We are exploring the southern part of ‘Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’. The distances from one sandy turtle bay to the next sandy coconut bay are very short. So we tow our dingy Dorie from one place to the next one, instead of taking it on deck. This isn’t an issue at all until the anchor is dropped in the next bay. But then one thing requires special care, and the captain didn’t care enough this time:
Once the anchor is dropped and the anchor chain lies on the ground, then the propeller must be engaged in reverse direction to make sure that the anchor is nicely digged into the ground. Before reversing, the dinghy towing line must be taken very shortly, otherwise it goes into the propeller and jams it.
One of the kids had the task to hold the line of the dingy today. The captain however didn’t check for a second time whether the kid was still doing its job. Sure the kid wasn’t there anymore and the dinghy line went into the propeller. I realized it when Dorie was quickly pulled towards Yuana. I disengaged the propeller, cut Dories line and checked the situation. Worse, the anchor didn’t hold at the first try.
Now the casino starts: we were drifting with the wind, right towards the bow of another yacht. The distance until collision was perhaps 150 meters and that yacht was one of the biggest Super Sailing Yachts I’ve ever seen. The width of her hull impressed me quite a bit.
Options:
– Hope that the anchor still grips somewhere. It didn’t look like that.
– Boat boy next to us could have towed us away, but he wanted to agree on a price only later. Sure he would have made his bill according to the prevented damage. Last option, under „Lloyd‘s open!“
– Pull out the genoa to get away from the other vessel: Possible, if we got the anchor in quick enough. „Anchor up!“
– Engage the propeller again an see if the rope cutter would do its job: first choice.
A rope cutter is a da.n sharp disc knife which we mounted on the propeller shaft. It’s task is to cut a rope or netting which is jamming around the propeller shaft.
So we had two options how not to kiss the superyacht. In the first attempt I engaged the prop again and increased the revolution immediately. There was an uncommon rattle from underneath the boat and now, also the rudder was going freely again. „Adrenalin off!“
So we dropped the anchor and Manuela The Mast Climber dived to take the last bits of rope off the propeller.
Now let’s talk about our neighbor, the Super Sailing Yacht which definitely deserves some capital letters. Her name is ‚Mondango 3’ and you can easily google it. The hull is 185 feet (56 meters) long. The 499 tons weight require some proper sails or a couple of thousand horsepower. 100 liters of fuel will only last for 10 nautical miles, according to the charter brochure. And this is the good news, my friends: You can charter it! The cost per high season WEEK starts at 224‘000 Euro, plus ‘a typical 25-50% on top’ of this for the operation expenses.
I‘m sure that some well known faces would have looked over Mondango’s reiling, would we have kissed her. But Yuana’s Mr. Rope Cutter was quicker, this time.
Atlantic accomplished. Twice. 