“For the first few minutes both of us thought we were sinking. Marie quickly dug out the emergency grab-bag containing our personal possessions we’d need if we abandoned Sänna and we donned our life jackets. In somewhat of a panic, I checked our life raft and we were ready to go. Marie manned the VHF radio to call an emergency Mayday…” Dave
We’ve been dodging dead heads all year; huge waterlogged trees in the water that are partially submerged and incredibly difficult to see… especially in poor light or when the sun is ahead of the bows. Most of these sometimes enormous monsters originate from the endless forests that make up the shorelines of Alaska and British Columbia or they are washed down from numerous logging operations up river.
This collision just had to happen! Leaving Bedwell Harbour on South Pender Island in British Columbia and heading for Friday Harbour in the US, the wind suddenly rose out of nowhere as we crossed the Haro Straights. I quickly unfurled both the mainsail and the jib to get us under sail whilst Marie was still below, sending her slipping, sliding and cursing across the galley because I’d forgotten to tell her the sails were coming out! She was not best pleased and we lost breakfast! Then the wind kept rising and rising and we both realised we urgently needed to reef the sails as fast as we could. This whole situation was crazy! Then we struck the submerged dead head…
