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Looking back at the protected harbor of Luperon.
You can't even see the entrance! |
Storyville
set out from Luperon to sail (really to motor, or if we were lucky, motor sail)
to Boqueron on Wednesday, November 7th at about 7:15 AM. We figured that it would take us 48 hours if
we didn’t run into any trouble, so we planned to make Boqueron by Friday
morning. There were five other boats
with us, Pipe Muh Bligh, Island Dream, Illusions, Mojo and Hornblower Too. It was a beautiful and calm morning, the seas
were flat and there was almost no wind, just the conditions that we were
looking for in order to have a smooth trip to our destination.
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| Some of our buddy boats on a smooth sea |
The water
was deep blue and beautiful, the sun was shining and we were feeling great just
to be back on the move. A small Marlin
even did a dance just for us, leaping out of the water over and over again, at
least 10 times! That inspired me to get
the fishing gear out and try to catch something (hopefully not a Marlin, that
bill looks sharp!). I had been trolling
a couple of lines for several hours when we heard from our friends John and
Barbara on Mojo that they had reeled in a Mahi Mahi , then not long after, they
announced that they had caught a Tuna.
Now John was just bragging! I
started changing out lures and getting frustrated, we got a couple of hits but
nothing on the line that whole day. The
next morning I set the lines again and several hours later, I finally got a hit
and a fish was on the line! It took
about 10 minutes to get my beautiful Wahoo on board. Unfortunately he got tangled in the other
line that I was trolling and he was pretty cut up by the time I got him on
board, plus we had a nice mess to untangle while dealing with a flopping,
bloody fish at the same time. We persevered
and managed to get him aboard and filleted in no time. He was a nice fish, but the only one that I
caught on the whole trip. Oh well,
better than nothing.
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| Wahoo! |
After all
that fish excitement, I needed a nap! I had a good couple of hours sleep and
the first thing that I saw when I woke up and poked my head out of the
companionway was a large pod of dolphins.
We decided to circle Storyville around and have a closer look as they
were all hanging out on the surface.
When we got a closer look we realized that they were much larger than
any other dolphins that we had ever seen and from what we could see of them,
they were shaped a little differently. They
also were behaving a little differently than dolphins, just hanging out on the
surface. We could see that there was a
baby in the group. After we got back
underway, we started talking about how big they were and different from other
dolphins that we have seen. We have a
book on board – The Sierra Club Handbook of Whales and Dolphins. It really came in handy for a little
research, it didn’t take us long to realize that we had just seen a pod of
Pilot Whales. Cool!
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| Best photo I could get of the Pilot Whales |
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| Pilot Whale - Not my photo (taken from internet) |
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| Kamakazie Flying Fish! |
On my second
watch on the first night, it must have been about 2:00 in the morning. I’m just sitting in the cockpit minding my
own business. Keeping watch for ships
and other boats, when suddenly, something hits the back of my arm. I start looking around only to discover that
I have been hit by a flying fish! There
he was just flopping around in the cockpit, gasping for air! I managed to toss
him back overboard and he left me his fishy, slimy smell as a reminder of his
presence. We saw many flying fish during
the day and not one ever hit our boat, but it’s a different story at night. I guess they can’t see so well. I think we ended up with five or six of them
on board. Some we saved and some we didn’t
even know were there until they surprised us with their stiff little bodies the
next morning. One even landed down in
the galley and flopped around there until I managed to get him back overboard! Flying fish are amazing to see. It’s incredible how far they can literally
fly over the waves. It’s awesome to see
a school of 30 or 40 of them appear out of the water and soar over the waves
only to disappear back into the ocean.
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| Beautiful sunset on in the Mona Passage |
At this
point we were about 12 hours from Boqueron and everything was looking
good. We watched a beautiful sunset
while we ate a nice dinner in the cockpit. Just one more overnight and we would
arrive early in the morning. I went
below at sundown for some sleep before my first night watch. I think I was asleep for about an hour when I
hear a sudden drop in the RPM of the motor.
I know that this cannot be a good thing and I spring out of my berth to
ask Troy what happened. At that point,
he wasn’t sure, the RPM dropped dramatically and his first thought was that we
had picked up something with our prop.
Of course, this had to happen at the worst possible time. It was early in the evening and we would not
be able to figure out what our problem was until daylight, at least 9 hours
away. I managed to hang over the stern
of the boat, hanging on by my toes and I could see that there was definitely
something around our prop. We were fortunate at the time as there was a little
wind and we were able to sail towards our destination and continue to make
about five knots. That lasted for an
hour or so and the wind died and we were left drifting. We spoke to our buddy
boats (at that time Pipe Muh Bligh and Mojo were the only ones in radio range)
and we all agreed that Pipe would stick with us in case we needed assistance and
Mojo would go ahead to Boqueron. There
was a pretty good swell and you wouldn’t even notice it if you were making way,
but try sitting there not moving and you could definitely feel it, not bad,
just a little uncomfortable. We hove to
for a while (for our non-sailing readers, that means that we adjusted the sails
so that the boat pretty much just drifts with the current, it’s the closest you
can come to stopping the boat while at sea) and then, we eventually just sailed
(in the wrong direction) at about two knots for the rest of the night. It was a long one and we were just hoping
that we would be able to resolve our problem with the morning light.
We are so
fortunate (thanks to prior planning by Troy) that we bought a Hookah rig
recently, in fact, this was our first time to use it. And no, that doesn’t mean a bong like
apparatus that you smoke through, it’s a scuba regulator that is attached by a
long hose to a scuba tank that you leave on deck of the boat. I got all hooked up and climbed the stern
ladder to take a look at the situation.
The seas
were fairly calm but there was definitely a swell that had Storyville see
sawing up and down. I saw a great big
ball of fishing net wrapped tightly around our prop and, to be honest, at that
moment I didn’t think I would be able to clear it. It was just so big and the boat was moving so
much, not to mention that there was about 1,500 feet of ocean underneath
me. That did freak me out just a
little. It’s such a big blue nothing
down there below us. Then I just decided
that I had to put my big girl panties on and get the job done!
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| This is what our propeller looked like |
Of course,
that was easier said than done, but I was determined. At first I couldn’t find anything that would
work to cut the line. I tried a sharp knife and then I tried a machete (even
using the saw part of the machete) but it just wouldn’t work. Finally I settled on my small pair of kitchen
shears and just started cutting each strand, one or two at a time. It was long work, especially with the surge
and the boat moving around so much. I
had to wrap my legs around the rudder and hang on while cutting the net and
trying not to get my head banged up against the bottom of the boat.
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| This is the wad of net that I removed |
It took
about 20 minutes of work, but I am proud to say that I got the job done. Of course, the next day (and even still
today) I feel like I went a couple of rounds with George Foreman and then ran a
marathon and then got into a fight with a cat.
I have cuts and bumps and bruises, but I got Storyville back underway
and we made it into Boqueron with about a seven hour delay.
We are so thankful that Pipe Muh Bligh stayed
with us. We didn’t end up needing any
assistance from them, but we sure felt better knowing they were there if we
needed them. Thanks a million Rene and
Stacy!
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