"Naah, if we had a hole in the boat we would definately feel it straight away!" was the reply the Captain had. The boat is made of steel and has an attitude that screams "Unsinkable".
So, we found a beautiful place offshore a small island, dropped the anchor and Lizz dissapered to the kitchen to prepare a late lunch. She was only gone for a minute and came running to deck " Giz! The salon is under water. We fucking have a hole in the boat" she screamed. Gotta add I love Lizz and her honest mouth, started calling her "Faul Mouthed Lizz".
As I ran downstair to witness the salon that contains over 2000 CD's, 1000 books, 500 DVD's , 46 inch LCD blu-ray TV, leather couches, dining table with 8 chairs, reading area, computer desk ect. were completely destroyed, and what was light enough were floating around. I frooze for a second. My brain was pumping out questions such as: " Are we sinking? Should I put the dinghy in the water, ready for evacuation? Where is Gypzy? What do I do?.." The Captain managed to cut me off my maze of panicing thoughts by yelling " Giz, find the translation for the "Bilge pump" NOW"
FUUUUCK! All my translations how to manage this ship was in the reading area in the LOWER SALON, probably floating around with unreadable words as we spoke. Without putting too much thinking into it, I ran down the stairs only quickly to feel the rather chilly water to my knees, as I took my last step on the stairs towards the reading area, I fell through what used to be a floor. I managed to grab hold of the fireplace and drag myself out of the water, soaked, stressed, in panic I tried to think where there could be a copy of the folder. I pushed myself back to the stairs and stormed wet to the brigde where I luckily found a copy.
"Bilge pump. Bilge pump. Bilge pump. WHAT THE FUCK IS A BILGE PUMP?" I ran to the Captain, who in shock tried to turn it on by guessing. I asked for more specific information about this pump and was answered in a confused voice. As I was flipping through the pages written in Swedish I noticed blood. My blood. I apparently hurt my foot when falling through the floor. Yet at that time, I had no time to pity myself so thought I just save that for later.
We managed to make the pump work. A pump that is exactly designed for this kind of emergency; to pump out water. We quickly realized we had to go to more shallow waters in case we did sink, so as the water kept rising in the salon, despite the bilge pump was on, we pulled up the anchor and sailed across to the small town South from us, Correlejo.
Here we met Jeff.
A somewhat different character. A drunk basically. American solo sailor who is, to be quite frank, pissed 24/7. He came sailing up on our side after we once again had dropped anchor, volunteering to help.
The Captain and Jeff sailed the dinghy to land to try get some help. Left behind was Lizz and I. Knowing there were nothing else to be done at this time, we had a cup of tea and a snack to quiet ourselves down. Lizz of course had to throw dirty jokes on the table while we sat on deck with the dogs watching the sunset. It was full moon with a quiet touch to what soon would be night.
An hour later Superman came along. Uken is his name. A firefigher. A beautiful firefighter. Thee only decent looking male Lizz and I had laid an eye on the past couple of months. We thanked the captain for bringing a hunk of a man back to the boat. In case we did sink and pulled a "Titanic" at least we had our Leo. But, demanded a bit of warning next time before inviting handsome men onboard so we, at least look a bit decent ourselves. It is amazing what the opposite sex does to women in stress..
Anyhow. Despite hunky men. "Guardia Civil" threw us a visit as well. Two more men, in uniform. Hmm.
So.
As the boys were working hard, pumping out water, flashing muscles in what quickly became wet t-shirts, Lizz eagerly walked around taking photos, for the logbook, of course. As well as feeding the alcoholic Jeff beer, the hero's water and trying to calm down the Captain using humor of "Faul Mouthed Lizz". The whole situation quickly became what could be a standup comedy. Think this is rather a well used method to handle such a situaton. A time where you are not quite sure what will happen, at least it put smiles on faces and laughter soon become contagious.
At 2 Am Lizz and I surrendered to bed. A time where the situation was more or less under control and our superhero's left, after 8 hours constantly pumping out water.
At the crack of dawn we had to wake up to dock the boat. At this hour everyone from the night before had already boarded the ship, to help bring in The Old Lady.
When docking you are given a specific task. Mine is always to throw and NOT MISS the robe to the person on land. As we got closer to shore I threw the robe in my best possible styles, elegantly managed to knock the poor Spanish guy on land, over with the heavy end of the robe. Anyhow, due to the fact we were still a few meters from the dock I had to try pull in the ship using the robe. May I once again add this boat weights 300 or so tons! So, as I pulled and as we got nowhere despite several veins were popping up in my forehead, my Superman of a firefighter came to my rescue, again. He gave me a smile and took over the robe and pulled the frigin ship in. At this stage I think my jaws dropped while admiring his triceps, and I might even have drooled a little when pulling a puppy face. This Lizz quickly noticed, told me to get my shit together and get serious while wearing a cheeky smile on her face. So I did.
Because of all harbour people, police and Guardia Civil were scared we would sink, we were allowed to stay in the harbour for the night while pumping out more water.
5 minutes and what would have counted 50 tourists surrounded the boat, curious about what had happened, where we came from, where we were going and my most popular question:
"How did you manage to be crew?".
My favourite answer was and always will be "Cause I can".
After a few drinks and relaxed time that night Lizz and I saw our chance to go to town, searching for tunes and a jolly good time which resulted in quite an entertaining night. Well deserved after such an unforgetable voyge.
We were to go diving the following day. Diving to fix what was 3 or so holes 30 feet from the bow. Jeff the Drinker was the man for this job. And did well yet better the more beer he got. So most is fixed, yet only temporarily.
We are now only taking in a tiny bit of water and will hopefully stay dry till we get to Las Palmas. Here the boat will be taken to dry dock to get proper fixed and ready to cross the Atlantic.
So we didn't pull a Titanic, which was quite in favor of us. We all came out of it rather well, a few bruises and what might be a broken toe and a cut. Not bad when you decide to pull stunts like that in an emergency. I really know how to draw attention to myself, don't I?
Superman, who the Captain is most grateful to, has accepted an invite to the party he will throw in Las Palmas in favor of my birthday, a few weeks from now. The Guardie Civil will not be able to make it, however has offered to escort us on our sailing trip there, in case we unexpectally start taking in water.
As you can imagine, the Captain is quite grateful his darling boat did not become a possesion of sea. As well as thanking his crew, more than enough daily for team effort and all the work we now put in, to fix and clean up the lower salon.
This "little" episode really made me realize exactly how much I love this boat and life onboard. I have thee best time on sea. With the horizon as a daily view, real inspiring people to talk to, educational books to read and lots to write about. I actually love it more than I thought I would, which is a tad crazy. Always wanted to go sailing but never did I think it was this frigin cool. And I haven't even seen nothing yet!
The favourite hours of the day is during the night. Night watches when sailing, go for 3 hours each. When we sailed from Morocco to Correlejo the sea was lighten up by the moon, beautiful quiet with hundreds of stars to dwell in. A time where you sob in thoughts in the hammock. Thoughts that make you feel everything is possible.
Shit happens, even when living The Dream. Fair enough I'd say!
Thank You
Hi there! What a great experience!
ReplyDeleteIf you like boats, you should go to the hotel in Uruguay by that means of transport!
Cheers