2022-05-03 Antigua Sailing Week Day 3

Race Day 3

The conditions remained conducive to great racing and had settled a bit overnight. The mooring had dragged and was way out of position, so we had to wait while the big fishing boat with the hydraulic winch could lift the motor block and reposition it. But once it was set and we got attached to it our preparations could begin and in short order we had everything set up for the first races of the day.
We had an incident with one of the race boats gybing close to our committee boat and having a crewmember go overboard. There was a press boat nearby and headed to the scene of the accident and the race boat also turned back. I saw that the situation was handled and concentrated on other things and was surprised by a call that he was drifting past us! We got a line out and he got it on the starboard side of the catamaran, but the boarding ladder is on the port side, and he let go of the line to swim across and I was within inches of reaching him but couldn’t before he drifted off with the current and wind. I threw him a life preserver and we went about untying our dinghy so that we could lower it and follow him. When we got it into the water, I chose to hand over the ship to our guest for the day, a professional mariner and midshipman on the HMS Medway. I knew we needed 2 people on the dinghy, and it is small and only has a 5HP engine, and I didn’t know if he could handle a small dinghy vs. a big one. Alec and I got in the little dinghy and zipped across to where the MOB was drifting. He’d dumped the life preserver and his crew had gotten a hold of him and was in the process of winching him aboard, so Alex and I returned.

At least we tried to. The outboard engine failed, and I couldn’t get it started again. After a bit of twiddling, I felt the hose connection to the outboard tank, and it turned out to be attached but not actually plugged in. The fuel in the little outboard reservoir had been sufficient to get us going, but not to get us back. But despite that I couldn’t get the engine started and was getting worried that the rescuers were now in danger of becoming the rescued as the oars are not enough to go against the strong winds and big ocean waves. I went through the whole system methodically and as part of that check I found that the OTHER end of the fuel hose was also attached but not pressed in. Once that issue was rectified, I needed only two priming squeezes and the engine fired up. But we’d drifted a significant distance by then and that 5HP engine barely made headway and it took a perceived eternity to return. The 40-foot catamaran was bouncing in the waves and we couldn’t board safely using the ladder. But we did get to see why our catamaran was so slow – the bottom is encrusted in barnacles and underwater growth and is a serious contender to become a UNESCO nature park! In the end we lifted the dinghy halfway up on davits and exited. Both Alec and I were soaked, but at least I got control back of my ship.

The rest of the day proceeded with nary an incident, although I was very disappointed that Tony (our guest from the Medway), who had been assigned the X-Ray flag, got to use it while I’d been waiting days for that opportunity.

Back ashore we had our post-racing libations and when time for dinner rolled around, we opted to choose what we knew rather than explore further meal options and had a very tasty pizza at Paparazzi.