Red Sea Refugees
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Wed 18 May 2011 05:44
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Tuesday 18th May 0847 Local 0347 UTC
05:20.377S 072:15.587E
In the words of a Paul Simon song "Out in the
Indian Ocean somewhere ..... " These words to me always conjured up the image
which I believed would be realised on entering the Salomon Islands in the Chagos
Archipelago.
Last night we just scraped into the atoll before
sundown. We had initially had a close reach and then we were hard on the
apparent wind for the rest of the three hundred mile passage. Our starboard
gunnel was never dry for long. We were met by squall after squall and the
passage was a bit lumpy and Trish was just as low as the starboard
gunnel.....
However we had to drive on hard to make the
anchorage by landfall last night and that is what we did. When you make a three
hundred mile beat only then do you appreciate the off the wind trade wind
sailing we enjoyed most of the way to Australia. And what about Dee Cafari
going all the way round alone .... against the wind. Nails. Hard
as.
Anyway we scraped in, not literally mind you,
we had 1.7 metres under the keel and the coral was more than 5 metres away at
times. We were confronted by the surprising sight of at least fifteen yachts
anchored up where we had decided we would anchor! Unable to truly spot any
bommies we just made a staright line to a staightforwatd anchorage, as
always a bit out from the shore to ensure no bugs and that all of our chain gets
to work regularly. The route chosen mind you showed no bommies on the direct
path - just very close.
What was going on with the yachts? I had dreamt we
would have the whole place to ourselves! On speaking with one of the sailors
this morning it turns out that just like us they are all "Red Sea Refugees".
Though a lot of them left directly from Thailand some came through the Maldives
but we were at the very end of the trail and had caught up with them. Many
appear to have stayed here anchored up for over two months! Each day though it
seems there are boats leaving for Mauritius, Rodriguez, Reunion or Madagascar.
We will soon follow.
At 0700 this morning we were woken by a neighbour
yacht just to warn us that the yacht on the other side of us had no rudder
and would be towed out by two RIBS at 0800. I dropped our RIB and went over
to speak to Jeremy of Sunrise which is Freemantle registered, to offer any
help we could. He explained that on Passage from Thailand they lost their rudder
"luckily" only fifty miles out of Chagos. They were towed in by Marlin
which is the boat contracted by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to
be stationed here in Chagos. They anchored up and started negotiations with the
Americans in Diego Garcia. This was a long process they said and with the death
of Ossama bin Laden they said that security measures were ramped up a further
level which further delayed the negotiations. Diego Garcia is a full on US
military base and has all the facilities so their rudder can be fixed
there.
However, and nobody likes a smart Alec,
but...... two RIBS arrived to tow the 55' steel built deck saloon yacht.
That is fine and of course needs must. But and I can only assume that this was a
temporary measure to get them out of the atoll they rigged the two RIBS one
either side of the high sided yacht along side near the stern. Each RIB was
fitted with an "A" Frame. One very short line was rigged to the
bow of Sunrise and one line rigged to the A-frame of Sunrise. I did not
want to butt in, but if they go to sea with this the RIBS will be swamped and
the A Frames will clash with the superstructure of Sunrise and in fact will but
provide great steerage. My suggestion would be to rig two bridles off the stern
of each RIB and have them connected through the bow of the yacht. The yacht
should trim sail to the wind for its course and the RIBs head directly, one
off each bow, to Diego Garcia. You see they are not towing the yacht simply
acting as a rudder. But, they are American military so they are bound to
know what they are doing ............... right?
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