Abuse of Power

Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Sun 27 Jan 2008 08:24
12:31.22N 070:02.56W Saturday 26th Jan 08

What an interesting day we've had.

The morning was uneventful but just as we sat down for a lunch of some
Jamaican jerked chicken off the barbie, all the boat's 12v power died. This
was not the usual batteries, which were good, but maybe something to do with
a short in the isolator switch. Colin is an electrician by trade and we gave
it our best shot but failed to fix it while bouncing around hove-to. This
was somewhat serious in that we had no way to start the main engine, no way
to start the generator, no navigation instruments and charts (more about
this later), no radio comms, no autopilot, no radar, no depth sounder. We
were thrown well back to the 19th Century in terms of sailing capabilities
and we didn't even have the old salt who says "Three fathoms, sand and
broken shell, Cap'n" either.

Although we had planned to go to Aruba anyway and Aruba was only about 40
miles away, we suddenly found ourselves wondering if we could actually find
the place. We did have a few bits of modern technology still functional.
There was a primitive hand-held GPS out of the grab-bag. Our paper charts
were a bit limited, Aruba being off the official route, but the laptop still
had enough power to read our electronic chips of the main system. The sat
phone also still had enough power to make a call or two but it really didn't
want to play (more about this later as well). As the chicken went cold on
the deck table we set sail in the approximate direction of Aruba. Landfall
was at night, naturally. If you ever need your bowels loosening, then
approaching an unknown reef-fringed island in the dark without any
navigation instruments, navigation lights or engine is the way to do it.

As we were nearing our best guess at Oranjestadt, the capital, wondering
where the marina was and if we actually had the right stuff to sail into a
crowded berth anyway, we had an unlit Coastguard RIB come up alongside our
own unlit boat demanding that we hand over our firearms and other
contraband. Getting almost no sense out of either Colin or myself they took
pity on us and offered to lead us through the reefs. Them in a RIB and us
sailing (note: sailing) after them. They took us to what turned out to be
the cruise-ship dock where we came to rest against some tractor tyres and
concrete. Then we were thoroughly searched for the aforesaid firearms etc.
Very politely too, I have to say. Later, fired up with adrenalin, Colin and
I tried to head towards the sound of a loud music concert but discovered
that nobody gets in or out of the cruise-ship dock without the right
paperwork. A visit from Immigration and Customs has been promised for 06:00
tomorrow. Hopefully a specialist marine electrical wallah as well. The sat
phone problem was found to be bits of yesterday's broken spinnaker pole
being lashed across the external antenna. Now sorted, this is how you are
getting to hear this sorry tale.

M