August 7, still night, the wind suddenly shifted to the North, more against us. So a t 7 o’clock, with changing of the watch, we started the sail change. Peter furled in the outerjib. The furling line slipped, a wave bumped the Ya, making Peter slip, and fall. Unfortunately, he fell with his back exactly on a corner. A burning pain. He stood up, tried to pull the furling line again, again a flaming pain hit in his back. A bit dizzy he held himself to the pole in the cockpit and slowly went down. In a final effort he crawled on his knees all the way to his bunk and went lying on his belly, the least painful position,
Peter was out of service. Inge took over.
And Inge did take over! We were 250 miles from the nearest island. Inge furled in the outerjib, she reefed. Inge cooked. Inge nursed Peter, for every bit, with meals and drinks with a straw because Peter couldnot even lift his head to drink or eat.
Heroin Inge, suffering Peter
Despite the predictions, the wind turned really against. Inge tacked, unreefed, reefed later, she hoisted the mizzen. She even lowered the complete furled outerjib ant stowed it away- normally a job for two persons. On this beating course, the waves put the Ya up and down, including Peter and his sore back. It did not help the healing for sure. For three days Inge slept with the electronic ships alarm on. She navigated us all the way to the bay of Hanavave, Fatu Hiva, the remotest island of the remote Marquesas islands.
Anchoring with Murphy
We entered the bay by night. There, the water was flat, so Peter went on his feet. Very carefully, it took him an extra gram of Ibuprofen an half an hour to make the 3 meters to the cockpit. Now he could check the radar and handle the motor throddle. Inge could lower the sails. We were not lucky, there were 12 boats in this little bay. It took half an hour to find a place for us to drop the anchor.
The anchor did not hold. Finally we lifted it. There was a heavy thing on it. Anchor unclear. Shit. For sure Murphy was on board. Inge pushed the anchorwinch button, but it simply stopped, it was to heavy. We ended up between the other anchored yachts. Peter could find the way out. Meanwhile Peter instructed Inge to get the second anchor and make it ready. That was an anchor without a chain. We would drop the anchor on a deeper spot, so we needed our 200 meter line to secure the holding.
We anchored again, closer to the side of the bay. The line we had to let go was 120 meter. We gave 150, to be very shure. On this place the anchor was holding well. We were happy, and Peter was already for 3 hours on his feet and went straight to his bed.
A night with Murphy
Every boat swings a bit behind its anchor. Also the Ya swinged, and with that long line it swinged pretty much. The wind changed a bit and that made the Ya come very close to the side of the bay. That close, that Inge could even see in the night the waves hitting the pointy rocks. So Inge went looking. She shortened the anchor line. That helped a little bit.
A day with Murphy.
At first light in the morning the the wind changed again. Again Ya went close to the pointed rocks. What to do? Peter has to stay in bed, Inge was tired, and had pretty much work on just cooking, the infirmary and cleaning up the mess a bit. Also the anchor battery was completely empty of all the hassles, and perhaps even damaged. So we’d better set that on a reconditioning program this day and night. Actually, we decided only act, when there is a direct emergency that we hit these luring sharp rocks. So Inge only prepared the kayak to blow up. Then, it was already evening.
Another night with Murphy
Sometimes Inge woke up, looked out of the window and saw only a huge wall. That was the side of that bay. With the waves turning in to shiny foam on the pointy rocks. At night you hardly see distance so for Inge it looked like it was just some meters away, so she jumped out of bed. This way she passed the night.
Peter was already recovering a bit, but hat means nothing more than that he could drink without a straw in his bed. Inge was the only one able to do something, but with the continuous workload and the many lacks of sleep in the night, she simply cannot do everything.
Will it be another day with Murphy? How will this end?
To be continued next week. Teaser: even a helicopter is involved.