Fremantle
Oldnick
Sat 22 Mar 2003 08:15
|
Arrived Friday
March 21 at 0730 to thunderstorms but a walm welcome
nevertheless.
We had started
celebrating too early though cos just 10 miles out motoring around Rottnest
Island through a narrow channel the engine suddenly stopped...the prop had
latched onto a lobster pot
line. It was dark and we were motoring into a 10 knot easterly.
Into the water went Bill, but the waves were too large for him to safely free
us. After 1 1/2 hours we managed to cut the the line after bringing it to the
surface using an intuitive idea that Ian came up with. The rest of the rope was
still wound around the propeller therefore couldn't motor, so it was
back out with the sails to sail through the channel and sail onto the
customs pontoon in the harbour.
Unfortunately
the furling gear suddenly decided to fail (all Bill's early attempts at reducing
swearing were completely forgotton by this time). No option but for Ian to go to
the top of the mast and sort the problem that prevented the jib from unfurlng.
The aforementioned waves tossed him around like a rag doll on the way up and he
forgot to take in the view once there. But good on him, and we were finally off
once again.
So the last
challenge was to sail into Success Boat Harbour and come alongside the pontoon
where we were met by family and about 6 customs agents, a drugs dog and
Quarrantine personel. I wasn't allowed to hug my new fiance for the next hour as
there were strict rules on no-one who was on the boat getting off and those off
getting on. Customs were very thorough and we thought ourselves lucky to avoid
the rubber glove treatment.
So we come to
the end of an amazing 5 months of sailing where we sailed 11,500 miles. An
amazing experience. Many thanks to Karyn, Roger, Mick, Pete, Ian and Bill
for being such great crew. I hope everyone enjoyed the diary entries, it was fun
doing them.
|