Errr…….Simone is STILL on passage to Suwarrow!

Thursday 17^th May: South Pacific Ocean 13 47.2S  161 19.9W  

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone UTC -10.00;  BST-11.00)

I am reminded that we have not explained why, after the re-start from Bora Bora,  we did not  find ourselves in leading the fleet, [this now seeming our customary position for the few fleeting moments after each start before the proper sailors in the fleet (Messrs Gunvor, 12 Moons come to mind)  get their act together and overhaul us] ….. and why it is that we  had to spend the last three days clawing our way  from pole position in the fleet (the south pole that is – last in the fleet by some margin!) back into the middle of the fleet! 

The truth is that,  at the time of the restart, we were still lying at anchor – not our  anchor but Sapphire’s anchor!

We had been moored stern to the dockside at Mai Tai Yacht Club, docked under the close supervision of the Dock Master, our bow controlled by our anchor, lying with 100 metres of chain. Later that day, Sapphire also docked and pursuant to the express instruction of - and under the close supervision of - the Dock Master laid his anchor chain over ours.   Docking was a bit more complicated than that; a scuba diver was sent down to tie a warp to a mooring to tie onto our port bow to hold us against the wind – and one on each of Sapphire’s port and starboard bows.

Sapphire was not planning to leave with us – she was to remain three more days and so, when the time came to think about  leaving, it was evident (to me at least) that there would be some complexity in undoing all of this knitting.   I spoke to the Dock Master (a Frenchman)  early on that morning  and explained my concerns. These were met by a very Gallic “Bah!!” accompanied by an extravagant shrug of the shoulders; he assured me that I was mistaken and our anchor was free to run.  He would send a diver down to untie the mooring and we would then be free  to let go our lines and pick up our anchor. He even suggested we put our dinghy up on the davits  to speed our departure – he would have someone deal with our lines ashore. We agreed that he would return at 11.00am - an hour before the midday restart.

Time passed ……

At about 11.20am the Dock Master reappeared but realising that he had not got anyone to deal with our shorelines, he disappeared again. He returned at 11.30, “empty handed” so to speak, but by which time John and Patricia from Sapphire had offered to handle our shorelines.  The diver went down to deal with the mooring warp; when he surfaced he  reported that Sapphire’s anchor chain was indeed laid over ours but – not to worry -  he would lift the chain clear and ours would just  “pop” out. …. Simple as that!

Well – it didn’t work out like that.  At the time the start gun went, we had successfully got off the dockside and  our anchor was  clear of the bottom.  One small wrinklette in the otherwise smoothly executed plan at this point was that our anchor was still hooked under Sapphire’s chain; and this  we remained firmly attached to the bottom via Sapphire’s anchor  … and all the while under the close supervision of the whole crew of Sapphire ranged across their foredeck,  each taking an understandably  keen interest in the proceedings.    Worse, trying to pull our anchor out from under Sapphire’s chain  had involved copious use of the electric anchor windlass ….. about this time  the windlass had given up the unequal struggle, having overheated.   SO – not only were we still anchored we had no means of getting ourselves clear.  There ensued  much ‘meaningful dialogue’ between Serendipity and the Dock Master,  passing of warps here and there and …………. eventually we were clear.  

We were about 35 minutes later than planned and the fleet was already disappearing downwind  over the horizon in a riot of colourful spinnakers.  Our morale was not good, until ………………. out came ‘the Frog’ .