A CRUISER'S VIEW OF BEQUIA - Caribbean Compass

— Continued from page 50
As another string to his bow, Doc, as he is known, has a big powerful motorboat
and at that point he was leading the attempted rescue. As he said, “Dan
Marco had already been bumped about 40 meters into the reef by the waves so
it was too far to do the obvious thing and pull her off eastwards out to sea…
hence the plan to pull her into the lagoon.” This was gruelling and heroic
work. During the time we watched the attempted rescue we saw three towlines
break. By now two other boats were involved belonging to the brothers
Bertrand and Jean Marc Sailly of nearby Union Island who own the
Bougainvillea Restaurant and operate the charter boat Wind and Sea.
By the second day of pulling, a large hole had opened up in the port side but Dan
Marco was tipped over to starboard in less than two metres of water so the hole was
exposed and repairable. Plywood, fibreglass and epoxy were brought in and under
difficult conditions a very workmanlike repair was made. The pumps seemed to be
holding and by dusk on the third day the rescuers thought they had a good chance
of saving her intact.
But for Alain Laou, the skipper preparing for his third lonely night on board, things
were not so rosy. “I was tired. I was hungry. I was demoralised. It was my first accident.
This was a big shock.” So at about midnight, when the pumps seemed to be
losing ground, he decided to wade ashore and get some sleep.
Above: The brand new 54-foot Dan Marco IV, only hours after striking the reef
at Palm Island. At this point there were high hopes of salvaging her
Below: Five weeks later she is a stricken hulk, stripped of everything salvageable
and about to be disposed of. ‘It’s a question of principle. We cannot
abandon this wreck here. We have to keep the Grenadines clean’
Talking with Doc and Jean Marc, I sensed surprise and disappointment when they
returned at dawn on the fourth day to find the fight aboard Dan Marco was lost.
Water was pouring in through the broken keel and saving the boat became an exercise
in salvaging as much of the brand new equipment as possible. So, during the
next few weeks, there were daily trips out to her to remove mast, rigging, engine and
electronics, which were transported to Union Island and became the insurance company’s
property (and problem).
All that was left when we next passed by five weeks later in early May was a
lonely hulk. I asked Jean Marc if she would be left to break up but he was indignant
at the suggestion. “It’s a question of principle. We can’t abandon a wreck here. We
have to keep the Grenadines clean.”
So when you next pass by Palm Island you won’t see the Dan Marco. She has gone.
But losing any vessel leaves a whole raft of problems which have to be sorted out
and questions to be answered. What it also leaves is a sense of sadness at the loss
of a beautiful vessel and all the hopes she carries. And maybe because of this sadness,
respect for people’s feelings and a desire to move on and not ask too many
embarrassing questions.
Apart from all the obvious lessons from the story, the thing that surprises me is
why anybody would sail close to reefs using dead reckoning only without first presetting
waypoints for safety. In fact, I am sure that most of today’s cruisers, including
myself, feel much safer with waypoints set at regular intervals so you are always
heading towards a known point (carefully checked for reasonableness, of course).
This may not appeal to ‘Real Sailors’ but surely it is much safer. And yes, I know all
the argument about “What happens if your GPS breaks down or the Americans turn
off the satellites”. So if it is safer to have preset waypoints, surely all boats — particularly
charter boats — should have repeaters so the information is readily available
in the cockpit. Then sailors will have no excuse not to know where they are in
all circumstances.
RICHARD ROXBURGH (2)
NOVEMBER 2008 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 55