Deep Sea Puzzle

Wanna test your deep sea survival skills?

C’mon, let’s give it the old college try!


Scenario:

You are in a trimaran in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A trimaran is one of those three-hulled boats. The center hull houses the living, storage, steering, and generator compartments. The left and right hulls are there, for the sake of this puzzle, solely for buoyancy reasons. Hollow and attached by struts and a thick, wide deck to the center hull, they serve to keep the boat upright and afloat.

The boat is powered by sails. Only by sails. All the sails are in good working condition, as are the masts, poles, and ropes. You also have one set of replacements for each sail and plenty of rope.

You are two weeks away from land, though you have six months of food stashed safely away in hundreds of Tupperware containers in storage. Hydration, too, is not a concern as you have two ten-gallon drums of potable water safely stowed under the pilot's chair.

Got a good mental picture of everything? Good! Let’s continue.


The Crisis:

There’s a fierce storm and a rogue wave nearly topples the trimaran (very dangerous because once overturned, a trimaran can almost never be righted). The next day it is discovered the radio was damaged beyond repair. Also, both left and right hulls are cracked and taking in water at about 20 gallons a day. In calm weather, you can bail out the water by opening a hatch atop each hull and scooping it out with a pail. In another storm, a very likely occurrence before you reach port, you won’t be able to do this. Too much water will enter both left and right hulls too fast and the ship will sink.


Question:

What do you do?


Note:

I am not a sailor, so forgive any misuse of terms or illogical inconsistencies. But I believe a working solution can be proposed by the data given. I read something similar in the book The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall and thought this would make a neat brain teaser. Solution will only be provided if comments are posted.