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| Scaramouche leading Pachuca |
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| Morning Tide and Odyssey of Fremantle |
As I was approaching the South Passage south of Rottnest Island a ship appeared off my starboard quarter sailing a few degrees more to the east than me, so the gap of our tracks was opening up. However, I soon noticed that the ship was changing course to port so I made radio contact. The officer told me that he was aware of me and was just testing his steering. (Huh?) He continued changing his course and was soon headed almost north no doubt to go around the western end of Rottnest Island. I tried matching his change but I could not carry the sail so after 30 minutes or so on converging tracks I altered course to starboard to pass behind him but I had misjudged things and was forced to continue through the tack and backwind the fully rolled out headsail in order to quieten it, and used the engine After the ship had passed to a safe distance I tacked back and continued on to South Pass. The ship incident had cost me 30 minutes of progress but that was not serious because I had ample time to meet the plans of the coming day. I was to rendezvous with Jim Putt aboard his boat Morning Tide at 10 AM and arrive at he Customs jetty at noon.
Fortunately the sailing conditions were so good and the wind so fair that I decided that it would be safer to sail through the pass than to motor through it. I would have Rottnest Island as a lee shore but I didn't expect a serious change in the wind conditions, and if need be I could either sail my way out of trouble or proceed under engine power. The 3/4 moon was starting to rise which made the passage seem less threatening.
It was by sheer luck that I happened to be working the port winch when I saw two cray pot floats pass by in the dark. One of the floats was pulled under the water so I figured that I had snagged the line with my propeller. With the spotlight I was able to clearly see the line and float being dragged behind the boat so I knew that it was now impossible to use the engine for propulsion.
I sailed into Gage Roads, proceeded a safe distance to the north of the "Windmills" leads, the lay the boat ahull. We were now drifting at about 0.5 kts to the NW. I spent the rest of the night up dodging ships. It is amazing the amount of ship movements during the night and I was forced to use the sail several times to get clear of ships both at anchor and on the move.
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| Starting Turn to Customs Jetty |
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| Almost Home |
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| Home |
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| Greeting Peter Moore. Jim McBeth Looking on, the Brenda, Pat, and Bob Kucera |
I figured that since I had to be up anyway I may as well do something useful so I spent 90 minutes on the deck putting up the courtesy flags of the countries that I had visited as a way of dressing up the boat. Protocol dictates that the host country's flag should fly topmost on the starboard side and below that were the flags of countries that we had visited in correct order: New Zealand, French Polynesia, USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The large flag of the last country that we had visited, South Africa, was flown on the port side well below the Q flag.
After dawn I tried to snag the line and pull it up but it was too far down to reach. Then I realized that I was probably dragging the entire cray pot, which explained why the float was below the water. This was a more difficult situation and I realized that I would need some help.
I had kept the VHF radio on all night tuned to channel 16 and not long after dawn I heard someone speaking who mentioned "Cockburn Rescue". I immediately got on the radio and establish contact. After explaining my plight he got my coordinates and told me that he would send out a rescue boat. He asked if I was in immediate danger and I replied No because fortunately I was on the north side of the island drifting to the NW. He told me that it would take some time for the volunteers to get started a I replied that there was no hurry and I was very grateful for their assistance.
The boat showed up about 90 minutes later with two men. They could see the float, asked me the color of the line (white) and told me that I would have to go over the side and deal with it myself. They set up a tow line to the stern of the boat in order to stop her drift. I put the boarding ladder over the side, found my diving mask and a sharp knife, stripped down to my underclothes, and went over the side. Fortunately the water was not too cold. I found the that the rope had made a complete loop around the propeller, probably during the violent hobby horsing of the boat as she lay ahull, and there were two floats rather than one. It took 3 dives but finally the propeller was free of the rope. I had asked the men what I should do with the rope after I cut it and they said to simply let it go. After I climbed back on board they asked me to test the steering and propeller so I started the engine and everything proved out OK. They got some details from me and left with my expressions of gratitude. This was a job that I would have done had I been forced to far out to sea, but I thought it risky to try the dive alone in particular because with the boat being pushed by the wind one way and the current heading the other way there was danger of not being able to reach the boat after a dive. And in fact I did have trouble reaching the boarding ladder after one of the dives.
