6 July Another broken line

We're now back in the Saints on a mooring. We came in from Pointe-a-Pitre yesterday afternoon to find many empty mooring balls. It's July, a month into official hurricane, and most boats have left for ports north and south so lots of choice for those still here. We'll be leaving the eastern Caribbean ourselves within the next week; we have booked a place in the marina in Bonaire from 14 July for three months.

low season

But, back to this afternoon...we're sitting down below watching the British Grand Prix. Outside there is the occasional gust of wind that snatches at the boats.

At an exciting point in the race there's a gust, a tug and bang! What??? We jump up, race on deck to find we are drifting away from where we should be. The mooring line has snapped! What is happening to us that lines keep breaking?

Action mode adopted. I move to the helm and turn on the engine. David goes forward to retrieve our mooring lines together with the snapped line and thimble which are still attached. Less boats around works in our favour as there is room to drift back without hitting another boat. David clears the potential propeller catching lines from the water. When he has recovered them I can steer us out of the mooring field to regroup and assess where we're going next.

The general rule is that shit happens at night. We got lucky today – on board and daylight.