Sailing with Nine of Cups

While David scraped, sanded and varnished, I was a baking maniac. I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies which we planned to deliver to every boat in the other anchorage later in the afternoon.

To enter this atoll, you come in through a natural pass in the reef. This is a large atoll (an island surrounded by a coral reef with an inner lagoon) and there are actually 3 passes in, but only one safely navigable for sailboats. We are anchored on the east side of the pass and there were 5 boats anchored on the west. When the tide comes in and out, there's quite a bit of turbulence in the pass because of all of the water either rushing in or rushing out through a narrow opening, but you really don't think about it much unless you have to cross for some reason which we hadn't done up to this point. When we left Cups on the cookie delivery run, about 3pm, there was quite a bit of turbulence in the pass which is about 1/2 mile wide. We didn't take anything with us like shoes, water, dinghy anchor, etc. since we only planned to be gone for an hour or so. But David filled up the gas tank so we'd have plenty of fuel. With our 4HP dinghy engine, it took a while to navigate the pass. There were quite a few large, square waves...close together which cause the dink to climb up one and then get slapped and bang down hard as it negotiates the next one and next one. So a rough ride over, but we managed though we got a bit wet and went about chatting with the cruisers there and delivering all the goods.

About 4:00 when we were heading back, it seemed that the turbulence was no worse so we set out across the pass. It was slow going. The tide was ebbing. All that water in this very large lagoon, emptying into the ocean at the same time through only 3 narrow passes. Yet, we really weren't too concerned until it became evident that we weren't making any headway at all, and in fact, we were moving backward and seemed to be getting sucked out through the pass towards the open ocean. Cups, on the other side of the pass, was now out of view around the point. David revved the engine a bit more and still no positive effect. He tried heading in different directions and made a little progress, but not much. We continued this way for nearly an hour...long enough so that David was now concerned that we might run out of fuel. I tried to check the tank while we were in motion and it didn't appear to have anything in it. I was looking for a little slosh of fuel or maybe even the reflection of the fuel on the bottom of the tank, but nothing. David checked next, hoping I was mistaken, but I wasn't. What a mess.

We scoured the shore for alternatives and decided if we could get to one little cove, we might be able to get the dinghy out of the current and wait it out until the current changed. With luck and some fancy maneuvering, we managed to get into a tiny inlet which was indeed calmer and out of the current. As we clambered out of the dinghy though, we were reminded that we had no shoes and the coral cut our feet as we tried walking to the shore to get out of the water. Had we had our shoes, we reckoned we could have walked along the shore on the reef and dragged the dinghy behind us on its painter at least for a ways to get closer to Cups, but without shoes that option was impossible. The full moon was now on the rise and it was dusk. The thought of spending the night on this island was not appealing...mosquitoes, no water...although we did have one extra package of cookies for dinner.

David threw a coconut in the water near us and we watched as it floated away...but not all that quickly. Perhaps, trying to row the dinghy back to Cups, keeping close to shore would work. We pushed the dink out of the little inlet and walked it out as far as we could to clear the reef, grouching and ouching and as our feet got scraped up on the coral. In we climbed. As soon as David started rowing, the port oarlock broke. He could sort of manage if I held down the oarlock in place, but when the second oarlock pulled out, it was a no-go. Now what?

We each took an oar and started paddling, Indian-style. We were making a little headway, but we were still quite far from the boat, though now at least, Cups was in view. We paddled for what seemed an eternity and David finally figured I needed a break. We'd see just how much fuel was left in the dinghy. It started up on the first try...hooray. Now, would it make it to the boat? As we got nearer and nearer Cups, we said all sorts of prayers, crossed our fingers, toes and eyes and did whatever else we thought would give us enough luck to make it back. Finally, Cups was within reach. With a huge sigh of relief, I tied up the dinghy painter and looked at David. We both laughed and started unloading the dinghy. He checked the gas tank...we were actually running on the fuel left in the carburetor. It might have lasted another minute or two. Talk about luck, huh?

Moral of the story...never deliver cookies without having your shoes and anchor with you and NEVER get too smug around Neptune.