S/V Kudana


A sad sight. Kudana just after losing the rig.

Winlink 2000 Email from Bob Heasman, ZS6FB.
No mast....Hustler whip antenna on the pushpit....

Hi Bernard,

Phew what a relief to see your mail. I only have one e-mail address. Here is what happened to me. Not just a broken mast.

Having been in NZ for 5 months and spent a lot of our savings on upgrading our boat, by painting her hulls with anti foul and having the sails repaired. The Genoa was reinforced and new ultra-violet sacrificial cloth sewn around the edge. We had a brand new main sail and lazy bag fitted and new material fitted to our Bimini. We also had fold up blinds fitted around the edge. She looked great, everything in Teal. What is more she was sailing beautifully.

On the 22nd. of May at 1000 on a beautiful clear morning. The Sun was shining bright and the wind was blowing at a steady 18 knots. We had one reef in each sail which put us clearly in the safety zone, and we were sailing at 6 to 7 knots. Suddenly there was an awful noise and the mast and boom came crashing down onto the Bimini and the Port side of the boat. The boat came to a standstill and I was left looking at a scene of utter devastation. I was completely numb and dumbfounded. I made a few attempts at salvaging some of it but it was a complete waste of time and effort, and after some discussion with my crew I decided the only course was to cut it all away. We were 40 miles from land and the sea was running at about 2 meters in height and I could just not see any way to save things. So out came the hacksaw and I began to cut stay wires. Eventually it all went over the side not causing much damage to Kudana and nobody was hurt. What a dreadful feeling cutting the last wire and watching the whole lot sink to the bottom of the sea.

It was obvious that the Forestay had broken and this had caused the disaster. Why this happened I can't imagine because we were not over stressing the rig. We then motored in towards the mainland and arrived at Ha'afeva at about 2200, where we thankfully dropped anchor and went off to bed. The next day being a Sunday there wasn't anything happening ashore so we just tidied up as best we could and relaxed. The following day we headed for Lifuka where we logged in with Customs, Quarantine, Health and immigration. What a circus. I needed fuel so had to do this in order to be allowed ashore to purchase some. The price of diesel is now awful. Having refueled we are now motoring to Vava'U, a distance of some 80 miles, where we hope to arrive on the morning of the 27th. of May.

Personally this has knocked the "wind out of my sails" (literally), and I cannot see a clear future in sailing, which, frankly, is devastating, but I am an optimist so after all this dust has settled I must get down to rebuilding my life, but at the age of 75 I really need a lot of help.

That's it.
73.
Bob
ZS6FB

Friends, if you can help in any way, to enable them to continue their good work in the Pacific Islands (see below) either by providing a used mast, or provide any information which might help, please email me:
Bernard Dekok
zs4bdk AT hotmail dott com (change this).

We have made it easy for you to participate in a tangible way to the success of the voyage. You can donate in this way:

Right now by Paypal (www.paypal.com) you can make a small, secure donation directly to "S/V Kudana" by clicking on the link below the Paypal Logo, or go to Paypal and use email address: zs4bdk AT hotmail dott com. A $5, $10, $20 or $50 donation will go directly towards funding their voyage of love, help and goodwill in the islands.


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Letter from Bob Heasman, ZS6FB, about the Tsunami in Tonga and Samoa.

This email was received via Winlink 2000, using Pactor 3, Telnet and the new Winmor RMS Express client:

Message ID: 3158_ZS6FB
Date: 2009/10/10 17:29
From: ZS6FB
To: ZS4BDK
Source: ZS6FB
CMS Site: Telnet

