Boat is a Catalina 470

We picked up a forth crew member in Hampton who said she was free until Thanksgiving and had no health issues that would cause any problems. After the 2 day delay leaving Hampton and the slow progress through the bad weather in the Gulf Stream, she informed us that she had a heart condition, was due for surgery on the 18th and wanted to be drooped off in Bermuda. That little detour would cost us 3 days and threatened to screw up our other crews schedule but I had little choice. So off to Bermuda we went. Cost me $300 in fuel and $180 in entry fees. After dropping her off we did a through top to bottom inspection of the boat and deemed her fit for sea duty. Unfortunately my X-Ray vision was not working and I missed the broken rudder post tangs inside the rudder. 1 1/2 days out we hit more rough weather (clocked 62 knot gusts) and suddenly lost steerage about 60 miles south of the island.

The rudder wanted to stay hard over on one side and go in circles to the right. I managed to get her going in the right direction for about 6 hours and came within 12 miles of the island. But then it gave up again and nothing I did would get her back on course. We tried towing buckets and other heavy objects on the port side hoping to correct the turn but it had no effect. Whats worse is that because of the turning and the strong current, one of the lines got under the boat and caught in the prop. Luckily the shaft line cutter worked and we were able to retrieve some of the items we were towing and not loose propulsion too. So the best I could do was influence (not control) the direction of drift by adjusting speed and heading relative to the wind and wave direction. I managed to drift SW instead of due S and I can tell you that it was really disconcerting to watch Bermuda slowly fade from sight. We lost several miles that we had earlier gained. The look on the crews faces was so bad that I decided to try one last desperate measure. I launched the dink and tried to steer the boat from numerous locations. That did not work either and it was really a bad idea to start with.

On a side note, I have to give credit to the gentleman at Bermuda Radio that we were in contact with for two days. He hunted down the local fishermen that were willing to come get us after the two commercial companies declined to help. The satphone is what really saved our butts. My SSB was simi-uselss. We could only make contact once a day on the Doo-Dah net and that was sketchy. We used the phone to call the Coast Guard in Norfolk who handed us off to the chaps at Bermuda Radio who ultimately orchestrated our recovery. God save the Queen!

So after a 15 hour tow @ $380/hr we are tied up in St. Georges with a busted rudder waiting for Monday and all the yards to open up. Towing the boat was another story. We had to drag both anchor chains off the stern to stabilize the boat (250' on each stern cleat). Do you know how much 250' of chain weight when to try to retrieve it? I managed to get one length back on board with the windless but I injured my hand in the process so the other length was donated to Davy Jones locker. On the bright side everyone here has been super helpfull. The Bermudian people are extremely friendly and kind.