just a plain old line, which he caught and hauled himself aboard.  He was a little ashamed to be the first to be rescued, but with the line in his hand it made more sense to use it, and then help to get the rest aboard, especially Joey who must have been in real trouble by this time.

               So they arrived at the Chilkat Cruises dock where some kind soul gave them a ride to the Senior Village apartment where we were living at that time.  Joey's boat was left drifting in the water, sails still set, but floating waterlogged in their horizontal state.  A fish-boat was dispatched to tow it in, but where the oars were at that point I do not know.  They were eventually saved by someone.

               Since the kids were so cool-acting when they first got to our home, I think I did not appreciate the gravity of what had happened until much later. Lucinda's mother was angry over the whole episode, I was sorry I had ever let them leave the dock (in a dead calm), and Margaret was upset later because of strong language John had used when being interviewed for a story in the Chilkat Valley News.  On the radio interview which was broadcast not only over KHNS, but the Alaska Public Radio, John did comment, "I am now a believer in wearing life jackets!"

Circa 2000/2001