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| Being Crew on the sail to Mustique |
On Monday 20th we decided to head to Mustique.
Andrew wasn’t that keen on the whole private island thing but many of our
friends have raved about it. So with low swell and very light winds we decided
to take a little trip up there. It costs EC$200 and you can stay for 3 days
only on a mooring managed by the Mustique Company. It’s renowned for being a
rolly spot but has sparkly clear water, lovely beaches, great walks and birds
plus of course Basil’s Bar right on the beach in Britannia Bay.
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| Skipper on the helm |
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| Sailing into Britannia Bay, Mustique |
We had one of the best sails from Tobago Cays up to Mustique
in a lovely easterly wind about 12-15 knots and tacked all the way into the
bay. We arrived about 4pm and grabbed a mooring close in out of the swell. We
were greeted by Shean, who relieved us of the payment and gave us a quick run
down on the island. We took a swim to check out the surroundings if the wind
changed direction and dived on the mooring, as usual. It looked fine so we
settled in for an incredible BBQ cheeseburger (I made bread buns on the sail up
– hero sailor chick!). Then we rushed off to check out Basil’s Bar for a rum
punch at sunset. Basil’s was pretty cool, however we heard that on Wednesday
they were holding the last of their famous ‘Jump Up’ nights as it was closing
for renovation until December….. The staff were telling us this was going to be
a really great night, so we booked a table for dinner on Wednesday and went
back to Askari where the rum cocktails were a bit less than EC$30.
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| Our view in Mustique |
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| Lunch on board in Mustique |
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| Check out the slide on this super yacht?! |
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| Basil's Bar |
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| Rum Punch in Mustique |
Tuesday morning Andrew woke feeling a bit unwell so took the
morning out to chill, while I did some nice paddle boarding and then went
ashore to attend to some admin. In the afternoon A was feeling much better so
we took a hike up to the north of the island and along the beach around
Britannia Bay. The island really is very beautiful, lovely trees, well kept
garden areas and perfect beaches; the villa owners all drive around in moke’s
or golf carts, often smoking a fat cigar in pressed pastel linen – like
something out of a cheesy movie… We however really didn’t like all the signs
and everyone was a bit too friendly making it feel kind of false. We did like
the fact that no one comes to your boat and it is very quiet. We enjoyed another
great BBQ on board Askari and were about to settle in for a movie when we
noticed the wind had changed and picked up a bit to about 15 knots from the
West…. hmmm strange….. it had been about 5 knots all day and the forecast was
less than 10knots.
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| Bakery and Boutique in Mustique |
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| Exploring Mustique |
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| Britannia Bay |
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| Sunset on Tuesday night in Mustique |
About 8.30pm we turned on the instruments, put the TV away
and monitored for a while; we were directly stern to the beach and a gentle
chop was starting to build. We noticed all the people who were on board boats
around us were starting to do the same, lights on, AIS on, etc, etc. The
moorings were all occupied and there were two super yachts in the bay; we could
see some boats fairly close together looking a bit concerned. On other boats
the crews were obviously ashore for dinner as they were in complete darkness.
Some big clouds passed overhead and the wind picked up to
20knots and occasionally more – we continued to monitor and meanwhile I stowed
the boat just in case this didn’t pass quickly. The dingy was already on the
davits but we put the belly-bands on and secured the paddle board, put away ornaments
(yes I know we are a sailing boat but it is our home), put covers on the tables
and stowed the coffee machine, etc. We had our full deck lights on and breakers
for the engine and bow thruster engaged just in case. We double checked our
mooring lines for chafe and talked about the prospect of going to sea, as the
waves built. We decided it was really just uncomfortable where we were and not
dangerous as we had started to see the wind drop to under 15 knots for the
first time in a while, meaning the sea should ease too before long…..
It was just after this at about 9pm I saw our bow fall off
to one side, for a second I thought it was a wind shift, as Andrew noticed the
depth beneath our keel had dropped from 2 metres to 1.5. He shouted ‘we’ve
gone’, started and engaged the engine immediately. I ran to the bow, we were
still attached to the mooring but we had definitely drifted backwards. By the time I got to the lines we were
aground and Andrew was using full throttle to try and drive us forward but it was
no good we were stuck hard. The waves were pounding us - I dropped the anchor
but with no scope it was not doing anything meaningful. Andrew was able to keep
the boat straight into the wind/waves with engine and bow thruster whilst also
calling a PAN PAN on the Radio. He asked me to organise lifejackets, our grab
bag and valuables in a dry bag. This was in case the situation got worse and he
couldn’t hold her, we might have had to abandon ship. No response came from the
PAN PAN so Andrew called MAYDAY, then we screamed to the charter catamaran on
the buoy next to us to PLEASE HELP US (never in my life have I said those words
with such meaning). The Dreamyachtcharter skipper, Yannie, jumped in his tender
and came directly to us along with Yan from another boat out of Martinique.