Jim Putt called me on the radio at about that time and I explained the situation and told him that I would need about 15 minutes before getting on the way for the rendezvous but that estimate was much too optimistic. I remembered that I still needed to prepare the boat for the jetty by putting out the ropes and fenders. I had a good cockpit bath to wash away the salt water, dressed in fresh clothes, put out the fenders and ropes, made a cup of coffee, then got under way.
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| Saying Hello to Jim McBeth |
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| A Chat with Neil and Jim |
On the way I got my first welcome surprise when Stuart came by in his power boat with Victor and a friend on board. We exchanged greetings and traveled together for a short while then parted because Victor had another commitment.
Eventually I caught sight of 3 sail boats that appeared to be waiting side by side and headed for them. It was Jim Putt aboard his "Morning Tide", Joanna Pearson aboard her S and S 39 "Odyssey of Fremantle", and another boat which I later learned was Ian Parker's boat. As we approached the harbour area we were joined by a fourth boat, Anna Oldfield's "Scaramouche" well decorated with flags and they used an air horn to welcome my arrival. The four escort boats were hanging back and allowing me to take the lead but after 5 years I was having trouble figuring out the route and I asked Scaramouche to take the lead.
As we entered the Marina I was surprised to see Caroline, Dennis, and daughter Madelyn on the rocks at the right then Stephen at the rocks on the left. I thanked the escort boats as best I could then made the turn to the Customs jetty and was pleased to see Brenda waiting to take a line and was surprised to see two men prepared to help. One of the men was Merv from the South of Perth yacht club, who I was very glad to see again. The other was FSC Commodore Bob Kucera. Bob and I had met before but when I realized that he was visiting in his capacity as the Commodore of the club I told him how honored I felt that he had taken the trouble to be at my arrival. Not many sailors have had the honour of having their line taken by the Commodore. Edgar Vitte, who had rigged Pachuca shortly after I had purchased her came by, and we agreed to meet later to discuss my experiences with the rigging and sails. Then colleagues from my Murdoch University days came by, Peter and Sue Sumner and Neil Huck. Cynthia telephoned to welcome me back, I met Joanna (Odyssey) and Peter Moore. Pat Fitzgerald was there. She had been following the blog with her husband Bill for years. Jim McBeth, a fellow member of the club dropped by. Jim Putt paid a visit to the jetty. Later I learned that the Chadwicks had been among the rocks on the north side. I met Samantha "Sam", the Assistant Harbour Master, who was to be very thoughtful and helpful to me. Accommodation for boats at the marina was becoming tight because scores of visiting boats were arriving for the Bali race, and beginning with Tristan Yuswak the club's harbour master while I was still far out to sea, the Fremantle Sailing Club had done a wonderful job of planning accommodation for Pachuca until my pen was free (on 8 May).
All of this happened after a night of no sleep and no food since lunch on the previous day, so I was in a bit of a daze and everything seemed a bit dreamy and unreal. But it was real and I was getting the warmest of welcome and it was great to be back.
Customs and AQIS (Quarantine) arrived 30 minutes later and both pairs did a very thorough job of inspecting the boat and my paperwork. It was all quite amicable and although I lost two large packs of top quality almonds I was allowed to keep the raisins, flour, spaghetti, and other items that I thought were in jeopardy. At first I could not find my wallet in order to pay the $330 charge from AQIS for their service, but I eventually found it at the bottom of the clothes closet. However, I was not able to find my passports and I started a deep search of the boat for them the following day (today) with no success. I am not panicking about the passports because I have always been very careful with them and they must be on board, but they are not where they should have been.
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| With Fremantle Support Team, Chatting with Cindy |
I slept like a log for 9 hours and woke up feeling a lot better.
I have Stephen to thank for the photos in this blog.
2 comments:
Loved seeing all those photos. Good to see you with Brenda and Stephen too.
What a trip! What a team! Well done all!
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