June 16, 2005 Seldovia to Tonsina Inlet Day 108
Ryan and I awoke with the dread of rounding the peninsula and Gore Point again. We lashed down Modulus and cleared the decks for sea. I put a very anal double reef in the mainsail, with extra lashings, before we even left the anchorage. Forecast: west wind 30 knots. At least it was blowing in the right direction for us, but I was extremely apprehensive about the tide rips. Out in Cook Inlet we were met by 30 knots of south wind on the nose. But the current was ebbing so strong that we never went below 6 knots. The tide rips were huge, steep, with breakers everywhere. It was ugly. Finally we rounded the base of the Kenai Peninsula and turned westward into Chugach Passage. The freight-train tide was still running with us, plus we had the wind “abaft the beam”. We were surfing down the waves at 11 knots all afternoon. Suddenly the tiller snapped in my hands with a deep-throated “crack”! I issued one or two very well-pronounced swear words as we surfed down the next wave. We were making 10.5 knots with the double-reefed mainsail, and had no tiller! Ryan immediately grabbed the spare tiller I keep by the companionway, and the tools to fix it. I ran the boat off the wind, kicked away the broken tiller, and we installed the new one in a minute. Unfortunately the stern was caught by a wave and we headed off the wind, causing an accidental jibe. Nothing came of the jibe, but it was a mark on an otherwise completely successful repair at sea. The new tiller is a bit too short and shaped improperly for the boat, but I’m sure glad we had it. From now on I’ll also keep the wrenches by the companionway with the tiller in case of another breakage. For some extremely lucky reason the tide stayed with us all the way around Gore Point. Perhaps all the west wind reversed the currents. At any rate, we sailed to and from Homer through the Chugach Passage going 10 knots both ways. We hit another tide rip off of Gore Point but it was nothing compared to the big water we’d been in recently. Putting Gore Point and the wild water to the west behind me was a huge mental relief. It is a major accomplishment for Silent Partner, and I never doubted her.
