In the latest episode of the Z-Crew’s sailing adventures, things take an unexpected turn as they face a devastating ending to their 3-day sail. In the midst of navigating the reefs in the Bahamas, they encounter rough seas and challenging conditions as they attempt to make their way through the Exuma cuts.
With the wind and waves more intense than expected, they find themselves in a precarious situation as they approach the narrow cuts in the reef. As they weigh the risks of attempting to navigate through the rough waters, they ultimately decide to play it safe and wait for the perfect tide at a wider opening cut.
Despite the setbacks and challenges they face, the Z-Crew remains determined and resilient in their pursuit of adventure and exploration. And amidst the chaos and uncertainty, they remind us that safety should always come first when out at sea.
Join the Z-Crew on their exhilarating journey and witness the highs and lows of life on the water. And don’t forget to enter their Cabrinha kite giveaway for a chance to win over $2000 worth of kite surfing gear. Stay tuned for more exciting episodes and happy sailing!
Watch the video by Sailing Zatara
Oh my gosh holy crap our timing’s a little off the wind’s more than it was supposed to be two failures in a row bam bam bam oh that’s so disappointing don’t forget to enter our cabrina kite giveaway win a brand new switchblade kite and bar by subscribing to both cabrina kite’s YouTube channel
And saing Atara and leave a comment in this video saying cabrina a giveaway and what size kite you need we’ll draw one lucky winner next week so stay tuned and good Luck 8 hours till we get there I think it’s going to be interesting going in this pass why so we got this swell and we’re going to have current coming out because it’s going to be we’re at the wrong time we don’t have really much choice for the
Time frame we have to get moving we’re going to be going into pass on the Exuma side and we have outflowing current waves coming in waves coming in and so it could be a little bumpy little rough yeah hopefully we’ll head it pretty close to slack
Tide or headed up to staniel key think you’re changing your mind on that now I don’t know I just just stressed about getting across this getting across this cut right here yeah it’s the wind and waves is blowing right on it tide will be going out so we’ll have tide against
Wind you never do tide against wind unless you know what you’re doing and even when you know what you’re doing it’s Dangerous switching sides If I go to Georgetown I just make a left turn and go right down here for 30 miles we be there in few hours can we skip saniel key Al together no just go up there just extend more time to get up through here I mean
Yeah I mean if we can’t get in here then we’re going to be turning and going up this this deal really slow all night long just beating all night long it’s just not going to be fun and we’ll be waiting for the weather
To die as we do we have to go to staniel key any of these passes oh anywhere North any of these passes will be hard to get into we started out this morning down here at conception Island and to sail up to the widest cut in the reef enter the
Reef and make our way to the Exumas there are many entrances into the reef however some are more narrow than others and as I zoom in you can see here there are plenty of cuts to enter this one and that one and these nice wide ones here
The rest of the reef North is way too shallow for our boat normally making it through the cut isn’t a problem except the outgoing tide rushing through the channel hitting the rough sea State could cause us to lose control and end up on one side or the other studying paper
Charts I kept for a long time things I probably told you to throw out and you never did never did what are you concerned about ah just a swell so we’re going to have flooding tide which is flooding into this it floods West and uh I just looking at these cuts
And you know it says Lumber cut will be rough when AB exposes East Wind expect strong current extending well offshore breaking waves of swell increases we got a pretty good swell today but we’ll be going in on a flooding current a flooding tide so everything will be behind us pushing Us in
There trying to decide whether I want to go there is that not what your chart said on your navx didn’t it say the same thing no it didn’t say the exact same thing but warned you yeah same kind of warning yeah kind of warning all I got to do in this game is
Swing my big around what’ you make Finn turkey bacon yeah bacon sandwiches so we are going to our timing is a little off the wind’s more than it was supposed to be um we are going to hit the the Exuma Cuts all the Exuma cuts on the Atlantic Wall here
We’re going to hit them at the wrong time which is mid tide the good thing about it is it’s a it’s a flooding tide the waves are with us the wind is with us and the tide would be with us but going through some of those we might be
Going you know 8 nine 10 knots and I haven’t experienced that in a long time I haven’t been through those kind of cuts in a long time time so I don’t want to do that and I’m far enough out away from them right now I’m about 15 20 mi
Away from the Exumas right now that I can turn and go north farther uh and we’ll just make an overnight of it we’re going to go three knots here three and a half knots and wait till a slack tide at 8:00 in the morning farther north at wide opening
