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After prayers, tears and hugs with The Midence Family and Jim & Julie, we weighed anchor and headed out of the bight. Dave on 'Macy' gave us the farewell blow on his horn! A tradition followed when boats arrive or leave: a large conch shell is often blown. Friends we met on other boats waved goodbye and Jack and Annie sped around Kilifi doing 'donuts' around us. It was sad to say our goodbyes after spending almost 6 glorious weeks in Guanaja, but great to fill Kilifi’s sails once again and get underway.
Being at sea is an exhilarating experience; it’s getting close to land that is the stressful part of it. The journey took us around 6 hours and as we approached our destination and started taking down sails we spotted a young man in a cuyaco (a small, rather unstable canoe) bailing frantically. The route we were taking in was marked with a post and charted to have plenty of water below us, but as we neared this guy, who by now was sinking fast with his cuyaco, we made a fatal error. (Boat first, people second is a rule which is hard to follow, but vital for our safety.)
As we approached, and I was getting ready to throw a rescue rope we grounded Kilifi hard up on a bank. The water had gone from 15 to 4 feet in an instant. The situation reminded me of a faithful dog owner venturing out on the ice to save their stranded pooch, risking their own life and limb, and meanwhile the dog escapes unharmed.
It is important to keep calm in these situations. We’ve been aground a couple of times already in Kilifi. (There is a saying: There are only 2 types of cruisers; those that have been aground and those that are going to be.) But this was by far the worst we have been in. Kilifi draws 5’7” and we were in 4’1” of water! Being aground in sand means that usually a boat can be dragged off, but we were on sand and rock and the wind was blowing 25 knots.
After hailing for assistance on the radio, our friends turned up and we tried dragging Kilifi back the way she had came. 9 tons of steel being dragged into the wind by two dingys was not working. I remember saying to Peter “PRAY” and he replied “I AM!” Meanwhile the young men were busily raising their cuyaco and once again bailing it, observing our dilemma with interest.
It was time for drastic action. We have seen Kilifi survive hurricane force winds so we know she is tough, but we have also recently heard of boats going aground and being pounded so violently with waves and winds that they have to be abandoned.
A sailboat with one hull (a monohull) can and does, lean over at an extreme angle of 45 degrees or more, her keel is weighted with lead so that she is balanced and should a wave knock her down, she should come straight back up the right way. So that’s what we did. Dave and Per had hold of one of our halyards (a rope at the top of our mast) and motored their dingy out, slowly pulling us over at an angle, putting Kilifi on her side to bring her keel up and get us into deeper water. It was a scary experience, we could hear items down below sliding and crashing around as Kilifi was pulled over on her side. Water started pouring in over the sides and we shouted at the guys to stop pulling for fear of flooding her. She had moved a little way, but we were still hard aground so we had to try once again. By now we had two more helpers pushing Kilifi from the other side in their dingys and we put the washboards in (the wooden slats which go in the entrance to the cabin), incase we started flooding the cockpit. Kilifi was leaned over at a scary angle of about 75 degrees as she was blown, pulled and pushed over the lip of the sand bank and then to our relief, quickly righted herself once again. A quick inspection of her bottom, safely at anchor shortly afterwards, revealed some scrapes and scratches but no real damage – a testament to her strength.
What a way to end 2005! I keep saying cruising is a mixture of highs and lows. We were invited onboard a luxury motor yacht called ‘Odyssey’ that evening, to have a much needed drink and to thank all those who helped us. We didn’t see in the New Year though as we were mentally and physically exhausted and collapsed by cruisers midnight; 9pm!
added by Claire on 04-01-2006, 19:03 GMT
Half a year
29-08-2007, 01:20 GMT
First 4 months
20-06-2007, 15:22 GMT
Its a girl!!!!!
23-02-2007, 18:00 GMT
Gringo Bay
Leg 2 / Day 76
N15°45.21', W088°50.49'
27-01-2006, 18:00 GMT
The Rio Dulce then becomes a large lake called 'El Gofete' meaning The Little Gulf. There are many b...
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