A SEA STORY..........

It's mid November 1959. George Minney is living his life long dream of sailing his 65' schooner "Kelpie", crewed by his 3 sons on a year's voyage to Tahiti. "Kelpie" was racing along in the NE trade winds knocking off 170's and 80's (miles per day) in idyllic sailing conditions. One afternoon as we were nearing the equator a large blackish gray mushroom shaped cloud seemed to be bearing down on us on our port beam. The winds slackened and soon stopped and "Kelpie" became totally becalmed and dead in the water. My dad came on deck and ordered all sails sheeted flat as the sky darkened and a foreboding feeling came over ship and crew. All of the sudden a forty knot gust of wind hit us on the port beam and "Kelpie" was totally knocked down! All hands were on deck and we were all totally petrified. The main hatch, 3X4 feet was open on low side of the boat and the sea was cascading down the spiral staircase into "Kelpie"s" main saloon. A few minutes like this and "Kelpie" would surely SINK! I crawled to the main sheet and was unable to ease it off the strong wooden bit it was secured to. No knife was handy so I couldn't cut it loose. Looking around I saw that everyone was just hanging for dear life as "Kelpie", totally dead in the water, kept healing at a 60 or 70 degree angle. The jib sheet and fore stay sail sheets were 4 feet under water and impossible to get to and the gaff foresail sheet had welded itself to the cleat under the boom, not that anyone could get to it anyway? We were all terrified as we looked around at one another. Was this going to be the end of the my dad's dream? Are we all going down with the ship? When all seemed totally hopeless , GOD intervened? The brand new 5/16" stainless steel main halyard parted and the mainsail and boom came crashing down onto the deck and into the ocean. Kelpie stood back up and a huge sigh of relief over took the crew. To this day, I know that a miracle had taken place aboard the "Kelpie" a thousand from land, en route to Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas Islands. From that day forward, the ship's sharpest knife was always lashed to the lowest part of the main boom gallows where the helmsman could grab it in a second............