Karen and I went into town to do some shopping and to work on my phone problem. We were gone for a couple of hours. When we returned to the boat, I asked Karen: “When did you have time to change the lines attached to the mooring ball?”. Karen said: “I didn’t!”. Uh oh…I immediately realized something must have happened. Our other line must have broken loose from the mooring. Now, the only question was, where did Tahina go?
We looked around the boat real quick and didn’t see any harm above. But, we found the remains of our now broken line we used to attach to the mooring. We had been meaning to attach with a different set of lines, but had delayed because we were going to move to a new location. But, that got delayed. So, obviously the problem was our own fault, not the mooring.
I drove the dinghy over to the nearby Marina, to ask what happened. But, they were closed. Then, I saw one of our neighbors come out on his deck and I took the dinghy over. It was Brian of s/v El Regalo, and he immediately told me that he had helped bring the boat back. At that moment, our friends from s/v Boree came over and they told me the rest of the story.
Boree was walking on the island nearby and noticed Tahina had moved. They were thinking maybe we were going to look at the nearby reef, when suddenly they realized Tahina was drifting with no one on board. They quickly called for assistance on the radio and came out on their dinghy to keep Tahina from going aground. El Regalo came over, as did two boats from the marina.
Meanwhile, on shore, Steve on s/v Dignity, along with our friend Paul, watched as the cruisers quickly organized and pulled Tahina back to her mooring. They were up on the hill and couldn’t get down to help before things were under control. They took the pictures.
This is an example of how helpful cruisers can be to others in need. We are very grateful to all involved. We were able to help our friends on Boree by helping repair one of their sails with Karen’s sewing machine.
It’s embarrassing when something like this happens. Especially when you know there was something you could have done to reduce the risk. But, nearly every cruiser has had something like this happen. Whether their anchor dragged, a mooring came loose, or even through improperly tying a knot. We are just thankful nothing worse happened when Tahina decided she wanted to go off on her own!
