Collision at sea
MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Fri 16 May 2008 15:56
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Bahia Redonda Marina, Puerto LaCruz, Venezuela.
10:12.5N 64:39.7W
Having spent all our money on boat bits, beer &
rum, it was time to head south to Venezuela. We kept putting off the inevitable,
hoping our problems back in the UK would just sort themselves out and just
simply go away. But of course they didnt, they never do, so we needed to be
south of the hurricane zone inorder to leave the boat safely, for clearly
what was going to be an extended tour of duty back home.
We decided to cross the Caribbean in one hit, bar a
short stop over in Nevis or St Kitts, I cant remember which. The sail was great
once we were back into the groove of life aboard at sea..... you know preparing
food while hanging on with one arm trying your damnest to brace yourself and
throwing food around the galley with the other. And of course settling down into
the strictly adhered to practise of watchmaking, or in our case, the ever
decreasing occassional look up from DVD/Tele screen in the cockpit.
Well whats the chance of hitting anything anyway?, there's thousands
of square miles of oggin out there...plenty of room for a ship or two and little
old us....isnt there?
Well, no, actually there isnt, at least not for us
anyhow. Our good luck that we had in St Martin was about to come crashing to an
end!!! ( Cue the dramatic music).
Am I over dramatising our little collision at
sea?....of course I am.
At dawn, on my watch, I noticed a freighter
apparently hoveto at sea some 300 miles west of Martinique. I figured I'd better
turn off the DVD and turn on the radio and be all proper salty seadog-like, well
there might be a dramatic sea rescue afoot or some such nonsense. Sure enough,
as soon as the blower was switched on, the Master of the Freighter was hailing
us.
'Sailing yacht this is the Dutch freighter
'Dancing Cloggs' here, do you read me?', sounding alittle frustrated -
probably been calling me for a while.
I had a quick nose around and there was no other
sailboat that I could see, not that I was paying much attention 'til this
point.
'Yes, Dancing Cloggs, this Malarkey bound for
Margarita, good morning, what can I do for you'?
'Have you lost your tender'?
Cripes, maybe our dinghy has fallen off the back
during the night!! But surely even during watching the thoroughly engaging
second series of 'The Vicar of Dibley, I would have noticed that...wouldnt
I?
I replied, 'No sir I dont think
so', while having a quick squint into the
cockpit just to make sure 'Mini Me' was still there. 'Why, what have you
found?'
'It is a small boat with outboard
engines and we are about to take it under tow to
Trindad'.
Now, I was alittle confused, (quite a common
state of mind for me recently), if it is just a small boat why dont they
oick it out of the oggin and plonk it on the deck.
'Dancing Cloggs, how big is the
boat?'
'Oh it is about a 30 ft day boat and has 2
large mercury outboard motors on the back,- we are claiming
salvage'.
Ah ha, now it made sense, this boat was worth a
couple of bob and well worth the effort. But I dont know how big he thought
we were if he thought it may have been our tender!......a 30 footer,
we know a family of four doing a world cruise on a smaller
boat.
'Well good luck to you sir, a nice find. Good
talking to you'.
We thought that was the end of it, when old
Dancing Cloggs is back on the blower again.
'Our tow line has broken, do you want to take
her in tow yourself'.
Not being shy of taking an opportunity when it
presents itself. 'Yes, we will have a look at that. What colour is the boat
and what is her positon now?'
'She is just astern of our current
position'.
Well we could see the freighter allright but the
day boat, no chance. There was a 3-4 meter swell running and the wind was
blowing a fresh 20-25knts or so with the normal associated Caribbean chop. It
was hidden from view in the swell.
We got to the position, according to the Master of
the Cloggs and we still couldnt see it. Jo was up by now and was
peering out through sleepy eyes, she couldnt see it anywhere either.
Then sh*t!!!, there it was, we were right on top of it
and WACK, we hit side on. Bugger, the stem head fitting of
the wildly lurching boat had hit us amidships port side and put a nasty scratch
in out lovely blue topsides. Right thats it, we have to take this in tow inorder
to get the salvage money for the new paint job we now needed. But try as we
liked, Jo couldnt lazoo this bucking bronco of a boat. The seas were too big
and to be sure, Jo would never have a successful career as a
cowgirl.
In the process of trying to put a line on our
potential prize, we hit it again and although I hated to admit it, it was lost
cause. This lovely little day cruiser with 2x200HP Mercury outboards, was
destined to drift all the way to Panama and someone else would claim her, plus,
of course, our little bit of blue gel coat on the stem head fitting!!!.
Besides the more we thought about it, the more unrealistic the prospect
became...us towing a 30 foot boat over 200 miles in these conditions...but
you have got to have a go though, havent you?
It took me the rest of the trip to Margarita
and many recriminations, to eventually calm down. Hell, was I annoyed with
myself. But it never ceases to amaze me, what several rum cocktails in the
Rum Bar at Porlamar will do to loosen one up........it didnt take long before we were back in the laid back way of life
of that 'Manana Land' called Venezuela. Bahia Redonda Marina, Puerto LaCruz was
just around the corner.
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