Pirate Style
Logbook: 2024.06.27 Dubrovnik to Mljet / Polace
Had a good sleep. Coffee and some croissant from the nearby supermarket provide the energy for the day. Shouldn’t be much wind in the morning. Expecting some easy zick zack between the islands.
But … while getting to the more open sea, the wind increase to some 25 kn. Too much wind to motor against with the 14kW of the Volvo Penta. So put in a reef, tighten up everything and do some sailing. Rough conditions, steep and high waves pushing the water over the fordeck and spray to myself. Took another 6 hours of active sailing to reach the Polace national park.
On the last tack, just about lowering the sails, the motor didn’t turn on. Jut a “clack”, as if the battery was empty and the starter didn’t turn. I tried a couple of times … nothing. All the while the Jolie Fleur was at a steep lean angle in some 30 knots of wind and a bumpy sea. Terrible. Adrenaline pumping. Without motor, no mooring. I am tired, don’t like to sail another 10 hours to a harbor or shipyard. Since having a separate starter battery and a auxiliary battery, maybe I can bridge those to start the engine. All that electric is in the aft cabin under the bed, on that all the spare sails and other equipment is piled up. Get all that stuff out of the cabin, get access to the battery, find some wires,…. Puh. Sweating. Access to the batteries is difficult and I didn’t find some thick wires. I will give another try to start, before doing anything else. Put the gear and clutch lever into reverse, forward and back to neutral. Push the start button … and the starter turns the motor. Great. It didn’t start yet. Likely the cylinders are flooded. Pre-heat the glow plugs a couple of times. Try again the starter. After a lot of turns the motor came to life. A huge relief! Adrenaline off. Sails down. Motor to the mooring.
Polace national park offers a nice bay with sandy bottom and clear water. As it isn’t too shallow, best is to put the front anchor and put a land line to the rear. How to do that? As a single handed sailor?Without an anchor windlass? –> You put the anchor first. Having some 40m of chain available, I put the anchor some 3 to 4 boat lengths from shore and add some 30 m of chain to the depth. That way I can now reverse towards the shore. Like a boats length from the rocks, I would switch off the motor, catch a 20 m rope, jump into the water, swim to shore. There, quickly, looking for a place where to attach the rope to, like a tree or a rock. All the while hoping the Jolie Fleur doesn’t drift away or the measure was wrong and or the rope too short. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
At that day, after the long trip from Corfu and the sailing against the wind today, things did go well. I was still tired and was making sure all was perfect to not have a second try. After all done and reversing to shore, I put on the diving goggles and some shoes to get on the rocks. Some two boat lengths from shore, motor off and quickly jumping head first into the water. A big mistake! The glas of the diving goggles burst into pieces. First I didn’t even recognize it, irritated, the visibility was bad. Pushed the goggles up my head. Another big mistake, as the tiny glass splinters cut my nose and head. Me, bleeding like hell from those cuts, looking like a pirate coming home from work. Not a good start, nevertheless still need to swim to shore, climb up the rocks and attach the rope. Since all took a while, the Jolie Fleur already drifted away, making the rope went short. Just need another meter or two. Pulled very hard to get that rope with the Jolie Fleur attached … and slipped on the rocks cutting my ankles and back. Hell.
Definitely not a good day. Swimming back to the boat, get on board with a body bleeding all over. What a f… up docking!
10h sailing, 38 nm
Wind 0-28 kn,NW, sun
