I was woken in the early hours by thundering footsteps along the deck. The snap shackle holding Scary Spice in place had popped open and required a quick getting down in darkness, which always add a little frisson of adrenalin, especially when the sock gets tangled. In my nightie in the safety of the saloon I kept watch, I can’t do too much, other than be ready to press the Man Overboard Button! Sporty Spice was finally put up and we all went back to bed.
I was on the early morning shift 6-9am and the sunrise was spectacular, as good as any sunset! We were heading a bit too far south and when Rowan got up he decided to tack, the boat did not want to move over so he put the engines on and there was a look of concern on his face, the port engine was behaving oddly and not powering the boat forward. With a bit more omph from the starboard engine we completed the tack. A little later Nevil went to set up his fishing line and discovered his reel had fallen overboard. It all became clear why the port engine was not working properly, the Gopro camera confirmed our suspicion, the fishing line was mangled around the prop and rudder! They had used the engines for about 45 minutes last night getting the sails down. We charged up the Snuba (our little battery operated diving air supplier) while we had a late breakfast and planned the rescue operation. We had to get PolePole to a complete stop, then we attached a big floating line to the boat for Nevil to hang on to, luckily he has brought his enormous flippers and was very happy to go under the boat. It all went according to plan and he was soon bringing back enormous amounts of tangled fishing line. He took Megan’s precious bush knife down as he could attach it to a thin piece of rope, and cut it all free. It really helped having the Snuba to be able to get right down under the boat. No wonder the engine couldn’t steer, it was a complete mangled twist of fishing line. Strangely one of the Arc boats got fishing line around their prop in the first week and Nevil had said how bad it is because if you run the engine too long with the line caught, the line actually melts into the prop and then your propellor is well and truly stuffed. Luckily the other boat got the line off ok and we were happy that Nevil had managed to get all the line off too, without any damage. Phew!
Enough excitement for one day, the boys got Ginger Spice (Parasail) up and we had a very comfy slow sail thereafter. The winds not getting to the low teens as predicted but hovering mainly around 10 knots or less. I even managed to join a relaxing yoga session on the front of the boat.
Another great sunset and a game of Farkle (dice game) was a good way to end the day. Supper was a mushroom stew (made from dried forest mushrooms) and truffle mash potato (plus pork steaks for us meat eaters) and an enormous salad. Amazingly we still have fresh salad ingredients when a lot of boats are reporting they have no fresh produce left except for potatoes and onions.
Everyone keeping an eye on Nevil under the boat
Evening ritual of sunset drinks (non alcoholic!) on the trampoline
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