Wolfgang (who we had just seen aboard Astarte for sundowners) from Genesis also went along. The three of them sped off to see if they could be of any help. Turns out that "Surprise," about a 28 footer, was stuck hard on the reef. He somehow thought he could make landfall in the San Blas Islands of Panama with out any charts!!! In the dark!!! When they arrived, the owner was in the water trying to push his sailboat off the corals. It was stuck hard, with a coral head lodged between the rudder and keel, and the water was shallow enough to stand up in. The noise was very disquieting - this grinding of a boat on coral as it bounced up and down against hard rock. The rescue was made all the more "interesting" because of the several languages involved. "Surprise" was Brazilian but also speaks Spanish, Philippe speaks fluent Spanish and English, Wolfgang is German, with English and some Spanish, and Michael only has English and a tiny bit of Spanish. By the time the "Renegade" dinghy got tied to "Surprise" and ready to try and pull it off the coral, a Kuna Indian from the nearby island and a Swiss couple from Saluna had also arrived to help.
The only(!!!) anchor aboard "Surprise" was set off the stern and the rode attached to a sheet winch to try to kedge it off the reef. That didn't work even with the help of a 15 hp outboard on the dinghy. The next try was to tip the boat by using a halyard and line and try to drift it off the reef at an angle. They attached an extra line to the main halyard and used the dinghy to tip the boat over to the side by pulling on the line that goes to the top of the mast. That worked. The "Surprise" anchor was left in place (having been released from the sailboat) as Surprise was pulled into deeper water. It turned out that the anchor was stuck in the coral, but no one had a float to tie off the rode. So "Saluna", stayed with the anchor holding on to the rode. At this point Wolfgang was aboard"Surprise with the young Brazilian and Philippe and Michael went back with a Kuna Indian to try and retrieve the anchor. The Kuna dove the anchor three times but could not free it from the coral. It was left with a life jacket attached to the line for retrieval the next morning.
By this time the unfortunate Kuna noticed that his Ulu (canoe) had floated out of site. They had no idea where it had gotten to, but hopefully it will be recovered today.
Because "Surprise" only had one anchor (now buried in the coral reef), he needed to borrow one. Philippe offered his spare anchor and Michael offered his third anchor rode. So as "Surprise" was slowly motoring back to the Eastern Lemmons, Philippe and Michael sped back to the anchorage to set the borrowed anchor and rode. "Surprise" was put to bed at anchor and all was calm and back to normal by about 2300. All in all, a very successful outcome. Everyone returned safely and the owner of "Surprise" was very grateful.
As of this morning, the Kuna Indians recovered "Surprise's" stuck anchor. He returned the borrowed anchor and rode and immediately decided to go to Por Venir to check in. He still has no charts, and after watching him get the anchors up, not a lot of experience. And the big news:. . . . . . .this was not the first time he has had "issues". He had already lost a boat, a 40 footer in Cabo San Lucas Mexico.
As our good friend Gene always said: "God looks out for fools and sailors." We really hope the Kuna gets his ulu back.
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