Two steps forward, one back

We chickened out when it came to robbing a bank.  Neither of fancied the idea of 15 years in the Port Louis Penitentiary.  But it must be "Pick on Calypso" year as things just continue going wrong.

The latest?......we almost sank!  Paul was busy in the engine room trying to fix the fuel sight glass when the cockpit drain connection sheared.  The two cockpit drains are the largest through-hull fittings on our boat.  When it broke, a humongous amount of water gushed into the engine compartment at a hell of a rate.  Not good!  Paul had closed off the stopcock but this had obviously broken below it.  I grabbed the largest bungs I could find while he dashed to get his mask and snorkel, jumped overboard and hammered one into the hole from the outside.  

This helped but the bilge pump had to work continuously to keep pace.  Still not good.  We'd run out of underwater epoxy putty so he ran around the marina and found another chap who was able to bring some over to help out.  After a major concerted effort, the leak slowed to a medium trickle which allowed the pump to cope.  Phew!  We now have no choice, we have to haul out again and urgently.  As though we didn't have enough expense coming our way, now this.

We immediately called the boat yard who are trying to sort something out but, at this stage, they don't have sufficient chocks to place us on the hard.  It's Sunday so we have to hope everything survives the night and try to persuade them to haul us and leave us in the sling for a day or two to give us time to fit new ones.

It never a rains but it pours!

Progress?

 

Two weeks have gone by and we've done a lot of talking and research but, so far, very little has been accomplished.

We've received a couple of quotations for a new sail; one well over five times the price of the one we had made in South Africa and shipped to New Zealand five years ago!  The rigger has spent some time going over all that needs to be done but the size of cabling we require is currently unavailable in Mauritius so that would have to be imported from France (think £$€¥)!

On the positive side, there is a chap here who has a spare second-hand Profurl exactly like the one we had (who the hell carries a spare furling system around with them??) and he will sell it for a reasonable figure.  We'd still have to get a few extra tube extrusions as our forestay is four metres longer.  In addition, we need some things called link plates made of stainless steel which are no longer available and too thick to be made up here so we have to rethink how that's going to work.  The immediate option seems to be to straighten and reinforce our existing ones.  Not the perfect solution but.........

Before we can do any final measurements though, Paul had to remove the bow roller plate, the huge stainless fitting right on the pointy end that holds the forestay and feeds the anchors.  It got bashed badly from the tow vessel.  He worked at that for well over two days with a lot of blood, sweat and foul language, trying to wedge his body into the tiny cavity up front to get to the nuts underneath.  I chose to steer clear lest I copped it too.  

Nevertheless, he got it off and lugged it all the way to the boatyard a couple of kilometres away.  It must weight at least 30 kilos so not an enviable task.  A day later, it had been straightened and polished, he lugged it back again and is now busy fitting it back into place; the blood, sweat and foul language is back in place too.

This picture shows the bow roller waiting to be fitted back into position as well as the temporarily repaired hole where our Sampson post was ripped out.  Not pretty but an amazing job when you realise that we really were in the middle of nowhere at the time.

In the meantime, I've been running around with paperwork trying to organise something acceptable in order to open a new bank account in the UK. Ha!   The new banking rules and regulations do not cater for the likes of us liveaboards.  Proof of passports? no problem. Proof of residence eg utility bill? not a chance!  Proof of property ownership doesn't cut the mustard either, they want proof of where you are resident NOW!  Let me see, "err hum well today, coordinates 20° 09,621' S, 57° 29,826' E, tomorrow, who knows.  There's a certain level of frustration creeping in here.  The bank suggested we get a letter from the Port Captain to say that we were here living aboard but we had the misfortune of having to deal with the Assistant Port Captain at first.  We had hree highly aggravating and unrewarding trips back and forth until we finally got to meet the real Port Captain who was an absolute pleasure and couldn't have been more helpful.  Voilá, letter done!

The friend who originally got us interested in the idea of sailing so many years ago, Clive, just happened to be here on holiday so he, his wife and daughter travelled down from their resort to spend the day with us. It was great to meet up again and it was an opportunity to ask a few of the thousand or so questions we have of life in South Africa since we departed.  They obviously still enjoy life there which is encouraging.

The rigger is hoping to come again tomorrow morning to take the final measurements and we will be off to rob a bank to pay for all of this.  If we don't make it to Madagascar, please send goody packages to Port Louis prison.

PHOTO ALBUM:

Lunch with Sharon, Leya, Paul and Clive

The fresh produce market is outstanding

And souvenirs galore!

The most enormous patty pans I've ever seen

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse...........

It did!  

We left Rodrigues for Mauritius at midday with 20 - 25 knots straight up the backside which gave us 7 knots on average over fairly lumpy seas.  We reefed right down as we didn't need to go any faster to cover the 350nm to Port Louis in a reasonable timeframe.

And then it happened.  Half way through the first afternoon, our forestay, roller furler and Genoa, broke away from the connection to the deck and flew out in the wind, still attached to the top of the mast.  It was a severely dangerous missile in those conditions and as it shook and writhed, the foils for the roller furler started breaking apart shredding the sail in the process.

To cut an incredibly long and hair-raising story short, it took us 24 hours to finally get the remains tied alongside but we were unable to get the sail down.  We cut off the entire foot but the bulk of the flogging sail caused untold hassles with the steering so we hove to and finally managed to winch it forward to get the thrashing canvas away from doing anymore damage aft.  That lasted all of 20 minutes before it too, came away from the top of the mast held only by the halyard, wreaking havoc as it pummeled against the stays and main.  We were terrified that we'd lose the entire rig so Paul tied two other halyards forward along with the inner forestay, in order to protect the mast.  All this in horrendous seas and near to gale force winds.

In the end, we had no choice but to cut away the forestay, foils and sail so we watched with sheer devastation as many thousands of dollars sank into the sea!  How we're ever going to afford to replace it is way beyond us at the moment.  This was all obviously as a result of the damage we incurred while being towed in Sumatra but still, we're in one piece; we now just need to find that magic wand.  Thanks again to Zorana who were about 20 miles ahead of us; they too hove to for the night to stand by in case they could offer any assistance.

The rest of the trip was slower and, fortunately, uneventful.  Once we'd gone through the check-in procedures in Port Louis, the decision was made to go into the marina where we believe all sorts of repair facilities are be available starting with a rigger.  As soon as I can get internet up and running, we'll be on a search for new sails and a furling system too.

In all our years a of cruising, we never had anything really serious go wrong until now, just at the point where we've almost completed our circuit.  Our experiences in the last few months have started to wipe the gilt off the gingerbread a tad so dear Neptune and All, we've had our fair share; leave us alone now to get home without more drama please.