Tropical storm Melissa is passing 300nm north of us and forecast to strengthen to a major hurricane affecting Jamaica in the next few days. We are safe in our hurricane hole despite the wind blowing hard. Our anchor is set rock solid in 10 metres of water; it’s been tested by strong winds since we arrived ten days ago.
How had they got so close behind without hitting us?
We swung immediately into action mode. Clothes on, lights on, engine on, instruments on, two way radio headsets on. On deck we found that the catamaran’s anchor chain was directly under our hull. Of course, the wind is blowing 20 knots plus, but at least there’s no rain.
David suggests that they release their chain snubber to allow them to drop back away from us but the owners are French and there’s a language difficulty. Hand signals and pointing help. They seem to have no idea of what to do so David takes command.
Our plan is to motor forward, lifting our chain allowing them to also drive forward and retrieve their chain and anchor. That was the plan until I’d pulled up 15m of our chain and find their anchor appear at the surface firmly hooked on our chain. I couldn’t free it, but with superhuman strength David leans over the bow and holds their 25kg anchor up while I lower our chain to free the tangle. We return to motoring forward being aware there is another innocent yacht now on our beam.
We lift another 15m of chain and finally turn to see the offending catamaran is turning and motoring away. They’re gone and we are safe.
Fortunately we didn’t have to lift our anchor off the seabed. Trusting it is still hard set, we let out the anchor chain to find we are now in shallower water and at least10m further back than we were. The only conclusion is that when their anchor snagged our chain they dragged us backwards. For now we are okay, we’ll re-anchor in daylight.
The catamaran disappears into the night and David sits in the cockpit until dawn monitoring our position. He doesn’t want us to drag onto the shore.
Next morning we’re tired, having breakfast when Frenchman and woman arrive in their dinghy. I thought they might have come check for any damage and to apologise, but no. They have come back to find their anchor and chain that they dumped! Apparently the skipper cut the line and let them go instead of trying to lift them. Now we going to help them find their anchor.
It takes until early afternoon. Their dinghy is tied to our stern while the skipper dives searching the sea bed ahead and around us. At last he surfaces with a line attached to the anchor under our bow. This tells us that they must only have had 30m of chain out in 10m depth (the standard ratio is 5:1 scope). Back in the dinghy Gwen and his girlfriend Maria try to haul it up and into their dinghy. When this doesn’t work David and I haul on the line to lift from our deck, mostly David heaving 25kgs plus chain and me tailing the line. We’re able to lower it into their dinghy leaving them to hand haul the remaining chain into their boat. When that is done they wave adios, depart and we are finally able to re-anchor back where we were a day ago.
The end of the story is Gwen and Maria invited us for drinks aboard Para Di of Guadeloupe as a thank you for all our help. It was entente cordiale with wine, Brittany galettes and Gwen playing his saxophone and accordion.
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