Wide opening cut here and that’s what it’s called wide opening that’s what it’s literally called and we’ll take that cut in and uh play it safe okay that’s a plan play it safe y okay we’re going to whopping two knots speed overground because we have no
Sails out and we are buying time going as slow as possible so that we can make it through the cut at 8:00 in the morning but it’s only uh 37 mil away so in hindsight we should have stayed at conception Island and left uh this afternoon and sailed overnight to be
There in the morning when the tide is perfect but we didn’t do that well we have kind of a half of a sail out oh we can’t really see it because of this stupid shade oh my gosh holy crap oh Jack my switch fell yeah and we got water coming
In it should be okay oh my gosh this is not a good thing happening here all right I think it’s okay I don’t hear any damage pieces this is steam deck not switch still whatever we want cameras to be nice and secure down down
Low wow that was SP yeah it was not good make sure your computers are safe your cameras are secure so don’t slide off the table night exced yep we get to do this all night long I woke up for my nap and I was like
We only have 2 hours left and then get a night shift yeah yeah things have changed a bit we’re basically just bobbing in the water we’re not really moving forward much Luke we should sleep in hanock oh my gosh it’ll fling you out a little why are you down there what is happening
Are you going to the bathroom that is strictly forbidden you know and what is going on down there the water Captain Jack you’re not sitting a good example I was just getting some film well the good thing is we just turned the engine on and actually you
Could just swim back to the boat probably the Norwegian guys remember that I met in yes they helped Aquarius out yeah did they they did really one of them fell overboard yesterday are you serious he got back they got him but he fell overboard like at night or I think
During the day how just I didn’t ask details but Maas was just like yeah aspor fell over yesterday and we got him quick but they were going like six seven knots oh my gosh is that the I’d like to know how that happened I can ask did he had a have a
Life jacket on anything I don’t know probably not I mean we never wear life jackets we cuz we’re Invincible so for the next 8 hours we went about 1 to two knots bobbed around on the water waiting for time to pass and for the tide to Change so we shut down last night just a one knot and just drifted and wasted about 6 hours just just uh kind of out there in the ocean because I didn’t want to arrive here till slack tide of course the ocean calmed down last night which
Is good and now we’re going into this cut it’s flat water we’ve got a flooding tide which means it’s flowing into the banks which uh in in the Bahamas the the Tide’s flood West and they e East onto the banks and off the banks and so uh
We’re right at the top the last hour of the flooding tide which is that you want to be in the first two hours of a tide either e or the flow the e or the flood of the tide to come into these places and uh and so we’ve got a nice deal there’s
No Breakers there’ll be some current up here a little current current’s starting to slow down because in another two hours it’s going to be ebbing back out to the East and we’ll be on the uh Banks here behind the Exuma Banks and uh headed over to Nassau and then up to
Chub key and so you know I didn’t push a bad position yesterday and trying to get into somewhere that could have been dangerous for the boat and uh I don’t like that situation but um either way we I made the right call and and safety my
Boat safety is number one I mean we wouldn’t have gotten hurt but the boat could have sure got hurt if it would have shed us the one was a little more than I expected yesterday and forecasted so it all good this is the depth that’s in meters
So multiply that times three and you’ll get feet so right now we’re in about uh 24 25 uh feet of water and as we continue into this cut it’s just going to get more shallow in the allows so I’ve had a few comments asking about the chart plotter and what all the
Readouts mean so s so is speed overg ground this is how fast we’re going one knot equals 1 nautical mile per hour which is equivalent to 1.15 milph however nautical miles are based on Earth’s latitude lines so one nautical mile is equal to 160th of a degree of
Latitude so 60 nautical miles are equal to 1 degree of latitude so for instance the 30° you see here between 30 South and 60 South is equivalent to 30° multiplied by 60 nautical miles which is about 1,800 nautical miles between these two lines of latitude course over ground this is the
Direction we’re heading on a compass Direct North sits at 0° at this point we have a heading of 254 which means we’re going west southwest next we have Waypoint bearing which goes along with our time to destination and distance to destination which Keith doesn’t have a destination
Plotted in right now we’re just going through the path so we can’t see this info at this time twws and AWS is wind true wind speed and apparent wind speed the true wind speed is what the wind actually is so outside right now the wind is 17.5 knots apparent wind speed
