Saturday morning and I arrived at NINJOD ready to undertake our OSTAR Qualification Cruise of 500 nautical miles. With spare fuel cans filled up and batteries completely charged I departed at 0830 UTC 16/08/2008.
At 0937 UTC I logged my passage information with Thames Coast Gaurd and headed towards my 1st mark just off of Texel. Wind conditions were excellent with an average wind speed of 20 knots true. The 1st leg to Texel was fast, we did it in 17 hours at an average speed of just under 8 knots.
Sleep management the 1st night went well. My screaming meanie woke me without any problems. I slept for 30 mins at a time. I logged hourly and spent my time trimming and keeping warm.
After turning back to England the wind was dead behind us. I then reached, gybe’d and reached my way back across the North sea making another fast passage with my speed over the ground regularly in excess of 10 knots.
My new AIS system was working well, sending out my position and allowing me to watch the shipping in my vicinity. I spent a lot of time staring at the screen and data on it. My pilot had done all the hard work at the helm.
My log then reads..
“Disaster, Big sqaul came through, reefed main, went to start engine to fill ballast tank and engine died. After much swearing and erratic course changes got engine working. Back on track but hand steering.”
I managed another 26 miles or so in the right direction with the engine running however when I switched anything on that consumed any serious power plumes of smoke would come out of my exhaust and the engine would die. With the prospect of no power for any of my systems at just after 1900UTC I changed my plans, switched every non essential item off and headed towards home.
My 2nd night was a tough one. My Atoms windvane had broken (vane snapped off), my autopilot consumed too much power to be used and consequently I had to hand steer through the night. The south easterly wind direction meant I headed towards Cromer before then tacking out into the North sea again. My logging was non existent and my nav was driven by my handheld plotter that I switched on hourly before steering a compass course.
Between 0300 and 0400 on the morning of the 19th I went through the Viking offshore Gas field. While in there the wind dropped to under 5 knots and I struggled with both fatigue and conditions to avoid colliding with anything. Tiredness can kill and yes I did need a break but it was not possible. At one point I was convinced my love was on board and that I had a conversation with her. It was all very strange!
The wind built steadily after the Gas Field fiasco and averaged 25 knots true with a top gust just below 40 knots. Very tired I began to think about what I should do. I was beating into weather with no ballast on board and no functioning way of getting water on board (My manual pump decided to pump water into the boat instead of the ballast tank). My voltage was low, my VHF was reporting low voltage and I did not know at what point my basic instrumentation would stop working. A dash back to the River Orwell meant another day and night at sea or at best an arrival in the early hours. I knew I would not manage that in these conditions without any rest so I looked for an alternative. I decided on Lowestoft.
I sailed on towards Lowestoft with 30knots plus of wind over the deck. I got to within a hour or so of Lowestoft and called Yarmouth Coast guard to ask for assistance in entering the port. It was decided that Lowestoft was not the best place to attempt to get into given the conditions and that Gorelston lifeboat would attend to tow me into Yarmouth. At around 1230 (I think) the lifeboat arrived. The swell prevented the crew from putting anybody on board so I was asked to sail to shallower water following them in the hope that a boarding might be easier. Unfortunately this was not to be and hearing our plight a local dredger offered to create a lee for us. In dropping the sails before the attempt at boarding took place I was thrown violently across the boat onto my back; I landed on the boot rail. I screamed with pain and then attempted to carry on in serious discomfort.
With sails down and the lee in place the crew expertly positioned themselves and boarding was successful. Once in place a long tow was configured and a drouge laid out behind Ninjod to stop her surfing past the lifeboat in the huge swell.
With my back damaged and top half of my my right leg experiencing an extreme pins and needles type pain a paramedic was asked to be at the town quay in Yarmouth to check me out.
When we arrived (not sure what time!!) the lifeboat crew expertly secured Ninjod and I got checked out by the paramedics. The pins and needles was my sciatic nerve playing up after the fall. My back is very badly bruised.
The Coast Guard were waiting to talk to me when I was finished with the paramedics. They, in conjunction with the lifeboat crew recommended I see Goodchild Marine services. I called them and Harry, an engineer arrived was on the boat just after 0800 this morning to work out what is wrong with the engine.
I now write this update from somewhere inside the broads at Goodchild Marines facility after a somewhat eventful tow from Yarmouth town quay.
2nd update.. My fuel supply had lots of water in it.. not sure why as filler cap’s o rings are good and cap was tight. Goodchild continues to investigate.
The picture below is what I actually ended up doing. I sailed 400 nautical miles… I will submit it to the Royal Western along with this account in the hope that they accept it as I dont see another 500nm mile attempt possible this year.
ostarqc.PNG

Lessons learnt
I had lots of backup systems for everything except power generation. I had solar but nowhere near enough and there was not a lot of sun about during the trip. I will investigate what else I can use for power generation (Wind, Fuel Cell, Genset etc.. )
I am not sure why the vane on my wind vane snapped off.. The bottom half of the vane is still in its mount. Need to work out why !!
Sleep management was good when everything worked and impossible when everything broke. What do other people do ?? Need to investigate
Portable logging.. I was stuck on helm. I needed a pocket log and had nothing.. I will get one !!
What was wrong with my manual pump for the ballast system. Beating without ballast in a JOD solo in strong winds is very hard !!
Qualification cruises in the North Sea are very hard even before you have problems.