We were at anchor, under canvas, (not a tent, but our sailing boat). It was 4am in the morning and the mosquitoes were on the attack, so discretion being the better part of valour, we gave in and sailed 20 miles to a area called Cap Bear ( good name I thought) We went into a harbour and anchored outside a town called Port Vendres in Spain just to get some supplies and bread for lunch.
After making sure the anchor was settled Dave, Arthur and Adria took the dingy with the outboard engine, and left Lorenzo and myself on the boat listening to music and tidying, After about 15 minutes a small snorkeling vessel came over with a group of people on it, yelling that I needed to leave this area as a big cargo ship was coming into harbour.
‘Where am I supposed to go without my Captain and crew? I’ve never moved her on my own,’ I shouted back, panic stirring.
‘Move it over towards the beach area just for a while.’ It seemed simple but I could see there were rocks under the water there. However, there was nothing else to do but pull up the anchor on my own, fire up the engine, and carefully edge towards the shore.
Lady Bear helped me, by moving gently and like a dream. I radioed my partner, Dave, but the connection wasn’t good.
‘Return to Lady Bear, need you,’ Short and sweet and to the point, I thought.
The man in charge of the snorkeling vessel stayed by for a few minutes because of the underwater rocks. And I watched him leave, with regret.
There Lorenzo, my eldest son, and I stayed, but as time went by there was still no sign of our dinghy with the others on board. Where was he? Then I got a garbled radio message from the harbour master saying ‘Dinghy engine is broken down’.
It was at that point a huge cargo ship came through the small harbour entrance, shadowing and dwarfing our boat. Lorenzo, my son and I were beyond scared. It was then I saw Dave with the others, bobbing about on our tiny dingy with no engine in the path of this huge vessel.
I could do nothing as I had my hands full continuing to keep the Lady Bear clear of the rocks. But in the nick of time our guardian angel, the snorkelling vessel returned. Within minutes he had set up a tow, and at last our family was together again, on board, and the Lady Bear was in Dave’s safe hands. Many lessons learned, we decided as our thanks followed the snorkelling skipper as he went on to no doubt help someone else.
‘Is it always this exciting getting bread?’ our friend Adria asked.
Well. That was just one of the complications and adventures we experienced while we sailed on our small 37ft classic wooden hillyard boat.
For several years we have spend long periods on her and she has been good to us. Arthur, our youngest son, was only five years old when we travelled all the way to Turkey to buy the vessel, before sailing her back to Italy where we live in Le Marche. Lorenzo our eldest was seven years old then, and even though he is totally blind from birth, took to her really well and she helped his confidence enormously.
Together we have all experienced amazing events. We’ve had an engine falling off into a busy harbour, we have rescued other sailors during storms, as well as surviving them ourselves. We have met wonderful people, but also thieves who stole vital possessions. Next time I would love to tell you how we actually bought the vessel in Turkey, which involved Dave diving into the water to rescue – well, what? I’ll tell you next time.
But don’t forget, that there are of course, the most wonderful quiet and peaceful times.