After the action of the previous today was something of a mellow relaxation day. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading up on my battery bank and charge voltages and other electrical information so that I could see if I could somehow get my Xantrex battery monitor to accurately reflect the battery system’s state-of-charge. The wind was howling through the anchorage, gusting over 20 knots much of the time making the standing rigging sing in a high-pitched threnody in the gusts over 30 knots. I heard a strange clanking sound during one of the lulls and looked topsides from my computer document (A400 Series charging characteristics, in case you were wondering what I was reading) to see a catamaran quite close with a boat boy’s panga attached to the aft section and the boat frantically trying to drop chain without using the windlass. I knew something was wrong and got into the dinghy to speed over to see if I could help in any way. The catamaran, a 43 footer, had the “Sea & Sail” charter company logo on it and I assumed that their mooring had ripped off in a gust or that they were dragging anchor – whatever it was they were still moving steadily towards an anchored private Hallberg Rassy (unoccupied, of course).
When I got within shouting range the boat boy said something where I only heard “no keys”; but I tied up to the catamaran to board anyway. By now another 50HP powered panga from Cobra Tours had attached a line to the front starboard hull and was trying to keep it from dragging further (no luck with the gusting winds). I boarded and indeed saw that there were no keys – but I couldn’t find any keyholes either so I pressed the START button on the port engine and felt a vibration and saw the RPMs move from zero, I did the same for the starboard engine and was elated to see that the gauge moved there too! I put both engines in forward and tried the steering wheel (it didn’t seem to do much, so I left it centred) and waved at the guy on the trampoline had felt the vibrations as well and went to the windlass to pull up the chain (the windlass doesn’t work when an engine isn’t running, which is why he was trying to put the chain out by hand, a very dangerous task).
We winched in the chain, he pointing me which way to go and me using the two throttles like a tank; since the wheel almost seemed disconnected for all the effect it had. We finally got the anchor up and headed towards distant mooring ball where the Cobra panga had gone to hold the pennant. I jockeyed with the throttles and we managed to snag the pennant the first time around with little fanfare or hassle, but at times I had the one lever in forward and the other in reverse so that I could steer – remember the wind was still around 20 knots and gusting higher.
After I’d gotten the engine going, I could hear the guy on the Cobra panga on his cell phone. It seems that the catamaran was on a Cobra tour (they operate 3 or 4 pangas/boat boys) and he was talking with his colleague. His side of the conversation went something like this:
“Tell the F******g a******s that the F******g anchor F******g dragged; I told the F******g idiots that they F******g didn’t have enough F******g chain out. F******g a*s*****s; no; you have to get them F******g back here, F******g right now. The F******g boat is F******g dragging and we’re going to tie up to a F******g mooring but they F******g need to return now…. What? No F******g way; I’ll F******g cut the boat loose if you F******g don’t get F******g back here right F******g now.”
Note that I simplified his side of conversation and removed some of the more esoteric expressions and expletives and otherwise very inventive and colorful language. I wasn’t too worried about him resorting to physical violence, since he had dreads; but his blood pressure probably wasn’t the cool-calm-and-collected range. I should have taken notes with some of his expletives, he had a poetic bent indeed. After putting the boat back to sleep I returned to my boat; later on I heard them fire up the engines and depart – hopefully they at least had the decency to tip the 2 panga boat boys for their assistance; had those two not acted they would have damaged another yacht and perhaps drifted into the cruise ship dock. I’ll just accept positive points on my Karma balance in the hopes that should I ever have something like that F******g happen to F******g me that someone will also assist.
I fired up the BBQ for dinner, thawing out some ground beef I’d purchased ashore and grilling it for hamburgers between some wheat bread I’d purchased at the bakery earlier in the day.
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