Thursday, August 25, 2022, Belleville
I have to catch up yesterday because it wasn’t an easy day. Up relatively early to attack the problem of the line wrapped around the propellor shaft and this meant diving into the cold, dark water (my perception…kids were playing in it not 100 meters from shore) and submerse myself without hitting my head on the boat’s hull or the ‘support’ dinghy.
After the previous day I was a bit shell shocked at what could go wrong but this had to be done and only I could do it. That didn’t make me feel good about proceeding.
I hemmed and hawed, and finally stepped onto the dinghy and then dove into the water. This is not a big thing for a lot of people but I haven’t swum since I was washed off my sailboat in a storm in 1991 and had to swim 8 miles to the shore. Since then my mantra has always been, “do what it takes to stay on the boat!!”
It was a rather weird sensation. I waved my hands and then I remembered my father, 60 years ago, telling me that I should keep my fingers together and cup my hands slightly. I had remembered this in 1991 but it took that flashback from my father to remind me to cup my hands when paddling. In retrospect, I like that.
So I hit the water. I grabbed the handle on the dinghy and held on, breathing deeply. Pierre was above me on the boat and he said, while my ears were above water, “assess the situation and then make a plan”.
This grounded me and I dove down to see the propellor. I didn’t have goggles so It was all fuzzy but I followed the line down and felt around the shaft for a piece of the line that would move. Then go up for air and try and avoid hitting my head on the dinghy. I dove maybe 15 times till the rope was off. I cut my hands on the sharp blades that should have cut the line I was trying to free. Several times.
There is no comfortable way to get onto Cambio from the water. Eventually I got the line loose and then…I couldn’t climb into the dinghy from the water, which would have made getting onto the ladder much easier.
The ladder has steps that only go about 1 foot under the water and I remember being able to do pullups to get out of the water but decades of deskwork had atrophied my arm strength. I just couldn’t do it. When I get home I’ll prioritize getting a deeper, longer ladder. But I didn’t have one then.
Pierre suggested putting a line around my chest to help pull me up, or at least take some weight off. Great idea. And it worked.
You have to understand that we spent more time climbing on the boat than I did clearing the line around the propeller shaft. Such is the nature of sailboat maintenance. It always take more time to prep, or to recover from the maintenance. An hour’s job becomes 3 hours of hard and frustrating work hopefully followed by a wonderful sail.
We weren’t sailing from Waupoos to Picton. Our Genoa furler was still broken and the genoa, which took two men to carry, was tied to the deck, and not practical to hoist unless there were an emergency. As well, Pierre and I would not have the strength to use the genoa anyway.
So we motored at about 5 knots and I recovered slowly from the stress of freeing the dinghy line from the shaft. It took a lot of processing over several days to understand what this had done to my head. On one hand I was victorious on the mission. On the other, I was humbled by the lack of strength and wind I had. Humility won, over a couple of days afterwards.
Once I had an hour nap, we motored to Picton and caught a mooring for the night. We had o energy to use the dinghy to leave the boat and just went to bed, which was an excellent choice.
Today we motored to Belleville in about 6 hours and everything, including the skipper and crew (me and Pierre) worked out perfectly. Great motor and we got to BQCY just before some rather interesting people showed up.
Joanne is single handing her 36 foot boat towards Hamilton. Patti Jo and Doug are from my home club, Dalhousie Yacht Club, and the other three crew on a Beneteau 40 I think, were going back to the National Yacht Club. We had dinner together and wonderful chatter that set me up with 3 beers in the BQYC bar and a bottle of Mr. Reif’s famous Riesling wine. I lost at Rummy to Pierre, which was an unusual thing. Both of us look forward to the play, rather than the outcome.
Tomorrow the forecast is for thunderstorms in the morning and aTurkey festival in the evening at BQYC which we are looking forward to.
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