Sunday, December 05, 2010
Initially I had planned on heading to the North Sound for the evening and my first tack had me heading towards Peter Island, but instead of tacking back towards Tortola I bore away and made for the Bight at Norman Island for a short day sail. The weather and wind was perfect at 10-15 knots and I hit 8 knots for a bit without having the boat seem to make an effort – what a thrill to be back aboard again!
I even managed to snag a mooring the first try, despite howling winds of 3 knots or so (in gusts)! I spent the afternoon doing menial tasks below decks with occasional stints in the sunshine but I didn’t want to get a sunburn my first day out.
A bit of drama occurred just as I’d paid my mooring fee (up to $30 from the customary $25!) when I heard shouting from a boat downwind and saw that the Moorings 400 from Sunsail named “Cat’s Aweigh” had broken loose and was drifting to another Sunsail boat. I have to admit that my first thought was “I’m glad I dove on my mooring ball” but then I jumped in the dinghy and headed to the wild cat. Note that the wind was still under 5 knots and the collision was pretty soft twixt the Cat and the Sunsail monohull, but the toll collector was using his dinghy to fend off further damage so I hopped aboard and fired up the engines on the cat. Note that this was my first time ever aboard a cat in the wild, my previous experience being limited to a short visit while the cat was securely tethered to the dock. I only saw one key so turned that, I don’t know if both engines fired up but I just pretended it was a monohull and used the steering rather than jockey the beast like a tank. By then another 3 gents had showed up and climbed aboard, but they all said that they had no twin engine time either, so I drove the Cat while they prepared moorings lines forward. I am proud to say that I managed to stop the cat right over the next buoy (pat on shoulder there…) and within minutes we were off the boat. I returned to find my camera and take pictures in the dusk, and as I write this the owners haven’t returned – I wonder if they will have trouble finding their cat? The ripped painter is on their deck, so they will probably realize what happened.
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