That's what Friends are for!
ChilliOyster
Dave & Becky Werrett
Sat 6 Dec 2008 22:51
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Position 15.11N 42.32W
What a great day!!! After the soul searching
feelings of despiar over the last few days - today has been another day I will
always remember. As I mentioned in the blog earlier we have been having some
power problems on the boat and we had been reduced to just enough battery power
to drive autohelm and nav equipment. As soon as we knew we had problems we sent
emails to the other boats we know well, and also raised the issue on the daily
ARC net. We had alot of advice offered butour good friends from Windancer
believed they had a part that would solve a considerbale number of problems so
we gareed to both change course, and a suggested rendevous wa sproposed - their
email read " Based upon the position
you provided at 0944 (14.33N 39.28W) I forecast the we can rendezvous at 15deg
15' N 042deg 10'W at 1400 UTC tomorrow 6 Dec. This will require
about a 135 nm day for you and 125nm day for us. Will await your
agreement, please call via sat phone to confirm and then check on VHF as we get
close."
In the end, given the wind and the need to avoid a
number of big squalls we met at around 15.13N and 42.07W at approx 5.00pm utc
Ity was absolutley fantasticx to see them - they were all on deck waving and
cheering, we also sang Happy Birthday to Jenny, their daughter who is on baord
and who is 10 tomorrow. They came alongside us and after 3 attempts they
successfulyl landed a throwing line on our deck. We opulled the line and a bag
arrived containg 4 ice cold beers, a packet of ICE!! and a bag of parts - it was
like christmas - only may be better! (Sorry mum!) In return - we threw back the
line and I sent back a bag of cheese, meat and chorizo thjat was on the turn! It
had beem defrosting for several days! Well what else could I send! we puilled
away promising lots of dribks and hugs in St Lucia - I can not tell you how good
it was to see them. We wne timmediately below and Dave eagerly tore open
the package with the parts he needed. It didn't solve
the whole problem but we now have almost everything back and functioning
excpet water maker and freezer - both I can live without for a ferw
days. We were absolutley over the moon, we drank the cold beers to
celebrate and contacted Windancer on the VHF to let them
know of the success - there was lots of cheering on both sides. I have
attached a photo of them arriving alongside us on the arc blog page.
We realised today just how much support we had from
the people we have met - you meet alot of people along the way - some you know
briefly and others you may get to know well - but your relationships are almost
hot housed - in Las Palmas and Lanzarote in particular we got to know
probably 5 boats well and 2/3 more than well. You end up eating with them
everynight, and getting to know each other much more quickly than you
would in the normal course of events. In addition I guess when you do
something like this, when your lives could
literally depend on each other, then the bond is different. They do not replace
the old friends you have, in fact having Dave W and his son Sam on board was
probably the best decison we made about this trip, Dave has been a rock and has
remained constantly cheerful & upbeat, but they compliment them,
offering support where often exisitng friends are not able to do so.
Sailing is a huge leveller and brings many people together who under nornal
circumstances would never have met or got on, it also creates a huge sense of
camaraderie that I have rarely witnessed in other parts of my
life. Over the last few days therefore we have had support from the other boats, including an
email from Mikado who had a brain storming session on board and sent
us lots of suggestions, he also called on the Sat phone tonight to check
up, we had a good chat with Sophistikate on the SSB earlier who had engaged
the radio net controller on our behalf and was making sure we were OK, (she
couldn't offer any parts but had plenty of wipes as I was not showering! ) They
plan to stay close to us for the remainder of the journey. We even made contact
with Karel from Bombardino (they did our very first crossing with us from
Dartmouth to Brest) who called us on the Sat phone - so we feel very
blessed to have met such great people! Finally, the best support of all, as I
write in the dark now I am looking out and on my starboard beam is a little
twinkling light that I know is WindancerIV, it is so good to know you are not
alone.
PS The ice they sent was
above and beyond! My V&T when the problem was fixed was the best I have
ever had!!
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