16 Oct. 12
By the next morning Lola’s pms and my mms had passed and we both felt slightly more positive. We went down to the foreshore again and found the owner of the Lagoon 500 catamaran. He turned out to be very helpful and told us he would catch our lines and assist us when we arrived. High tide was at two in the afternoon so we started the motors and headed towards the beach just after high tide. Nearing the beach I watched the depth sounder as the display read 0.2 metres, 0.1 metres, 0.0 metres, as we slowly reversed Yrumoar closer and closer to land. We had to drop the anchor a certain distance from the shore to hold the front of the boat steady. At the back we tied two lines onto two palm trees on the shore to hold the back steady. Fortunately we had lots of assistance and eventually we were safely tied up and waiting for the tide to go out.
Sitting in the cockpit looking at the shore I decided that we could go closer to land even though the depth sounder had read 0.0 metres, so I tried pulling Yrumoar closer using the lines whilst Lola released more of the anchor chain. I pulled as hard as I could but she refused to move closer. After a while I gave up and decided that she must be on the ground already, which is why she wouldn’t move. My mind was still processing this with something niggling in the back of my thoughts. I couldn’t place my finger on it but in the moment and during all the excitement decided to just forget about it and patiently wait for the tide to go out.
Whilst she was on land we decided that we would raise the water line by about a hundred millimetres and off course we had to replace the sail drive boots. We sat waiting in the cockpit for about two hours as the tide slowly went out. Eventually the tide went out and once again Yrumoar found herself sitting on her keels on dry land.
Working against the tides was very stressful and we found ourselves watching the water all the time as we worked, trying to move as fast as we can to get finished before the water came rushing back to reclaim the land. We soon discovered that we needed to get closer to the shore as we were still too deep and the tides didn’t allow enough time to get to the boots. At this point we realised that we would have to wait for the next high tide and then move Yrumoar closer in to shore.
It was after eight in the evening when we eventually called it a day and went to have a shower. High tide was at quarter past two in the morning and Lola set the alarm clock for two. We had a fitful sleep with Lola waking every few minutes saying “what was that?” “Did you hear that?” Then she would get out of bed and stomp all over the decks searching for something unknown and unseen, before returning a few minutes later just to repeat her process. We were already awake when the alarm eventually instructed us that we should get out of bed.
I thought it would be a simple process, obviously forgetting we were on a boat for a moment, when I told Lola that all we have to do is just release some more of the anchor chain and using the ropes tied to the palm trees, pull ourselves closer to the shore. We didn’t even have to wake the kids to help.
We walked onto the deck and released the anchor windlass waiting for the chain to slide out. Nothing happened. We looked at each other, then at the chain, then at each other again as if our looking would make something change. Then I opened the anchor locker to see if I could find out why the chain refused to move. Unbeknownst to us Doom had been sitting inside the anchor locker, sniggering and waiting patiently all this time for his moment of glory when he would suddenly pounce out and laugh straight in our faces. His moment had arrived and he pounced. I stared into the locker and found the problem. When we dropped the anchor earlier we had obviously dropped it a bit soon and had no more chain left. The rope that is tied to the chain to allow the anchor more warp was too thick to fit through the hole in the deck and was stuck in the hole.
Suddenly I remembered we were on a boat, nothing is ever easy. Lola went and woke the kids and we discussed our options. First we would lengthen the ropes that tied us to the palm trees. Then we would start the motors, in case things didn’t go according to plan, and using the anchor windlass pull ourselves towards the anchor whilst slowly releasing the ropes. Once we pulled ourselves far enough to lift the anchor we would pull ourselves backwards again using the ropes. When we got closer to shore we would drop the anchor again and continue to pull ourselves with the ropes allowing the anchor to bite and the chain to slide out until we were close enough to shore. It seemed simple enough. Again I obviously forgot we were on a boat. Okay in my defence it was just after two in the morning and I hadn’t had much sleep.
Lola worked the windlass, Rauen worked the starboard line, and I worked the port line. After a few minutes I traded places with Lola and asked Kyle to shine the torch onto the chain and tell me when he could see the anchor. As soon as Kyle shouted that he could see the anchor all hell broke loose. Yrumoar suddenly woke up and captured by the tide, no longer constrained by her anchor, drifted rapidly towards the fifty foot Lagoon parked quietly next to us. I was to busy working the windlass to notice that both Lola and Rauen were trying desperately to pull us back towards the shore and away from the Lagoon. By the time I realised Doom was laughing louder than ever and probably rolling on the floor with laughter it was to late. Yrumoar was on top of the Lagoon and Lola was trying desperately to push us away. Wump! I heard the crash as the two boats collided in the night. At this point I was running towards Lola, like a chicken without its head shouting at Rauen to pull harder on his rope. This was the moment when Lola, who usually panics, calmly told me to get to the helm and use the motors. I reacted as per her instruction and Yrumoar slowly motored away from the disaster. After we were a safe distance away from our neighbour I quickly ran onto the foredeck and dropped the anchor. Lola and Rauen pulled us closer to shore and suddenly all the panic and pandemonium was over.
