By Peter Whatley
Solent Coastguard, Solent Coastguard this is yacht OoJah, OoJah over.
Yacht Oojah this is Solent Coastguard, good evening.
Solent Coastguard this is yacht Oojah. We are in the shipping lanes having caught a large fishing net around our propeller. There is no wind but we are in no imminent danger. The yacht Malice has agreed to tow us but we are only making around 2 knots as they are short of fuel. Over
Normally, a night watch is a little boring and trying to find things to do to stay awake and alert is not easy.
All of a sudden we were sucked into a bit of an adventure. We called OoJah to ask him to repeat his position and then plotted this only to discover that he was about 28 miles north of us.
Nonetheless, we offered to make our way towards him to take over the tow from Malice who was in danger of becoming another causality by using up all of their fuel in towing OoJah. Speeding up to 8.5 knots meant our rendezvous would be in around 4 hours.
Solent Coastguard was kept fully informed and was grateful that the situation was being resolved.
As dawn broke we saw OoJah through the early morning mist. Malice had kindly towed them out of the shipping lanes but had then reluctantly abandoned the tow for fear of running out of fuel.
We had prepared for the tow by rigging a bridle with a snubber on the tow line to OoJah. This we floated on a fender and passed just ahead of them so that they could pick it up with their boathook. Success on the first pass meant we were soon underway at 6+ knots with our Yanmar 75hp purring along at 2800rpm. The sea was calm and there was no snatching at all. In fact the bridle that was attached to our port and starboard primary winches had minimal load.
OoJah called Hamble Point marina to warn them of our arrival and to arrange an immediate lift. We strapped OoJah alongside for the final approach and took them straight into the hoist dock where the waiting staff quickly lifted the boat, cut away the net, scrubbed the bottom and re-launched her. We all watched whilst enjoying a cold beer on board Ear to Eternity.
Peter Tanner and his son Duncan had been competing in the RSYC McGuigan Wines Honfleur Double and had opted to return home immediately after finishing (3rd in Class!) to avoid the threat of bad weather later. Wendy, William and I were returning from Deauville after a most successful and enjoyable Sea Horse Rally organised by the Deauville Yacht Club.
