August 1st has seen the return of the sun, which went missing a week ago! Time to shake out the feathers, and stretch the legs ... at least to do a little shopping for fresh veggies and fruit, before congregating on the beach front bar/restuarant to attend the inaugural meetiing of the Ilha Grande chapter of the HBYC ! Present are likely to be JC and Jackie, (Taniwa), recently arrived,( but more of their arrival later!) from St Helena via Rio, Jeremy & Yvonne ( Jervon), Chris and Helen Hull ( Sea Lion), and ourselves, Rod & Mary, ( Sheer Tenacity). I cant help but to realise that this unusual gathering of HBYC cruisers, some 5000miles from home has a greater probability of representing a quorum, than the usual turn out at a HBYC AGM!
Out of the mist and rain yesterday morning, we were hailed by JC and Jackie, who had taken a gap in the weather, and motored down from Rio. They had spent the previous evening in Enseada Palmas, before popping round to Abrooa. Taniwa circled the anchored yachts, before presenting us with an unusal challenge after showing us his uniques Irish /American Anchoring style ! He chose his spot carefully, and dropped the hook..... all 120ft plus 45lb CQR, with a minor splash, and a fair amount of Blue Cursing, as JC watched in disbelief as the chain parted at the 120ft mark, and took its leave of Taniwa! They had been anchored for days off St Helena on the same chain, and it chose this moment, in gentle rainy conditions to fail! The headed out into the bay to calm down, lick their wounds, and prepare a second anchor and rode
Our challenge, was of course to recover the 120ft of chain and anchor from the black mud on the 9mt deep seabed ! I headed off in Tinker with a handheld GPS, and when lined up with our reference points from SheerTenacity, Mary called 'Mark!". Jeremy rigged up a grappling hook from his dinghy, and began to troll the area. After persevering for about 40 minutes , he hit paydirt, and hooked something heavy. His efforts nearly ended with him in the water, as his little rigid dinghy did some serious duck dives under the load! A flotilla of tenders arrived to "help", and after a noisy committee meeting, the Plan of Action was agreed upon...... then Re Done..... and Revised again! After a while, the stern of Taniwa was dragged to the drop point by Tugboat Tinker, and the load was tranferred by warps and rolling hitches round to the bow rollers, until the 120ft of chain plus CQR were safely back on board Taniwa. Beers an Rum are the promised rewards! Todays meeting could be fun!
Catch you later!
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