position S00 44.912 W90 18.608
Ocean Rival Journey Log
Adam Power Diana Power
Mon 14 Aug 2017 15:37
The last 24 hours have been punctuated by further mishaps of the self inflicted variety. The wind got up on Saturday night causing quite a pronounced increase of the swell in the harbour which was already fairly noteworthy and as previously mentioned requires the use of a stern anchor to avoid discomfort. Somehow the stern anchor rope chafed on the fairlead and parted in the night with a bang. That required reluctant post midnight action to extract the heavy spade anchor from a locker, launch the dinghy to row the anchor out, drop it and haul in on the rope only for it to fail to grip in the hard sand so requiring a second go with longer rope. That appeared to serve the purpose but I left the dinghy tethered afloat ready for further anchor action. In the morning although the anchor had dragged somewhat the boat was still aligned O.K but the dinghy rope was hanging loose with no dinghy attached. This likelihood I should have known having previously lost the dinghy in Mutis. The line is clearly not up to the job. In Mutis the wind was offshore and I was lucky that a sharp eyed naval cadet spotted it before it headed out to sea. Here the wind is onshore so I was encouraged to spot a white inflatable siting on the rocks directly downwind. The water taxi driver was less encouraging saying that he saw a dinghy heading round the bay and out to sea. Whose dinghy that was we haven't discovered but ours was on the rocks, luckily still inflated but oars broken and floor badly scarred. With the help of another naval cadet I took it round to the pier and fetched the repair kit from the boat to set about patching the floor. I patched the main tears before running out of glue but I think it will be serviceable and I still have the oars from the old dinghy which should fit. I will see if I can buy more glue tomorrow to complete repairs before testing on the water.
Although the anchorage is fairly shallow here and it is possible to reach the bottom by diving with snorkle and mask, the visibility is very poor due to the fine floury white sand. Hence retreiving the lost anchor has been beyond my ability. I will enquire about a diver tomorrow.
For light relief we walked out to Tortuga bay - a pleasant 2km walk along a paved path over the tufa boulders to a lovely long white sandy beach with cornish quality surf and red flags discouraging swimmers. Beyond the beach there is a shallow mangrove lined lagoon where swimming is popular although the water is only waist deep.
We hope to leave for Isabella tomorrow evening subject to successful anchor retrieval and dinghy repair.