So filled up with with the Manta Ray experience we left the day after with a huge smile on our faces and so happy to have experienced something so unusual. Also we got to know later on in the evening that not everyone coming in with their dinghy are lucky to see Manta Rays. So we were more than dubble lucky as they continued to come up to us all morning!

We left Mantaray Pass in a super calm day with no wind, so we motored all the way. We decided to head straight for Musket Cove as Louise wanted to wake up there on her birthday morning. 

Jörgen had taken a heading, saw 2 boats in the far horizon on their way into Musket Cove and continued letting Helmer do the navigating while Louise was down under starting to prepare for the evening and dinner... when suddenly we heard a “crash”! It was not heavy so we had not hit ground, it was a “crash” in something. Louise flew up from the galley on to deck to see that we had crushed into …. a fishing boat! A fishing boat that was still and anchored! So one of these 2 boat we saw on their way into Musket Cove, was apparently not on its way int.... We had awakened 2 fishermen sleeping and suddenly got crashed into by a sailing boat! We had hit their starboard side at the rear. Being a plywood boat, the boat started to take in water by the rear. The fishermen panicked, started the engine and went full speed still with the anchor in!!!…

Jörgen acted quickly trying to catch them up by stearing the boat backwards to them, whereof the steering cable broke (!). With no stearing Jörgen acted quickly by putting on the auto-pilot …. ouf… and head towards the fisher boat. By this time we ssw the boat a few 100 m away starting to sink. We came up to them and saw now only 1 fisherman…. Jörgen said without thinking, “if one has drowned already I can get into prison”… whereof Inez burst into tears…. Then we saw the second fisherman with lifejacket on coming up! They tried their best to save their belongings as in the meantime everything was floating off the boat: plastic glasses, fridges, cockroaches, plates, papers, clothes, spiders….

We towed the boat half sank onto Take Off, brought the fishermen on board and called Musket Cove Marina. We picked up everthing big we could see in the sea.

 

Musket Cove Marina came along. They first emptied the fridges from the fish that had been caught during the night.

 

Then they towed the boat away, however not in a very intelligent way…. While they towed the boat away to closest beach by Musket Cove, Louise took the dinghy and picked up everything that was left floating: socks, bits of plywood, coke bottles,… no we left the spiders and the cockroaches…. there were things floating everywhere!

 

 

And now for the call to the fishermens’ boss owning the boat. We motored all the way to Denarau Marina and the owners came along Take Off to start to deal the damage. They specifically wanted one of their guys to stay on board over night so we could continue the talk tomorrow. At this point, we realised that our greatest help now was Yacht help, an agent the World ARC uses for different issues. So Jörgen went together with the fishermen into Denarau Marina, met Dave on Yachthelp, who happened to know the fishermen! So Dave took the insurance of taking our boat papers and they settled a meeting for the day after. 

  

Now this settled, onto the next problem…..

  

… to be continued tomorrow.