It was probably the stuff of Australia’s Favorite Home videos – but no one was thinking of that at the time – all our attention was on how to restore all that we had done wrong.

The day started out pleasant enough. We had brought four of our many children up for their first weekend on the yacht and their first weekend sailing. Getting everyone over on the two-man tender was a bit of an adventure and more than enough for thirteen year old Erina. She was quite unsure how it was going to go, but by morning everyone was looking forward to setting off.

Thats when it all went down hill!

I think in many ways the following hour could best be described as a comedy of errors. One by one we did everything wrong and ended up with, lets see, a tender adrift alone – secured only to the severed bouy of our mooring line; an engine that would not go no matter what we did; a 33 ft yacht drifting towards the other moored vessels. Well thats what we thought we had for a while.

After frantically trying to figure out how to put down the temporary anchor, thus securing the yacht, Peter set off to attempt to retrieve the tender which by now had drifted more than 500 mtrs accross the other side of the bay. Several power boats zoomed past him and while it might have looked a little amusing to see a man swimming along, pulling a tender and a bouy, we would have thought it kind and generous if anyone had slowed down for long enough to lend a hand. One person did call out – but only when he was within a stone’s throw of the yacht.

We applauded him when he got alongside us – and many hands reached out to grab the rope, the bouy and the man and help him back on board.

He showed us the mooring rope and where it was severed – and we wondered then if the mooring rope was lying beneath us and still possible to retrieve or – worse still – maybe wrapped around the propeller.

Deciding that the next problem to address was the engine he set to investigate – figuring after a while that we needed a new battery and some more fuel. A quick row back to shore in the happily retrieved tender and he returned to refuel and try the engine again – but as soon as he started filling the tank he discovered that we actually had plenty of fuel.

That was when he decided to pull out his diving gear which had – thankfully – come on board with us and check out if the mooring line was in fact wrapped, as he feared it might be, around the propeller.

Unsure of whether he could cut it through aor unravel it, we really did think we had ruined everything. But after a cold drink and a moment to collect his thoughts, he set off again, diving knofe secured to his leg, to see if he could free the line.

‘Its tight but I can do it,’ he called up to where his happy entourage was waiting and watching. And then after half an hour more hard work diving down and cutting through we discovered, to our great delight, that the mooring was still good, and we retied the boat, and pulled up the temporary anchor.

It had been nearly two hours, but by now the wind was up, the mooring fine, the tank full and the tender recovered – we decided to get back on the bike, so to speak and set sail!

This time the mooring line was THROWN clear of the boat and we set off with no issues – amidst much chearing and whooping.

We were soon sailing and remembering why we would be willing to go through all we had to get to this point.

That feeling of the wind lifting and filling the sails and enabling our sturdy, strong and hefty Selah to glide through the lake – well there are few words to describe it.

The children were more sure footed than I could have hoped for. Fifteen year old Michael discovered his inner sailor and learned, as I had the weekend before, that he could steer and set to guiding our path for the next three hours, giving Peter and I the time and opportunity to sit, be still and embrace the moment.

The afternoon ended with us getting back to our mooring with no hitches, and the children and Peter donning swimmers and jumping in off the boat until it was time to row ashore for dinner.

Who would have thought that just a few hours before we thought we had ruined everything!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, it was me that had cast us off the first, disastrous time! It was my second attempt at casting off – and probably my last! I learned how to start and control the engine – a far easier task if you ask me!