Subject: Update

Hi Bernard,

An update on our activities:-
Niuatoputapu, the northernmost island in the Tonga group were also hit, but miraculously only 9 people died and they were all in a Kombie. The rest of the people saw what was happening and made for the hills. However their houses were completely scrambled and they lost their private possessions. So the yachties in Neiafu clubbed together and donated clothing, tools and petrol. This stuff was to be collected by a French frigate on its way past on its way to Niuatoputapu. Guess what, they just went straight past, so a call went out for a yachtie to take the stuff up there. So we volunteered to sail up with the stuff in Kudana. There were 8 twenty five liter cans of fuel (tied together on the deck), 2 25 lb gas cylinders (in the chain locker) and a whole lot of boxes and plastic bags (stacked in two of our cabins). Poor Kudana was really heavy. Apart from a lack of wind the second day, which made us start our engines, it was quite a pleasant trip. I think we had in the region of 700 kg. of cargo altogether.
When we arrived, at about 10am, we were met by an official, and a couple of dinghies from yachts who took a lot of the stuff and got it taken to the local Red Cross center. However all the yachties (8 yachts) kept some stuff back and the next day we took it all in to the local Hall and laid it all out. We gave the people plastic bags and told them to help themselves. They were reluctant to begin with but eventually started helping themselves and within an hour all the tools, groceries and the huge heap of clothes were all gone. It was such a relief, and to see the people laughing and smiling again was a bonus. But the Tongans also like to give and they invited us back next day to collect paw paws, bananas and mangoes. We did that this morning and now we have been invited to have lunch with them. We were reluctant to accept because they have so little, but couldn't hurt their feelings.
THE DEVASTATION IS TERRIBLE.
One guy who gave us a lift described how he and his family were having breakfast when they heard a lot of shouting. He went outside to see a wall of water approaching. He shouted to his family to get into the bakkie and raced off down the road (2 ruts in dirt) with his daughter screaming to go faster. He could see the water coming in the rear view mirror. He said they just made it to safety with a couple of feet to spare. Frightening stuff.
The day we arrived there was a second Tsunami warning which turned out to be a false alarm, but everyone gapped it to the hills and slept up there under tarpaulins (donated) but it rained during the night. We guess a lot got wet.
What with the Yashika sinking and now the Tsunami and our joint efforts to help with emergency supplies, the Yachties are well in with the Governor of Vavau. When I was checking out with Immigration and Customs in Vavau they were so thankful for our efforts that one felt proud to be in a position to help. For instance, somebody donated eight 25 liter drums for petrol and another yachtie paid to have them filled. (Kudana delivered them :-))This is just one of the many efforts to help.
There have been two French Frigates call in to Niuatoputapu loaded with supplies for the Red Cross, but a lot is from relatives in Nukualofa. So they are no longer short of supplies. As one guy said he doubts if they have ever owned so much.
What is needed now are things like a bulldozer, grader, back actor, and building supplies etc. which is way out of our reach. Hopefully Govt. will react.
We will be leaving for NZ at the beginning of November.
Kind regards.
Bob and Dawn.

Town in the background.

Have just refuelled (wow what a price) and are going to repair the Genoa next. It needs an awful lot of stitching. Then I must change oil in both engines and do a couple more minor repairs then we will set sail for our next destination.

Here are a couple of pics of the local water sport. Seems like hard work to me.

After carefull deliberation, we decided to run direct for the Marquesas, and to bypass the Galapagos.

Click on "Where are they ?" under "Favourites" to the right, to see our track and daily comments. Click on the balloons to see our lat and long and comments. Click and grab the chart to move it with the mouse.
Zoom in and out by moving the slider to the left. Click on "Hybrid" to see a satellite picture of our surroundings.

We finally arrived here with almost no wind, after 30 days on the High Seas.

It is a very old volcanic eruption and there is plenty of growth and it is a pretty place. The people are very very friendly. There are no large numbers of tourists rushing around so you feel very welcome.

Went to Doc and got a prescription for Dawns eye, but the Pharmacy is a 6 km walk, to fill the prescription. I just cannot walk that far. One of the locals arranged for her husband to drive us there and back. She actually came from Madagascar originally with her husband on a small little yacht. Absolutely drop dead gorgeous bird with three children. :-) I have WiFi again for a while, but like everything else here it is very expensive.

