43:14.7690N 9:01.4830W

We left A Coruña yesterday and stopped in the small fishing village of Corme, a short sail to the West. We anchored in the bay, ate dinner ashore and had a good night’s sleep. This morning we headed out to sea in a nice breeze, but soon the wind died and we had to start the engine. It would not start and we quickly found the answer: a huge remnant of fishnet was tangled in the propeller! One of a sailor’s worst nightmares. Luckily we were far enough from the rocky shoreline and there was a small bit of wind, so we decided to continue sailing to the next harbor rather than turn back. We quickly found out, however, that the tangled fishnet was too heavy and nearly completed halted our progress. We had to know how large the net was and how badly it was tangled. Tobias attached a GoPro camera to the boathook and filmed underwater (see photo), just to discover that the piece of net was huge but that it would be possible to cut loose from the propeller shaft. There was no other option than to jump over board and cut it loose. No easy task!

 

Tobias to the rescue! The water was cold, around 16,5 degrees C and some waves. Armed with a mask and our breadknife, Tobias went overboard. He soon had the prop freed, and he pulled the fishnet aboard our dinghy so that it would not drift around and get tangled in someone else’s prop. We estimated that the piece of abandoned net weighed around 200 lbs, so no wonder it slowed us down! We could again start the engine after being delayed several hours. Tobias had suffered a nasty cut in his thumb, but otherwise all was fine.