Michael Plant was experienced and passionate about sailing the ocean's wild winds. But his third trip around the world was different. He designed and built a $650,000 racing vessel called the Coyote, a lightweight fiberglass-coated, foam-core-hull sailboat that was very fast. Equipped with the latest in technology, on October 16, 1992, Plant launched from New York and headed across the Atlantic toward France, a 24,000 mile four-month race. But it wasn't long into the trip before Plant began experiencing trouble. No one heard anything from him for several days. Then, on October 21, a passing Russian freighter picked up his transmission.

"I have no power," Plant communicated, "but I'm working on the problem." He ended the transmission with his only request: "Tell [my fiancé] not to worry." That was the last direct communication anyone ever had with Plant. After 32 days, the Coyote was finally spotted on a Sunday morning by a Greek tanker. It was drifting upside down, and there was no sign of Plant.

The mast, still fully sailed, plunged some eighty-five feet into the frigid waters. The hull was intact. The keel was vertical, and it exposed the fatal problem: the eighty-four hundred pound lead keel bulb that weighted the boat had been sheared off. To this day, no one knows if it was a rogue whale, sea garbage, or just a faulty build that damaged the boat, but without the weight of the ballast, the small boat was useless against the crosscurrents and high winds of the open seas. The ballast's weight in the lowest part of the vessel would give it stability and balance in the rough seas, and without it, the vessel would become top-heavy and be easily overpowered by the angry ocean.

To put it simply, without a keel and ballast, the boat was broken.

Possible Preaching Angles: For a sailboat to navigate the open ocean there must be more weight beneath the waterline than above it. It's the weight beneath the waterline. It's the epicenter, the core of everything. The keel and the ballast could be your heart or your integrity and your character. Or it could be the promises from God's Word or our trust in God's faithfulness.