Fisherman: failed rescue

I thought I'd learned my lesson, but it just will not stick. 

Here's some of our tender exploits; jungle river exploration, lost in dingyy, lost the dinghy, rescued the dinghy, rescued another dinghy, caught speeding, soaked, swamped, flooded, starved, flipped on davits, floated away on tide, forgot to tie on, caught dingy painter in dinghy prop, caught dingy painter in yacht prop, hit a reef, hit a reef at night, dinghy drifting, dinghy drift snorkel, towed snorkel, towed boat to harbour, rescued yacht using the dinghy, and more...

One of the lessons I thought I learned through all of this is, don't be a hero! 

In the Marquesas, Nuku Hiva has the main port for cruisers. There is lots to see on other islands, but the access to town, plus the large protected harbour, means Nuku Hiva is one of the most popular spots for cruisers. The town has a wharf that locals and cruisers use to tie up. It's not uncommon to see 20 dinghies tied up. Sometimes dinghies can be three deep at the wharf, and to get ashore you have climb over several boats and scale a ladder. 

There are all sorts of issues with the wharf. If you get to close to the fishermen you'll get covered in fish guts, or worse. In strong swells the wall can also make a mess of your dingy. the strategy here is to take a small stern anchor, and tie with a long painter. That would work really well, if it wasn't for all the other dinghies. Some leave there outboards raised and ready to puncture their neighbours. There's lots of shenanigans. 

One incident saw a dinghy come loose and adrift off towards shore. That wouldn't be so bad, but there was a pretty serious break, and it was only a mater of time before this drifter was trashed. I felt a bit disheartened by the sight. Out of so many people, no one would go get this wayward dingy. People do have their reasons. Perhaps they only have oars, or an unreliable motor. Perhaps the swell and the surf mean there were more important safety concerns. Whatever the case, I felt I was in a position to do something. 

I clambered over the flotilla on the wharf to get to my dinghy, and raced off to the rescue. I got there just in time to save the unlucky craft from the breakers, but the drifter had a long painter out, and would you believe it, I got this caught in my prop. Well, I'd dealt with a wrapped dingy prop before, but not while towing another boat, meters off surf waves. I lifted the motor, unwrapped the the line, and started her up again. Just as I got going again, I hit the surf, the dingy went sideways. I made it over, but swamped the dingy, luckly she didn't flip. I could see I was feet away from the beach, and the next breaker was coming in. I floored it, straight into the wave, still griping the drifter. Luckily the motor was still going, and I was still holding the drifter. Both dinghies were swamped, 60% flooded. I finished tieing up and bailing out, and made my way onto the wharf, I looked like I'd just gone for a swim, fully clothed. 

Wiser sailors were waiting to tell me the stunt looked like something out of an action movie. Well, I hosed down my salty clothes in fresh water, and trudged over to the store. Perhaps I'd dry out before she noticed.

"What the! What happened to you?" she said.

Let's just say she did not think much of my decision.

Reflecting on this experience, I still don't know if it was the right move. I never heard anything from the owner. The bystanders seemed completely comfortable to let the craft wash up, leaving someone to learn a hard lesson. Sometimes it's difficult to see where this line is.

Conclusion, don't be a hero, especially where safety is concerned. But then again, sailing a small boat around the world is not inherently safe. And with that backdrop, here's my Easter story.

Wilderness was about 1nm down river from Whangarei town. Along the way we saw someone standing in their dinghy, in the middle of the river. We slowly motored over, to see what the story was.

A fisherman had his anchor stuck fast, and couldn't retrieve it. Without hesitation I climbed aboard, and together we managed to nearly pull his boat under the water! That anchor wasn't coming up. Quickly switching to plan B, the fisherman said he had lots of anchors, and thought this one had caught a tree root. He tied on a float, and said he'd be back later. Before he left, he offered us two fish for stopping. We really didn't feel we should accept as we hadn't really helped at all, but he insisted. We don't know how long he was there, but he had a huge bin full of snapper. So we met a fisherman for Easter, and got two lovely snapper for lunch. They actually came in pretty handy as we had skipped provisioning in town because it had been raining heavily. 

We filleted the fish, and cooked a cornflour battered fillet, on mashed potato, with a salad side.  But I think this is the wrong lesson to learn. It's exteremly rare that dinghy antics end up in a nice warm meal, and is definitely not helping my proclivity for dinghy exploits.