Ann and I were up at 0200 as promised and after putting some last minute stuff away and having a quick bite for energy (and some coffee), we were ready to raise anchor beginning at 0245. BUT, Charisma had other ideas.
As I was raising the anchor (with Ann at the helm), it quickly became clear that the chain was caught on one of the only rocks within 100 yards. I could even see down the 17 feet through clear water in the moonlight. The chain was going right down to the rock. And it wasn’t budging. I tried all my tricks. Back down, go left, go right, let out slack, drive over the top. Each time we tried something, the result was the same. We would come up with a lurch and a thunk as the chain strained as Charisma’s 24 thousand pounds came to a stop. After 45 minutes of absolutely zero progress, I thought of one other trick. I knew that we had swung a full 360 degrees in about an hour’s time yesterday as a squall blew over. I figured that meant the chain might not just be “caught” on an undercut, but wrapped all the way around something. So, last try before giving up and diving on it in the morning to figure out what to do next-I had Ann drive right up above the rock and stop. Then I dropped about 20 feet of chain on top of the rock and quickly cranked it back up again. Darned if it didn’t work. All the slack on the chain freed us and the rest was simple. Almost.
OK, anchor’s up and we’re heading out-in the dark (moonlight helps) following a path on the gps that we made coming in. Easy. Except, just as we got the anchor up and turned toward our first waypoint in deeper water, the instruments all died. Zero data, just lines where the data should be. No course, depth, speed, nothing. What the….? Just then as I’m going in the electronics locker to take a look at things, my headlamp-with brand new batteries died. OK, what the heck’s going on here?
Fortunately the gps down in the nav station was working and it had the key info we needed. We would have to “yell” the course and depth up to the helm, but at least we had what we needed to get going. An hour late.
So, off we went-a nice moonlit night. Ann and I were sad to leave Nagalelevu (and apparently so was Charisma), but we had a lot of fun there, really soaked up the experience and are looking forward to new adventures.
We are presently anchored in Albert Cove on the island of Rabi (pronounced Rambi), just north of Fiji’s north island. It’s a nice spot and we’ll likely stay a day or two at least before moving south. The sail over here was beautiful. A nice 12 knot breeze with little in the way of waves or chop. `It was one of those days that reminds us why we sail.
P.S.-I don’t know why the electronics all of a sudden refused to work, but have isolated the problem to the instrument network that goes to the helm. When I disconnect this line the other ones come back to life. So next step (tomorrow) is to look at the network. I think there might be a loose connection somewhere or at least hope it’s that simple.
As for Charisma, sometimes she’s a naughty girl, but we all have our days. I have found over 40-some years of sailing that every craft has its moods. Some days you just can’t get your boat to do anything you want. Others are a delight. Fortunately we usually have more of the latter than the former and we’ll hope Charisma is over her tantrum.