However is the wind created by the movement of the boat through the air much like if you’re on a drive in a car on a calm day but you put your hand out the window going 55 mph the wind is exceptionally stronger on your hand given the movement of the car through
The air our apparent wind speed is actually less it’s 13 knots which means the wind is coming from behind us and we are moving forward with the wind at about four knots on the big screen we have the depth we are at 5.4 M the water
Temp is 27.6 De C this section is the sonar we can see schools of fish or large bommies to avoid and this section is the chart which shows us other boats marked obstacles water deps Etc there you go hope you got all that there’ll be a quiz at the end not really So we’ve made a decision we are going to make a beine for Miami we are just now pulling into the Exumas made it through the cut no problem but we have a weather window for the next two days to get all the way to Miami otherwise we’re stuck
Here for a week and we won’t be able to go to Miami for till next weekend which kind of messes up our schedule cuz we really need to be in Miami by February 1st we got a lot going on um so we are just going to go um as far as we can
Over the next 48 hours might mean some more overnights but that’s just the way it is in go while so schedules and weather Windows dictate what we do and when we do it how we do it so I do do sell work I’m not lazy he said do I do
Do so how do you feel about skipping the Nassau and eczemas and all this neat stuff not too bummed about it I mean n yeah it’s been a good sailing season we’ve seen and done a Lot so we motored all night in the super shallow water on the Bahama Bank look how beautiful beautiful shallow water crystal clear white Sand so this is our first time to cross the Bahama bank at night a little bit hairy you know I’ve crossed it like two or three times maybe four times and I’ve never put a path down I never kept my path my track and so I just went off the magenta line
Across there and I had a track on avionics that I’d used before and I tell you I I was a little uh nervous last night you know especially when you’re in 2 meters of Water 2 and a half meters of water oh my go but
Uh it worked out good it worked out good and and so now I’ve got a track I’m confident I can cross a Bahama bank anytime at night day doesn’t matter I’m not going to hit no bomes I got a good track across there so that’s cool it was
Super easy we had the asymmetrical out all night long just cruising across all sorts of things are happening this morning that screen just died that everything restarted I restarted it oh you did but the screen just didn’t come back on yeah just went out autopilot works though and uh the
Alternator he put on on one of the engines uh died as well so we are having to use the generator again to charge the batteries the new uh Balmar alternators I put in the one just quit working I don’t know what’s going on it just won’t send out a charge or
Anything it’s see the regulator went B and it’s brand new I mean they probably got 50 60 70 hours on them on that one so I got to figure that out now we got to navigate up here with the phone how far are we from Miami like 50 miles
50 miles 50 miles uh 8 to 10 hours we so close yet so far away so it started working all of a sudden nice nice nice nice so that was a cut we are uh exiting the Bahamas Now wide nice open cut and we are flying in nine knots
Baby 3 hours we will be back in the United States of America first time in 3 years since we have touched American dirt and the first time in 7 years since theara has been in uh no no no it’d be six years because we bought it in Greece
And sailed it to Florida so it was there so a long time since our boat has seen us Waters so it’s kind of exciting l so the wind had been shifting over the previous hour Keith was napping and the kids were on watch the sail began to
Laugh a lot because it was a completely wrong angle at this point and as soon as we heard the first left Jack yelled at Finn who was already in the cockpit to release the line and then Jack headed toward the helm to turn the boat downwind to release the load off that
Sail meanwhile Keith heard the commotion and immediately jumped up to the helm and into the captain’s chair to turn the boat down wind we were going so slow that it took almost 2 minutes to get both engines fired up and turned down wind and in that time the sail finally
Had had enough and snapped gol a ah no man Keith finally got the boat turned down wind to release the load off that sail so the kids could go pull it down bro you ain’t going to be able to pull that in it down it it down Pull It Down Out of oh that’s so disappointing I don’t know to turn down wind as soon as you got on the helm I was I was running to the helm as soon as I heard that said Finn let go and I was coming and then you came up I should have been quicker on
It I should have been way quicker on it je we’ve only got what 12 miles to go so close yeah so far oh what else could go wrong I’m not even going to say that when I woke up I woke up at like 12:00 I came up here I looked around I
Looked at the wind and I’d been looking at the wind for the past few hours up until the event and it had been going slowly I should have caught on and I should have uh you know come to the conclusion that okay the wind is Shifting I ought to take the sail down