Today we met up with Drew's boat, after seeing her sails on the horizon.

Here is a a copy of his email as posted on SV Third Day's blog.

Update from Drew enroute to the Marquesas
by SV THIRD DAY on Mon Sep 15, 2008 5:03 pm

Day 16 brought 138 more miles and with it came some heroism, some disappointment, and some frustration. I'm forwarding this email onto several people who aren't normally on the list because of my plea for help with the engine near the end. First though, the more entertaining stuff.

Last night, Aaron had a close call...he narrowly avoided an ink attack by a flying squid launching himself into the cockpit. And he didn't come alone, he brought a dozen of his little ink filled friends with him and the covered the port deck in a lovely purplish/black color. My jackline (the yellow webbing line that stretches from bow to stern and that we clip our harnesses into) now has a funky tie dye look. I'm not sure I like it.

This morning around 10am I was scanning the horizon and noticed a sail on the horizon only a few miles away. I gave them a call; "sailboat in the middle of the ocean, this is the other sailboat in the middle of the ocean...copy?" A minute later, an answer. "Vessel hailing, this is the sailing vessel Kudana. We are in route to the Marquesas Island and still have another 700 miles to go. We have a bit of a medical emergency on board and are in need of penicillin. Can you offer any assistance?" Loving the fact this would put off my engine work a little while longer, I grabbed my $500 waste-of-money medical kit for which i luckily only paid $300 and searched out the "drugs" pocket. We bought some pills in Ecuador standing at a pharmacy window in the middle of the street. Our way of getting across what we needed was repeating "antibiotico, antibiotico??" while rubbing our stomachs with a stressed looked on our face. It worked and we got some...enough for the crew of 5 I told her we had. I even have an entire vial of novacaine on board now with some syringes in case I get to stitch someone up (including myself) one day. Of course, the real reason we got it was that our buddy Jeremy at the marina in Ecuador said novacaine made for great entertainment when drunk or as repayment of debt. (you lost, now i get to numb your foot and watch you stumble around). But I digress...

So we went back and forth with this guy on the radio. Seems it was just him (Bob) and his wife (Dawn) on their 35' catamaran. Today marked one full month at sea for them coming out of Panama and Dawn had come down with some sort of eye infection. They had a doctor telling them via email or phone that she needed penicillin or some type of antibiotic and they had none aboard. I told him he was more than welcome to some of my stash and offered some pain killers as well (he said no we have (and I quote) PLENTY of pain killers on board). We were making about 2.5 knots better than him with the spinnaker still flying from the light morning airs so over the next hour or two I moved up ahead of him. We doused the spinnaker, pulled out the genoa, and it was decided that instead of bringing the boats to close together in the seas, he would drop his sails motor up behind us and we'd just throw the "package" overboard so he could snatch it up. Aaron pulled out a little igloo drink container and i pass him a cheapo life preserver and we toss it over to them. I saw Bob but she was at the controls so we didn't get a look at her. He was probably in his 60's. We think they were British but the accent was really, really light so we aren't positive. And that was it. So out here amidst thousands of miles of seas, in the WAY-off season we actually spot another sailboat and are able to offer assistance. That was pretty cool! They were very thankful and said he'd get us back with some whisky in the islands. They are planning to make landfall at the closest island (Hiva Oa) but I'm not sure why...it's a smaller town and 80 miles further where we're going is larger and more likely to have medical facilities. But I guess it's not my problem.

S/V THIRD DAY
1978 Pearson 365 Ketch Hull #192
Full Time Live-a-board Cruiser...we made it!!
And if We did....so can you!!
http://www.svthirdday.com

We received this satellite image of the then current weather from Bernard, ZS4BDK.
Note how these huge storms drift west from South America.
That is Hurricane Gustav south of Hispaniola. It eventually moved northwest towards Texas.

We are relaxing on Kudana in Trinidad, while anchored at "5 Islands". Beautiful place with friendly people.
Hot and humid...!