A Voyage of Dreams / Lou Lou Bird 38ft Steel Yacht

This is a story about our family’s adventure that fulfilled my husband’s dream to go blue water cruising in our 38ft steel yacht Lou Lou Bird.

We covered an estimated 46,000 nautical miles over a period of nine years starting from Durban, South Africa, visiting the Caribbean, Panama Canal, California, Hawaii, South Pacific, Australia, Solomon Islands and the Gilbert Islands.

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Excerpt

From my diary—day 15—24 March off Venezuela

“Gale force winds—seas very rough. Girls confined below. I was in the cockpit as usual, and noted that Milton our self-steering was behaving strangely. I said to Cliff “There is definitely something wrong with the self-steering, Cliff replied as he took the wheel, “Lou, I really do think you have a jinx on poor Milton, let's see what the problem is. Christ, we have no steerage!!” He exclaimed as the wheel spun round. He disappeared below and I was confident that in a few minutes he would tighten the keyway that had worked itself loose again. When he had not come up after 10 minutes, I guessed something was seriously wrong.

When he reappeared I could tell by the expression on his face that we had major problems. “Lou, I am afraid it’s the worst, we must prepare to abandon ship”! I could not believe what I had just heard. “Holy Shit”, was all I could say at the time. My heart started thumping and I could feel the colour drain from my face.”

On going below, Cliff had noticed that we had taken on a considerable amount of water in the bilges; the water was now almost level with the engine block. For a few minutes I was devoid of emotion, and then the impact of Cliffs words struck home. My God what a terrible situation we were in, 300 miles from Tobago, the nearest port in the West Indies. Cliff then rigged up a longer handle on the bilge pump in the cockpit, making it easier for the person who was pumping. The Zodiac was then inflated and secured on deck. This would give us a second chance if the life raft did not inflate when the emergency cord was pulled. Fortunately Lou Lou Bird was pretty well trimmed and she was holding a reasonable course.

The girls took the news well; no panic or tears, all of us were in a state of shock. Whilst Cliff was stripping the aft bunk, I told the girls to get together warm clothes, the boat’s papers in a water tight bag, the “grab bag” that consisted of fishing tackle, flares, seasick pill, biscuits and small sachets of water, together with some other miscellaneous items that I thought we might need. Once the aft bunk had been stripped, Cliff could see two 14inch cracks on either side of the solid rod where the skeg joins the hull. Our worst fears had come true. The cracks that Cliff had seen whilst diving in Fernando were in fact cracks in the metal and not just the paint as he had thought. Each time the skeg flexed, a spout of water shot up through the cracks. Cliff jammed in towels as best he could. There was virtually nothing else we could do but pray we could make it safely to the nearest port.