The guys in Rochefort kept saying "Never sail on a Friday, you'll be sorry". As the main proponent of this wisdom, Claude, used it for any day and consequently never went to sea, so I ignored this sage advice and sailed away from Rochefort on a Friday. The wind turned foul and, as previously reported, I had to hole up in St Denis for a few days until, eventually I had fair(ish) winds forecast and set off NW, motor-sailing.
I had only been out for a couple of hours, stooging along nicely at about 6 knots when the port prop fouled something and immediately afterwards the stbd keel hit something hard with a crunch. Ouch. I was inside the edge of the main Pertuis D'Antioch shipping lane so no Nav hazards there.
The bilge pumps stayed silent so I carried on sailing, until, about 12 miles out and 2 miles offshore I decided to get the fishing tackle out. Going down below I found myself ankle deep in water. Heart rate shifts into overdrive. The bilge pump then decided to kick in.
Going about, I revved up, and with a fair wind galloped back to St Denis where two hours later I ran the boat straight up the slip, turning her first to prevent further damage. I had to bail all the way as the flooding was mostly confined to the foam filled centre section, the water only slowly seeping to the bilge pump.
Being on the slip gave me about 4 hours respite from pumping every tide, but, apart from that I spent the next 2 days pumping every 15 minutes or so..... very tiring but character building!