Andrew had finally raised Mustique Security Patrol, who
relayed to get Mustique Moorings out on the water too. Meanwhile, the amazing
Yannie and Yan took our bow anchor and 50/60 metres of chain into their tenders
and drove off into the bay. It was a really hard job getting the anchor, which
weighs 33kg, into a bucking dinghy with Yannie’s head underneath it. I let out
more chain as they drove, meanwhile Andrew was trying to explain to the
Mustique people where we were and they needed to come and help us. The noise
was just terrible, a grinding noise that went straight through the boat, the
rigging crashing on every wave that hit us, the sheer feeling of powerless came
over me – our beautiful boat was being smashed and it was taking so long to get
the anchor set (it probably wasn’t but it felt like it). We had been
snorkelling this area and there was a fair amount of coral, I was so scared.
Anchor deployed and tight on the windlass, Yannie and Yan
came back to help drive Askari off the beach. She still wouldn’t budge and the
grinding noise continued, so next Andrew had the boys tried to heel her over
with a halyard from the top of the mast, again full throttle and full windlass
to no effect. Then finally about 10pm Mustique Patrol arrived and took the halyard
in their big rib. On the first attempt the angle wasn’t right and they were pulling
up forward with the mast. Then they were able to drive directly at a right
angle to us and Askari leaned far over with her toe rail in the water, the two
charter captains in their tenders on each side, Andrew on the engine and me on
the windlass, slowly she eased forward about half a metre and then gained
momentum, oh my goodness what an amazing feeling we were free, free oh thank
you whoever is out there. The two captains cheered, I wound the anchor in and
we were able to drive out of the mooring field into deep water and anchor – 80
metres of chain there was no way we were going anywhere!
Safely anchored we had a big drink of water while Andrew checked
the bilges and rudder post for any water ingress – none thankfully. Then he
took a dive torch and his fins/mask and jumped in to see what damage had been
done. The swell was still rolling into the bay so I was quite nervous of him
being down there in the dark at about 11pm, but we were still lit up like a
xmas tree. He came up a reported it didn’t look as bad as we thought but needed
to check in better light in the morning. Then Shean from Mustique Moorings came
out to see if we were okay and get our details, whilst Jan the skipper on Yacht
Mojeka, came over with a huge pump; this was a petrol driven pump we could use
if we got a leak beyond that which our bilge pumps could handle.
We barely slept a wink that night and Andrew was up at 6am
back in the water taking photos. Shean came over too with his scuba tank and
took a look. It was amazing, the only visible damage is to the trailing edge of
the rudder and scaring of the rudder and keel. The rudder was still working
fine with no play in it and is secured by a huge bronze ‘shoe’, which was just
polished by the beach action. Everyone we have spoken to since has said that
their boats would have lost the rudder in this situation – thankfully we have a
really strong boat.
Shean then went and got the mooring and brought it over to
us, a link in the chain had cleanly opened at a weld, it was under the mooring
in an area we could never have seen when we dived on it. Shean did say that
they have never had an issue with a mooring coming free in Mustique and all the
other 29 boats sat firm throughout the night as the weather passed through – I guess
we were just very unlucky?! Andrew went to thank everyone that had helped and
have a conversation with with the Mustique Harbour Master, while I prepared
Askari to leave. We were both very shaken the next day and I needed a lot of
hugs.
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| Broken Chain Link |
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| Shean shows us the faulty mooring |
Brad off the charter boat next to us came over to see if we
were okay while Andrew was ashore. They had been at the fire fly restaurant and
returned to the dinghy dock to find surf pounding it; they managed to get into
the dinghy and then couldn’t get onto their boat circling it for a hour before
they managed to get on at mid-ships. They had come to see if they could help
just as we were getting off and he relayed the scene to me – I nearly burst
into tears. We have since heard of two yachts that were lost in Martinque,
horror stories of trying to up anchor after breaking the snubber line in St
Lucia and a pretty awful night for nearly everyone we have spoken to from this
terrible weather event that was not forecast.
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| Thank you Yannie! |
On Wednesday we motored the short distance back to Bequia to
clear out of St Vincent and the Grenadines, then decided we would stay
overnight and leave for St Lucia after some sleep. We had a calm night anchored
on the West side of Admiralty Bay, out of the swell that was still rolling in,
and then had a beautiful motor sail up to St Lucia on Thursday; monitoring
Askari every half an hour. We arrived in Rodney Bay about 5pm to be helped onto
the dock by our good friends Katharina and Friedl – big hugs, a bottle of rose
and dinner on board their boat – just what we needed.
Now the work starts to assess, plan and fix our beautiful
girl. Andrew immediately sent pictures to Oyster for their view and spoke with
Y- Yacht, our insurance broker. Both were so sorry to hear what had happened to
us and assured us of their support – it’s so great to have such a wonderful
team behind us and I know we’ll bounce back.
We have reflected on things we would have done differently –
I think the main one is we should have left when the wind picked up, before the
sea state changed. We certainly think if we were not so prepared things could
have been a lot worse and we will sail on with our adventures.
