It was a day . . . .
We had a very quiet and calm night. During the previous evening we keep commenting to each other about the lack of rocking and rolling. Rick kept saying this is the way it’s supposed to be.
We were up early and pulled the anchor by 7. We had been told at the chart briefing that we needed to be at the Aride Island, the bird sanctuary island, by 9AM. The island was only 5 miles away, but we figured we’d get there early and have breakfast while we waited for someone to pick us up and take us to the island We motored over there and arrived around 8. The anchorage was unprotected, which we knew going in, and was quite rough. I was up at the anchor and Rick was back at the wheel. We have headphones so we can communicate while anchoring.
The anchor was down and we were waiting to make sure we were stuck. The boat was being bounced around by the wind and the waves. There was particular strong “bounce” that vibrated through the boat. I said “what was that?” and Rick replied “it was a wave”. Several minutes later (I am still up front and Rick is at the wheel), he saids “Oh my God, the back of the dinghy fell off and the motor is in the water”.
I returned to the back of the boat and found that to be the case. The dinghy has two inflated sides and a hard crossbar or slat across the back where the motor resides, normally. The slat was folded into the water and the motor, luckily, was still attached but completely submerged. You can imagine there were some explicatives flying. We believe that the dinghy got caught under the swim platform. A wave must have slammed the boat onto the back of the dinghy and the crossbar broke free from the sides and was only attached to the dinghy by the floor of the dinghy. Here are some pictures to explain the various boat terms
Ok what to do now? Here’s what the dinghy looked like
For those of you wondering, we couldn’t just tow the dinghy as it was because it wouldn’t make it. Our first act was to get the swim platform partially up to avoid damaging the swim platform or further damaging the dinghy. Next we were able to get a rope through one of the handles on the back side of the dinghy. This was not easy because the swim platform was angled up and the boat and the dinghy were bouncing around in rough seas with the motor dangling in the water. We were able to secure the dinghy parallel to the back of the boat. At this point we considered getting into the dinghy to thread a rope through a loop of rope that was attached to the motor bracket. We decided this plan was too dangerous because the back of the boat could again slam down and hit the head of the person in the dinghy. Plan B, call the base and ask for help. We got hold of the base and they told us we were too far away and we needed to just lift the 50 pound motor, which was submered, onto the boat. Easy to say from the office. When Plan B fails and there’s no Plan C, return to Plan A.
So I donned a life jacket and got in the dinghy while Rick sat on the swim platform and held the dinghy out with his feet. Laying on my stomach I was able to get a spare rope through the rope loop (which was in the water) on the motor bracket and tie it off. I quickly got back on the swim platform. Next job move the dinghy to the side of the boat so we could use the block attached to the bimini. Again not an easy task but we accomplished it.
From there we used the block and the winch to raise the motor. But then it was clear that the weight of the motor was going to damage the bimini frame so we lowered the motor back into the water and attached the block to a stanchion. Rick was at the winch and I was able to drag the motor onto the swim platform. VICTORY!!!
We ended up putting the motor into one of the compartments in the cockpit and moved the dinghy back to its normal position behind the boat (with the swim platform up!)
To add insult to injury, there wasn’t any other boat at Aride when we left around 10 so we think that there might not have been island tours that day. Ouch!
We motored back to the base where we anchored. Here’s a picture of the base from where we were anchored
.They brought us a new dinghy and motor and took the old ones away.
We are hopeful that they do not charge us for dinghy or the motor. Rick is pretty sure that the dinghy can be repaired and that the motor will start once it dries out. We sat at anchor for a little while just taking a few deep breaths. As we always say, something will happen, and hopefully that’s the only something of this trip.
We motored back to Anse Lazio where we relaxed and had a quiet evening.