Shortly before writing this morning’s blog I noticed a sailing vessel entering the Boca. Even at that time I thought it was a bit early in the day but I figured they knew where they were going. After sending the blog and in the middle of responding to emails I took a look around again and realized the boat hadn’t got too far and the sails were flogging. Normally I like to leave the VHF on all the time but the local Venezuelan fisherman have a habit of chatting on the emergency channel so we turn it off overnight. Just in case we would be hailed I turned on the VHF to channel 16 and almost immediately received a mayday call from the vessel that had just entered the boca. They had run aground. The Frenchwoman, Ude, felt they’d made a terrible mistake and requested our help to tow them off. Her partner, Brice, was also on his way over in the dinghy to request help directly.
Unless things got desperate it would be foolhardy to bring another boat close to the reef so I offered to take our spare anchor/rode and help winch them off the reef. Gathering the anchor, our portable depth sounder, my facemask and snorkel and a hand held VHF I took off in the dinghy to assist in their getting off the reef. I left Helen to report the situation to the soon to be starting coconut telegraph just in case anyone else was nearby and could lend a hand if it was required.
Once I reached their boat, Alofa, I could see things could certainly be worse. They were upright and away from any swell which could push them into shallower water. On the other hand the wind had pushed them sideways a bit and there was no way back out. Using the anchor seemed the best bet. We set it at an angle to the boat and brought the line aboard and onto a winch. We winched the anchor in but unfortunately it didn’t hold. We tried again with same result. We realised we needed to get it lodged on a rock, despite the coral on it, and Brice then thought setting it more to the side to shift the boat sideways to create a clearer run backwards. Around this time I had managed to call Helen to check our chart plotter and see what the tides were doing. Fortunately the tide (all one foot of it) was coming in so we didn’t have to panic and rush.
This time the anchor set and we were able to move Alofa around a little. I made my second splash into the water to check around the boat. I was concerned that just behind the bow was rubbing on a rock. I was in favor of using their anchor to pull the boat off the rock and wait for the tide to rise a few inches. Brice was more concerned about the possibility of continued damage while remaining on the reef. His boat, his call. Rather than lose my anchor I asked them for a fender to tie to the end of the rode so we could retrieve it when they let go. I offered to stay in the water and give the signal to move when the rudder was off the reef and to check for a clear passage out. On the signal Brice gunned backwards. I had to swim out of the way and grab hold of our dinghy which was tie to their boat. He committed to the action which was a gamble as he missed a large rock by just a few feet which could have snapped the rudder if he hit it.
The good news is they got off the reef all ok. We agreed they would come over to where we were anchored and anchor themselves. Once there they checked there underside. The bottom of the keel and rudder is damaged but not badly. They’ll survive. We invited them over for coffee so they could unwind from their experience which they accepted.
What makes this story ever more interesting is that Los Roques is the location Brice had been dreaming of for a long time. This was *the* destination. They had arrived earlier than expected and in their eagerness sailed through the boca far earlier than they should. They were confused (perhaps complicated by lack of sleep) as to why they couldn’t see the middle reef. They found it all right. On our boat, with the sun higher, they could see the difference the light made – all those shades of blue. And brown. Brown is where you don’t go.
Right now we’ve moved further up the reef and Alofa are alongside us again. We’ll probably see them a few more times over the next few days.
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