Hi Brian,

When she said "Head sail line frays and snaps", I figured that she meant the jib furling line, but I suppose it could have been a jib sheet fraying on a shroud or something.

In my case, among the other fatigue induced bad decisions, was that after the furling line broke the first time, I did not opt to spend time forward on the bouncing bow determining exactly why it had frayed and fixing it. I knew it was old and just let myself assume that was the reason.

A day or two later, the new line I had installed broke. When this happens, the jib instantly unfurls all the way in an instant. At the time, we were in 40+ kt winds and with the full jib unfurled and trying very hard to flog itself to death, I made the decision to start the engine so I could motor into the wind while I got the sail down. That way it would be blowing down the center line of the deck instead of out over the rail. That was a good decision, but I did not check where the broken end of the furling line was before putting the engine in gear.

That broken line was in the water and I seriously wrapped the prop. I was at high RPMs, trying to bring the bow into the wind and the wrap was so bad, that the rope had melted and cooled into a solid dacron ring about an 1/8'th of an inch thick around the prop shaft.

The final, potentially suicidal, error I made was that after finally getting the jib down, I actually tied two lines onto myself and went over the side and into the water with mask and fins to try to clear the wrap. 40 kt winds, and the ass end of the boat moving vertically 4' up and down in the big waves and I'm in the f*cking water, banging my head on the underside of the hull every time the stern comes down trying to clear that wrap.

I'm not normally a stupid person, but the fatigue and sleep deprivation that builds up after a week of that kind of weather is hard to imagine for someone who has not experienced it. I had gotten it into my head that unless I cleared that wrap, I would not be able to use the engine if I really needed it. I received the stab wound in my hand while trying to cut away the melted plastic from the prop shaft in those chaotic conditions.

The real kicker to the story is that once I got back aboard and we had turned left for Tonga, 36 hours later, we had completely cleared that weather system. The seas were basically flat and there was no wind.