So the wind eventually turned too much the sail started happened I was up here uh Finn came up he was on Deck actually and I came up I looked at it I was like Finn let out the line let the line out I came running into the cockpit by this
Time dad had already come up you were going to turn us down I was I was about to turn us downwind we took like 2 minutes in total until the boat actually started going downwind and it was within that 2 minutes of the sail fogging it
Tore yeah so it all could have been avoided absolutely could could have been avoided if I was just more keen more proactive yeah on what was going on and that it’s yeah it’s my fault the captain was sleeping yeah and if the captain is sleeping who’s in charge then yeah well
I don’t know that anybody was really paying close enough attention that was our biggest problem too yeah so if Jack had turned us down when right when he heard the first Lu of that sale all that could have been prevented um but he didn’t lesson learn learned and it’s
Kind of an expensive lesson but nobody was hurt and so we didn’t get the lines caught or the sail caught under the boat which I’m very grateful for and it’s crazy cuz we’re only about um how far are we away 6 miles we’re all at at that time we’re only I don’t know
8 10 miles away from land so close to our destination so close to home I can smell it so hopefully nothing else will go wrong between here here and there you got to un this little thing what happened and and Jack Jack understands this as well as the other
Kids there was about an hour there as the wind was shifting around that they should have picked up on that and realized hey that wind’s coming on the beam now it’s not behind us anymore we need to take that sail down or we need to change our tack or job and uh that
Didn’t happen they missed it they totally missed it and uh it cost us a sale it cost us you know8 $8,000 sale now the good part about that is is being a parent and growing up with my kids is even though it cost me money it’s
Their time to learn I mean they had to realize by not being on top of not having situational awareness and relying on somebody else that something bad just happened and this was just an expensive mistake that got made uh two mistakes one they should have taken the cell down when it got
Over 17 knots and is on the beam that cell should have been up there two and then they knew that number two when that cell did L the first time they should have just came to the Hem hit the autopilot 30 40° over and the cell would
Have filled back in we’ve been going down when and then we’d have taken the cell down and got back on course two failures in a row Bam Bam Bam the key goes in the lock all the Tumblers roll over we got it cell blown out so it was
A good learning experence at their age you know they’re 16 17 18 21 years old is a good learning experience for them now because they’ll remember that if if this would have happened 10 years ago 5 years ago their maturity level isn’t as such as to realize that I need to start
Taking care of things yeah you know being proactive I need to be proactive about taking care of things and not rely on somebody else to do what I know needs to be done so yeah it’s not it’s it’s it’s not so much they were they were negligent it’s it’s it’s as much they
Were I needed to allow that to happen I hated it it sucked but it needed to happen so my kids could realize that at this point in their life it’s time for proactivity and responsibility and growing into the men and women they’re going to be so even though it cost some
Money it was a good lesson for and once again it is a hard lesson to learn but it was a lesson that needed learning and it wasn’t just a lesson about the sail or the boat it about a lesson A Life Lesson about paying attention to your surroundings and understanding what’s
Going on no matter what situation you’re in and uh I think they learned that lesson I think it was a good lesson 5 years ago and Keith had a lot more hair this same sale also had a blowout but of no fault of ours there were small rips in the
Fabric they got bigger over time and then the whole sale just ripped in half now that’s what just happened there the salemaker replaced it right away but just an important note I want to point out these float away sales were not alond sales they were made by a different salemaker EX
What are you doing this sail yes is going in that locker and then that sail is also going in that Locker oh oh that’s so sad sad so sad maybe it can be fixed Well we made it to Florida yay we’re almost in one piece s is not in one piece but uh we made it regardless I’m going to close this video out here because we’re all completely exhausted we need to go rest and sleep for a few days and regroup I think me and Keith
Are going to head to Montana next week kids are going to hang out on the boat and then go to Luke’s Place I think in Orlando thanks for watching I hope you have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week byebye a you can’t put that
In no why are you recording and uh oh helicopter hold on I know
Video “are you KIDDING?! a DEVASTATING ending to a 3 day sail! (Ep 276)” was uploaded on 02/29/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Sailing Zatara on Gretopia