The Last Leg

South Solitary Island lighthouse is within sight.

With directions for the final leg on hand and exhaustion lapping at our heels Divine Wind plunged into one huge wave and then the engine stopped.

Not a splutter or a cough. Just nothing. Zilch, zip, nada.

Within a heartbeat Divine Wind became a bobbing cork on two and a half metre seas in a thirty plus knot wind.

Not what we wanted. Not ideal.

John heroically checked the rocking rolling engine. It had been running constantly for over twenty seven hours. The Perkins diesel engine no longer purred. John tried to work in over-whelming fumes, working on a hot engine while being thrown around on unstable floor. His only light was a torch, because the power failed. Not fun. Not fun at all. And the engine refused to co operate.

Steve tried to stop the boat drifting. A sea anchor would do the trick. If we knew where the one listed on the inventory was, it would be really handy right about now. Steve risked what I considered a rather dangerous search of the forward sea locker. No sea anchor. Nothing to help slow the drifting. Trying to set the sails looked perilous, (to me). 

I must admit at this stage my stamina failed. White knuckled hanging on just to not be thrown around, watching John and Steve both doing precarious and risky tasks, didn't help my stress levels. We all wore life jackets. Steve assured me the boat would not roll over. Yeah, I believed him, but it didn't stop the wild ride or settle my heartrate.

After trying to restart the engine, searching for the sea anchor and doing all we could to slow the drift, after considering setting sails in ferocious conditions and having me losing my nerve more each passing minute, Steve called Marine Rescue at 4.28am 2nd Dec. Sunrise was still an hour away. But now help was on the way.

Waiting for Marine Rescue to arrive took a lot of patience. Steve and John still worked at restarting the engine, but to no avail. The seas didn't settle and the wind didn't drop below thirty knots.

Not ideal. Not pleasant. 40degrees one way, 40 the other, without pause. Everything, even items stored in cupboards decided to evacuate. We waited and wondered what had a) gone wrong with the engine b)how long Marine Rescue would be and c) what else could we do or have done. 

After sunrise Marine Rescue finally arrived and we began a very slow bumpy ride back to Coffs. The initial rope snapped but once Steve and the Marine Rescue crew attached a new one the tow went without incident. Up, down, up down, but Coffs was getting closer.

Finally we arrived in the harbour. An admiring curious crowd lined the southern wall. The relief was instant once we passed the entrance. The wind still blew but Divine Wind settled. We were almost home.

Safe now in the harbour I was able to get a lift to shore. Steve and John worked on the engine. They had it fixed in fifteen minutes.The difference not being tossed around makes!

The next challenge was getting the fifty foot yacht into a safe mooring in the marina while gale force winds buffeted her.

Of course we had an audience and lots of advice. Mitch, an experienced sailor, who was supposed to be sailing in my place but couldn't make it at the last minute, helped guide Steve. All the Thursday afternoon sailors, who had decided today was not the weather for sailing, were on hand to welcome, inspect, congratulate, commiserate and compare rough weather sailing stories.

Divine Wind was safely moored and we could relax.

Safely moored in Coffs marina.

Now begins the real adventure of boat ownership. 

We made the News!