10/05/2014
We are now looking for a weather window for the crossing to the Azores, so provision shopping is the order of the day as well as keeping topped with the fuel and water supplies. Every morning with rapt anticipation we download the Grib files studying them closely just to see if departure is imminent. The trouble is there is usually some very light weather to go through before you pick up a low going East and can ride a South Easterly, usually around North of about 32°. Each seven day grib seduces you into waiting as the next one is going to be perfect. We decide that we will have to motor through some windless areas to get north so buy two more fuel cans and fill up the two spare 5 litre dinghy cans. We discuss how much extra fuel to take, as we have done very little motoring in the year that we have been away. We simply do not know so we leave with full tanks and 90 litres in cans.
We download the gribs on the 16th of May and decide that we would make our move the next day. So a busy day ahead we do a final shop for fresh stuff, buy some second hand books from Shrimpeys, clean the boat hull and prop, check out, haul aboard the dinghy, clean the barnacles and miniature ecosystem off the dinghy bottom, deflate and stow dingy and winterise the outboards as they will lay in the locker for the journey. Come the evening we take a shower in the cockpit and are so exhausted that we eat one of our emergency, out at sea ready meals as cooking has temporarily lost its lustre. A large catamaran anchors upwind of us and then they all decant to the tender and let go, the tender will not start and they drift towards us. When they get to our anchor chain they enquire about borrowing some oars. I should have taken this show of seamanship as an omen as at 2am there was a large bang and they had hit us amidships. I got up like a shot out of the forward hatch, the crew were on deck but no attempt was made to place a fender between the two colliding vessels. They had dragged and hit us without even an apology; a well placed fender would have prevented the scratch in our topsides.
Looking at the situation we had no dinghy blown up and to get into a wrangle with insurance etc would surely delay our departure, we decided to let it be and leave the next morning. We were exiting the lagoon with the 10:30am bridge opening, so we pulled the anchor up and took our place in the queue to exit. I was holding position with the bow downwind when the same catamaran came within six feet of my stern and demanded I move forward, which I could not do without queue jumping (not British). I explained that according to the collision regulations he as the vessel behind was the give way vessel and he would have to avoid me. To this he replied that I knew absolutely nothing and started rabbiting agitatedly to his crew in a foreign tongue. I am convinced that he must have been charter as most owners even of very posh boats seem to be polite. I think all charter boats should fly a flag so that they can be recognised.