The adventures of Tiny Dancer
Position: 38:43.54N 001:27.81E - Es
Pujals, Formentera
What a difference a day makes, or even a couple of hours. The bay was flat calm when Tiny Dancer ferried us ashore for our evening meal. Delicious it was too. But on returning to our faithful little tender, the seas had turned a bit choppy and mum was definitely a bit nervous on the way back to DecaDance.
The winds weren't coming round to the East as quickly as promised which meant a night of anchor watch for me and Chris. During the night most boats departed, we were happy our anchor was secure, but kept watch nonetheless as the wind was strengthening. There was also a boat very close to us which appeared to be abandoned.
At about four in the morning Chris realised that Tiny Dancer was no longer bobbing off our stern (she was definitely there at half past three) and as the first light of sunrise arrived we finally tracked her with the binoculars crashing against the rocks in the distance. She wasn't alone - there was a smaller tender dancing next to her. Sadly, that wasn't the worst of it - just a few hundred yards further along the rocks lay the upturned hull of a yacht. I can't tell you what a sickening sight that is.
Tiny Dancer finally disappeared and we had no idea of her fate. We kept watch of shore as the sun climbed higher; tired, dejected, and wondering how the hell we were going to get off the boat. Then I spied something moving in the distance - Tiny Dancer, complete with engine, being carried away from behind the rocks by four men! Were they Good Samaritans or tea-leaves? We waved and hollered from the boat and they looked over but we lost sight of them behind a fisherman's hut. We stopped bobbing enough to work out the name of Cafeteria Espardell close to where they were and - thanks to mobile broadband, the power of Google and the fact they had their own website - I phoned the restaurant and explained the situation. And then again to a poor customer who was roped in because his English was better. He said there was no-one with our tender and promised to keep an eye on it until the sea calmed and Chris could swim ashore.
In the mean-time, a coast-guard on a jet-ski delivered one of the occupants of the neighbouring boat back on-board. The whole crew had been unable to return to the boat overnight and he was bringing two of them to rescue their yacht and the others were catching the ferry to Ibiza. He took Chris back with him and towed Tiny Dancer back to her mother-ship, short of only an engine cowling, a seat and her dignity. Our jet-ski hero had rescued the four people aboard the stranded yacht at five in the morning. They're all ok. And that's all that really matters.
To follow our progress in real time, track our AIS signal on marinetraffic.com To see photos of our journey make friends with Deca Dance on Facebook Find out how you can join our adventures on www.DecaDanceYachtCharter.com. |