Day 3 - C600 - Caught fishing net around keel
Bonkers
Donald Macdonald
Wed 21 Feb 2024 11:46
Whilst going up east side of St Barts about 100m from the cliff caught a line fishing net at dusk. Initially tried backing out under sail no help with the 1-2m swell. As greatly concerned being pushed into rock face engine used to back out having dropped main. Could not get any meaningful steerage. When going forward you could see the net as we stretched it. By now dark and could not see into the water so furled the jib and tried motoring forward at max revs to drag and/or break net. We managed to drag the net with it buoys at about 1.5 knots. Once about a mile from shore reduced revs and put jib up and doing 1 knot. This we did for the whole night until daylight. The engine started smoking a bit so switced her off and furled the jib. During the night the buoys connected to net disappeard.
With daylight could put GoPro over the side to see what we had to deal with. The net split down either side and just a rope over the bulb. The sea state was a lot better so engine back on to do a fast reverse to see if net rope came off. Afer a couple minutes going backwards John confirmed on GoPro rope was no longer caught.
With the 12 hours delay, going the wrong way for race and engine useage we have Retired from the race and having a steady sail back to Antigua, Although only a hundred miles we shall adjust arrival for daylight hours Thursday morning,
Last nights dinner was a tin of beef vegetable soup and a chicken one with soft roll, followed by pineapple rings in juice.