Cassini blog #116 "well that was an interesting 24 hours"
Cassini's blog
Simon and Sally, Nigel and Catherine
Sat 13 Apr 2024 15:41
| "Well that was an interesting 24 hours" We started yesterday with some good news. Our long-awaited spare part for our water marker has at last arrived in Guadalupe. Hurrah! Of course they are closed over the weekend but we can pick it up on Monday morning, so we will probably sail to Guadalupe tomorrow ready for an early strike on Monday. After a walk around town and some shopping we stopped at a seaside bar for a drink and some nibbles. They actually had draught beer which is unusual around here. We returned on-board as the wind was getting up, and we were forecast more of the same. We had a very rolly afternoon interspersed with very heavy showers. Sally and Catherine managed to top up the solar shower by dancing around with a bucket in their bikinis! After a dinner of pasta we decided to watch an episode of Silent Witness. We managed the first part in the cockpit, but had to retire down below for the second part as we could not hear what they were saying because of the wind! We had a disturbed night due to the high winds and lots of rocking and rolling and I took advantage of a short lie-in as the winds began to drop. I had just emerged from my cabin when I heard 5 short blasts on a horn. As the sailors amongst you will know, that usually means "I do not understand your intentions". But it is also used as a general wake up call for people to pay attention. There it was again. Something is amiss. Simon and I went up to the cockpit to see an unmanned yacht which had broken its mooring heading straight towards us! After a few seconds of monitoring its progress it was obvious it was going to miss us - just. In fact it passed about 5 metres ahead of our bow - a lucky escape! We now had an out of control yacht meandering around the mooring field with lots of potential targets. A number of boat owners got into their dinghies and started to try and take control of the situation. Simon and I did likewise and had the foresight to take a tow rope with us. We needed to get someone onto the drifting yacht and so all that boarding training in the Royal Navy came into its own. Simon put our dinghy alongside the drifting yacht and I clambered aboard over the stern. Not quite as graceful as the boarding officer of 40 years ago but I achieved the aim! Next I had to sort out the "snakes wedding" on the bow of the drifting boat. There were three or four ropes altogether which had become a tangled mess when the mooring rope parted. After much ‘faffage’, I managed to get our tow rope attached and passed to one of the dinghies. Towing a yacht with dinghies in gusty wind conditions is no easy task and it needed a towing boat and a dinghy either side pushing the bow and stern around to keep a straight course. Fortunately there was a spare buoy within the mooring field so we headed for that. First, we managed to get our tow-rope attached to the buoy and then, after another lot of ‘faffage’, we managed to get two more ropes from the drifting yacht attached to the buoy, freeing up our own rope again. Just as we finished, a very grateful Frenchman arrived to say that the boat belonged to his son and he would take it from there. So, nobody hurt and no damage (apart from the snapped mooring rope), so all in all a good result. It certainly woke me up! After a quick trip ashore for pastries with our coffee we are hoping for a quieter rest of the day. Nigel the Navigator. |
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