Between a Rock and a Hard Place
It had to happen at some point and when it does it will always come as a shock. This evening after a long journey north from La Rochelle we arrived at the bay Anse Des Vielles which is on the south eastern corner of Ile d'Yeu and as we approached some considerable distance off shore BANG, SHUDDER, SCRAPE. We had hit an uncharted obstacle. I quickly looked at the chart plotter and marked the spot lest I had made a navigational error, I hadn't the charts said we should have been in 9m of water.
We left La Rochelle with the seven o'clock bridge so we were up promptly at 6am and after a quick shower and unplugging the shore power and singling up all the lines we were ready to go. I made a quick VHF call to the Capitanarie to confirm the open time "yes seven o'clock" was the reassuring reply. Soon the alarm sounded and the bridge closed to traffic and we slipped the lines and the bridge opened, the light went green and we slipped out. As we left we wondered what we were thinking, the weather in La Rochelle was at least 4 degrees warmer than the 60 miles north that we were going and the sky was ominously grey.
As we slipped under the bridge once again connecting Ile d'Re to the main land it started to feel like the end of our holiday as we start our return journey; it is of course psychological as we have lots more planned. Linda soon removed all the cockpit cushions as we could feel rain in the air, but it didn't rain and there was no wind just dark clouds. As we reached the end of île d'Ré I realised that there was just enough wind to sail with our cruising chute (pink'un) sheeted in like a code zero. This we did for a number of hours traveling at between 5-6 knots. It required careful watching because it was on the point of collapse the whole way so the trimmer was kept busy.
We were about 4 miles out of the anchorage and the wind shifted (the island effect?) and we could no longer carry it so it was quickly packed away and the engine went on. It didn't matter because we were going to enter the anchorage in about 45 minutes so we would have had to drop it at some point in any event. We were entering the same anchorage we stopped at on the way out and it is protected from winds from the north and open to the south, we were approaching from the south what could be easier.
We don't know what we hit I think it was a rock what else could it have been at 7m above what should have been the bottom. We have a shallow depth alarm and that was not triggered. It all happened so fast it was all over in perhaps two seconds. As I said I marked the point took a photo and ran down below to see if we were taking on water. I pulled up the floor boards and; nothing everything was dry, phew. We quickly headed into the anchorage and called the following boat on VHF to tell him not to follow in our track, surprisingly he answered my call and changed course.
We found a place to anchor but the anchorage was pretty full at this stage and space was limited. I called the insurance company and our friends on Sea Rose. Nigel was his level headed self and a calming influence, I was undoubtedly in a state of shock. We had not made a navigational error we really had struck an uncharted object. The insurance company noted what had happened but offered no advice any remedial action was my decision.
Linda made some tea whilst I got out the GoPro camera and found a long stick. We launched the dinghy and I lowered the camera under the boat in what I thought was a likely area. I did this to both sides of the boat and then jumped back on board to survey the footage.
As I was downloading it we were visited by the people (a British couple) from the following boat who were concerned about what had happened. Linda made them some tea too. We all sat around the table looking at the footage wondering what and how it could have happened.
We can see that the lead keel has struck something with a glancing blow and a bit of lead has been cleaved off. There is also a horizontal scratch along the length of the keel. We think it was a rock, what else could it have been this was not a crab pot!
We had anchored in such a hurry that we found ourselves the victim of a rogue boat, the nearest boat was lying differently to all the other boat in the anchorage. Usually all boats swing together the same way but this boat was completely random. At one point his stern was pointing at our stern it was the strangest thing I have ever seen. We had no option but to move. By this time every other space had been taken and so we were forced to be the furthest boat out. However whilst we were the least protected from the wind we were in fact the most relaxed because we were not going to hit anyone and the night could not have been calmer.
Linda cooked some fresh salmon and we put on an episode of Silk and I checked the bilge at regular intervals and set the anchor alarm. Tomorrow we will decide what to do.
We left La Rochelle with the seven o'clock bridge so we were up promptly at 6am and after a quick shower and unplugging the shore power and singling up all the lines we were ready to go. I made a quick VHF call to the Capitanarie to confirm the open time "yes seven o'clock" was the reassuring reply. Soon the alarm sounded and the bridge closed to traffic and we slipped the lines and the bridge opened, the light went green and we slipped out. As we left we wondered what we were thinking, the weather in La Rochelle was at least 4 degrees warmer than the 60 miles north that we were going and the sky was ominously grey.
As we slipped under the bridge once again connecting Ile d'Re to the main land it started to feel like the end of our holiday as we start our return journey; it is of course psychological as we have lots more planned. Linda soon removed all the cockpit cushions as we could feel rain in the air, but it didn't rain and there was no wind just dark clouds. As we reached the end of île d'Ré I realised that there was just enough wind to sail with our cruising chute (pink'un) sheeted in like a code zero. This we did for a number of hours traveling at between 5-6 knots. It required careful watching because it was on the point of collapse the whole way so the trimmer was kept busy.
We were about 4 miles out of the anchorage and the wind shifted (the island effect?) and we could no longer carry it so it was quickly packed away and the engine went on. It didn't matter because we were going to enter the anchorage in about 45 minutes so we would have had to drop it at some point in any event. We were entering the same anchorage we stopped at on the way out and it is protected from winds from the north and open to the south, we were approaching from the south what could be easier.
We don't know what we hit I think it was a rock what else could it have been at 7m above what should have been the bottom. We have a shallow depth alarm and that was not triggered. It all happened so fast it was all over in perhaps two seconds. As I said I marked the point took a photo and ran down below to see if we were taking on water. I pulled up the floor boards and; nothing everything was dry, phew. We quickly headed into the anchorage and called the following boat on VHF to tell him not to follow in our track, surprisingly he answered my call and changed course.
We found a place to anchor but the anchorage was pretty full at this stage and space was limited. I called the insurance company and our friends on Sea Rose. Nigel was his level headed self and a calming influence, I was undoubtedly in a state of shock. We had not made a navigational error we really had struck an uncharted object. The insurance company noted what had happened but offered no advice any remedial action was my decision.
Linda made some tea whilst I got out the GoPro camera and found a long stick. We launched the dinghy and I lowered the camera under the boat in what I thought was a likely area. I did this to both sides of the boat and then jumped back on board to survey the footage.
As I was downloading it we were visited by the people (a British couple) from the following boat who were concerned about what had happened. Linda made them some tea too. We all sat around the table looking at the footage wondering what and how it could have happened.
We can see that the lead keel has struck something with a glancing blow and a bit of lead has been cleaved off. There is also a horizontal scratch along the length of the keel. We think it was a rock, what else could it have been this was not a crab pot!
We had anchored in such a hurry that we found ourselves the victim of a rogue boat, the nearest boat was lying differently to all the other boat in the anchorage. Usually all boats swing together the same way but this boat was completely random. At one point his stern was pointing at our stern it was the strangest thing I have ever seen. We had no option but to move. By this time every other space had been taken and so we were forced to be the furthest boat out. However whilst we were the least protected from the wind we were in fact the most relaxed because we were not going to hit anyone and the night could not have been calmer.
Linda cooked some fresh salmon and we put on an episode of Silk and I checked the bilge at regular intervals and set the anchor alarm. Tomorrow we will decide what to do.
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Approximate location of impact. The pink lines show our track.