Gromit Snags a Big One!
26 June 2011 | Hana-Iti Beach, Huahine Island, French Polynesia
When it comes time to pull up the anchor, Michael and I pretty well have our routine down. He goes to the bow and I take the wheel. He presses the UP button on the windlass (motor that pulls up the chain and anchor) and points in the direction I should drive the boat. Piece of cake.
Well, not this day!
If there is too much stress on the chain, the breaker trips. When this happens, we call to the kids to reset the breaker. This happens from time to time, when the chain gets snagged under a coral head, or worse, gets wrapped around a coral head. Usually, with a little this way and that, we can un-snag the chain and up comes the anchor.
Well, not this day!
The breaker tripped so many times that we decided that Michael needed to get into the water, swim out in front of Gromit to direct me to the left or right around the obstruction. When he got out in front of the boat and looked down about 25 feet, he didn`t see the anchor or chain snagged under a coral head nor wrapped around one. He saw a coral head, more like a big boulder, called a `patate`(French for potato), completely tied up in the chain!
We tried everything to try to unwrap it, all to no avail. Hana-Iti beach for ever!
How were we going to get back to Fare, to our mooring, if we had a huge coral rock attached to us.
After about 20 minutes of trying various manoeuvres, we realized that something else was going to have to be done.
With it being 25 feet down, diving on it was not an option. I suggested that we attach a hook onto the chain and winch it up to a level that would allow us to at least be able to examine it more closely. So, we winched it up to about 15 feet below the water. We looked down over the bow and could see the form of a rock suspended in the chain. I was too curious. I had to see what Michael had described to me, so this time, we both jumped in for a look.
We couldn`t believe what we found. That piece of coral was tied up a neatly as a present from Santa Claus.
Very carefully, we began to wiggle the chain as the patate dangled below. It didn`t budge. We dove down but kept our distance. We were worried about getting too close to it, in case the chain kicked out and caught us. Michael and I positioned ourselves either side of the chain, seen here in the photo, and with all our might pushed and pulled and pushed and pulled until finally, the patate unravelled a bit. We expected it to plummet to the sandy bottom below, but it only released a bit, rotating the boulder about 45 degrees. Michael and I just looked at each other and shook our heads.
It had released enough for us to now see that the chain was hooked around a protrusion of coral, almost underneath the boulder. We didn`t dare try to dive down to release it, knowing that this was far to dangerous. We decided on using our extendable boat hook. Michael dove down and hooked the chain, gave it a wiggle and....nothing. But, after a few more tries, the chain came off the protrusion, the patate spun around effortlessly and fell gracefully to the sandy bottom - just like that!
Gromit, our chain and our anchor came out OK in the end, but our camera didn`t. Michael had always said no when the kids asked if they could take underwater pictures with it. This event however, was too unbelievable, so it was Michael who wanted to take the camera into the water. Unfortunately, the next day, the camera wouldn`t turn on any more.
On the bright side, we have some great pictures of what a patate looks like wrapped up in a chain, suspended 20 feet above the ocean floor!
If someone had proposed a contest to see who could pick up and tightly tie up a 3 foot diameter coral head on their anchor chain, we would still be there trying!
We have pictures in the Photo Gallery under `The Big Patate`.