Orcas Object to Argo’s Flight Plan

Aug 26, 2023

Novice sailor Cal Currier’s victorious solo trek from Marion across the Atlantic Ocean last summer was always going to have a sequel challenge, a sail this summer across the Mediterranean Sea from Portugal to Greece.

Last month, the grandson of veteran sailor Bill Saltonstall experienced his greatest adventure on that sequel trip with his father, James Currier, aboard.

Docked over the winter in Lagos, Portugal, following the celebrated, month-long, 2022 voyage from Marion, Argo, the Tartan-brand, 30-foot sailboat that Cal had bought for $12,000 from 90-year-old Sandy Van Zandt in Noank, Connecticut, departed for Athens.

This time he had his father James Currier, an experienced sailor, with him.

On the fourth day of the journey, “a lovely day” according to James, it had just turned dark at 10:40 pm local time. “We were in a bad spot,” he said, calling it the “worst spot since leaving Marion” due to 12 to 18 knots wind on shore.

“Everyone suggested we stay close to shore to avoid the Orcas,” he said of the whales known to attack boat rudders.

Tides were racing one way and winds the other, resulting in confused wave patterns. With an onshore breeze, the Curriers turned on the motor to give Argo a little more boost and started steering by hand.

“We just wanted to be in control,” said James, noting it had started to drizzle. “I happened to have the tiller in my hand, which is really rare.”

Having gotten some water and dirt in the engine, the fuel filters needed changing so the crew left engine running while listening and all the while, trying to get a wave from Gibraltar Point.

“The tiller hit me in the stomach,” said James, who looked back wondering if he was dragging a line. “Cal stood up and he said, ‘It’s the Orcas.’ There were some serious waves, and it was dark. We had studied up on the Orcas and were prepared.”

The advice in this time of crisis in strange waters and seven to eight hours from the next daylight was to try to get an English-speaking voice on the radio and at the same time, turned off the engine, take down the sails and “become as uninteresting as possible.”

Argo was following a catamaran 40 minutes ahead on a VHF signal.

They were advised to pack some dirt or sand and throw it into the water to ward off the whales.

Cal’s brother Wesley, age 19, was aboard and throwing dirt into the water from the side of Argo, which as a Tartan 30 is 30 to 60 inches above the water line. A head came up, 3 to 5 feet from Wesley’s nose.

“There appeared to be two to three of them that were hitting our rudder. They didn’t touch the propeller and they didn’t touch the windvane. They knew what they were doing, they only hit the rudder,” said James.

Contacts came on the radio after seven minutes, and since Argo hadn’t been hit in two minutes, the crew put the sails back up. A look below would reveal that the metal of the tiller of the rudder was all bent.

Wesley was hanging off the back end to look at the damage but would not have been able to fix it. A salvage boat was sent 80 minutes later, and between midnight and 2:00 am local time, Argo was towed to safety.

“Had the Orcas hit the boat a couple more times, they could have broken the rudder – could have had a situation where water was coming in,” said James.

Two French sailors in a smaller Zodiac boat reported a whale attack at 10:00, and Argo was attacked at 10:45. There were two to four more hours to wait on the weather before wind would have driven boat to Trafalgar Point.

When they arrived, they saw a line of boats in the Barbate marina, and half of them had lost their rudders to Orcas. A morning dive to check the extent of the damage revealed that the metal of the rudder had been bent to starboard (right) side, other parts bent port (left) side.

James said the Barbate marina had no airport, nor a bus stop, it only exists to service boats before they go into the Strait of Gibraltar.

Having only spent $19,000 on Argo ($12,000 to buy it and $7,000 to prepare it for the cross-Atlantic journey), the $5,000 to $7,000 price tag for a new custom rudder was a bit much.

The Curriers cut their losses and sold Argo in Barbate for $500 U.S.

Despite the many redundancies built into Cal’s cross-Atlantic trip last summer, he did need one very strange connection to solve a problem when out at sea by himself. As he was in the Azores and needed to use Argo’s motor, the boat got louder and the noise concerned Cal to the point he texted his father, who happened to be in Newfoundland enjoying dinner at a wedding.

“At that moment, van Zandt butt-dialed Bill (Saltonstall) … got on Bill’s phone. (van Zandt explained) ‘that’s just the mid-bearing between the engine and the stuffing box, pack white grease …’ I texted Cal … five minutes later, that worked.”

For that successful journey across the Atlantic, Cal was recognized with awards from the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) of England with the Jester Award for doing great things offshore in small boats and from the Cruising Club of America (CCA) with the Young Voyagers Award at the New York Yacht Club in March.

A competitive high school volleyball player in Palo Alto, California, Cal in the splendid case of irony decided upon these adventures to take up sailing as a second high school sport.

By Mick Colageo

Categories: Features