Hello All,
Amy and I took the boat out to islington bay for an overnighter. We had a great sail out of Auckland with 15-20kts out of the SW and a strong ebb tide. We sailed onto the anchor in "Izzy" bay after smashing our record from Westhaven Marina. The next morning we were playing dominos after breakfast when we noticed this boat drag its anchor right across the bay. We had seen the crew go ashore with friends and if they were hiking the volcano they might take all day. We sprung into action. I called the coastguard and told them that we were going over to assist the boat. We got the engine on the dinghy and grabbed our stern anchor and a warp.
It was a "Bowman 49" and suffice to say the opperation of it's systems was not intuative. I got the instruments on and descovered we were in 7.5 feet of water. We were being blown onto the Motutapu shore and it was high tide. With help from another cruiser "Ian" and working as a team we got it started just in time. Amy and Ian were able to pull up the ground tackle by hand. We drove the boat back into the anchorage and re set it with more chain out. (Amy reckons they had 25 ft out which was the problem) The same thing happened to us last year in Port Villa and cruisers rescued Secret Agent Man so it felt good to pay it forward. The lesson learned is to locate the batteries first when trying to start a strange boat. Amy left them a note and we sailed home in time for her to make it to an appointment despite the delay.

Cheers
Eric