Once we were a bit more settled we looked at the time. It was four in the morning so we decided to open the gas and warm the kettle. Sending the kids back to bed we stayed up the rest of the night waiting for the tide to go out so that we can continue with our repairs. When the tide had gone out far enough I got off the boat and went to the bathroom. On my way I found Jaco, the owner of the Lagoon and we checked the damage on his boat. Fortunately it was only a small gelcoat scratch and easily repaired. Yrumoar also only suffered the same amount of damage and was fixed quickly using epoxy.
We woke the kids at about seven and all of us rushed around under the boat again watching the water all the time as we attempted to finish. Replacing the boots was a complete failure so we decided to paint antifoul paint inside the holes instead, leaving the boots off until the next time we have to haul the boat. There just wasn’t enough time between the tides to do the job properly and we even had to put the propellers back on whilst the paint on them was still wet.
During the next high tide we left the shore and motored back to the walk-on, not quite as satisfied with our achievements as we would like to have been.
We are still waiting for the club to transfer the money for the sale of our walk-on. Our new 1000 watt inverter has arrived and I need to install it. We are also waiting for two more solar panels that we hope solves our power problems, or is it our lack of power problems. Our uncomfortable bed situation is also still literally a pain in the back even though we have tried two different new mattresses.
The feeling of excitement for this trip is still eluding us and neither Lola nor I can find any real motivation, still somehow believing that we will probably never actually leave.
Raising the waterline has made Yrumoar look better in the water, a bit less like a boat busy sinking, even though we know that we should actually remove weight from her, instead off just painting the waterline higher. However catamarans don’t have much capacity to carry weight and a cruising catamaran lands up being overloaded with extra batteries, solar panels and all other cruising requirements that most day sailors don’t need, so we will just have to live with this reality. Hopefully her sailing ability isn’t overly affected.
Earlier this evening I made three phone calls. The first call was to my son Keagan and the conversation went something like this. “hey dad.” “hey my boy” and the formalities were over so Keagan continues. “Well let me catch you up with what has happened in my life since we last spoke.” He then explains in great detail with gusto and humour everything that has happened to him making sure not to forget anything and keeping me in touch with his life. He does this so perfectly that I have to wonder if he had practised and prepared for this. But no, that is just Keagan, my boy. A friend of ours, Sam, explained him so perfectly one evening when she said. “he is like James f**king Bond.”
My second call was to my daughter Amy. She didn’t answer the call and whilst the phone was dialling in my ear I could just imagine her. Standing in her small student apartment. Listening to a strangely familiar sound. Wondering what the sound was, and why it sounded so familiar. Slowly recognising the sound and realising that the sound sounded extremely similar to her cellphone ring tone. Then suddenly an epiphany, my phone, my phone, its ringing, its ringing, oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! Where is it? Must find it before it stops. Probably never find it once it stops. Then she finds the phone.
But I have already hung up.
Now Amy looks at the phone and sees my number. Being a student and being Amy she has no airtime to call me back. So she decides to contact me telepathically. Staring at her cell she lets her mind travel past the stars and to the moon. Then bouncing it back down to earth she manages to locate me here on the boat.
So I make the third call.
Amy answers with “Hello” sounding a little uncertain as to whom may be on the other side of that phone. Then I say. “hey famous” and she replies, “hey daddy” then I ask how she is and she replies with fine. Then I ask what she has been doing and she replies with, studying for her semester tests. The conversation is a bit slow at this time because her mind is obviously still travelling back from the moon and I think it made a quick stop over at Jupiter to pick up something she may have forgotten there the last time she passed by.
After a few seconds it lands and I get all of Amy. She tells me her plans and that she isn’t quite ready for student life to be over. She tells me lots more but I don’t want to share all of it so will keep it to myself.
They are so different, Keagan and Amy. Keagan is cool calm collective and witty. And Amy, well she is sitting on the moon and playing with the stars. I wish I had more airtime and could call them more often.
