They say that accidents occur as a result
of a series of errors; this was certainly true when Tad slipped off the top
deck in the process of giving “Bisou” a good scrub in Gibraltar prior to a
planned departure for Morocco the next day.
I was down below doing something domestic when I heard an almighty crash
on the deck above, and some voices saying “Are you alright?” I raced up to the main
deck to see Tad splayed out on his back groaning. Some passers-by had seen him fall and came to
check on him. It seems that two errors
of judgement had led to this accident: 1. Although he always wears deck shoes
on board, today Tad had decided not to (bare feet are very slippery where soap
and water and gel coat are concerned). 2. The boom was moved to one side, over
the top of our helm station bimini and Tad had not moved it back to the centre
of the boat. What had happened was, full of water and soap, washing down the
deck, Tad had reached far across the bimini to scrub the solar panel on top and
his feet had slipped out from under him, causing him to crash down onto the top
deck and from there slide down and fall onto the main deck, with his lower back
hitting a hatch cover. Needless to say,
he was not a happy camper!
Out came the arnica spray, comfrey lotion
and the ice pack and I set to work! I
felt that Tad should go to the hospital and get an x-ray or at least see a
physio or chiropractor, but being a man, of course he said no! Our departure for Morocco was postponed and
the next few days were spent with me running around doing errands (I did finish
washing the boat that day) while Tad rested himself and tried to get a decent
night’s sleep with the aid of anti-inflammatory tablets.
It’s one of those things where you say “If
I had worn shoes” or “If I had moved the boom across so that I didn’t have to
reach so far” but it was too late. The
damage had been done!
Still, five days later Tad declared himself
well enough to head north (we abandoned the idea of Morocco for the time-being)
so off we set. There was little wind as
we left the Straits of Gibraltar and headed into the Mediterranean Sea. We had planned on a long stretch as far as
Cabo de Palos, with an option to either head to Formentera at that stage or
head into an anchorage for the night, depending on the weather. As it turned out, it was just as well that we
had the ‘escape hatch’ of Cabo de Palos since the wind ended up rising to
double the predicted strength on the second afternoon out. With 40 knots (plus) of wind, and 4 metre
seas, we were both exhausted by the time we reached Cabo de Palos at about
midnight and decided to turn into a protected anchorage just to the north of
the cape.
While lifting the anchor hatch,
unfortunately injury #2 occurred – I bent over and my lower back went into
spasm. If you have ever had a lower back
injury or a severe muscle spasm in your back, you will understand the excruciating
and debilitating pain that erupts suddenly and just about knocks you off your
feet. Luckily, although I had not
experienced this for over 20 years, I did have this happen before and knew what
to do. But first I had to get the anchor
down and in place, which I did, and then got ice onto my lower back as quickly
as possible and took arnica! Now there
were two of us with back injuries on a boat in the middle of nowhere (well, at
least not in a marina!) By this time it
was getting on to 1:30am and we needed to get to bed – we both took extra-strength
ibuprofen and went to sleep.
We woke to a spectacularly clear and still
morning to find that we were in a lovely spot off a beach. My problem was that I could barely move – I
had to get up to use the loo and just about fainted in the bathroom I was in so
much pain. So it was back to bed for me,
while Tad got us underway and up to where we knew there was a secure anchorage
for all weather conditions.
It was at this point that we experienced
‘accident’ #3. Not so much of an accident as a malfunction or damage
really. Tad had decided to run the
watermaker while we were underway (we usually run it when the engine is on as
we never like to miss an opportunity to top up our water supply) and it was
humming away nicely in the background (the pump and the saltwater intake are in
the bilge near our bathroom/head); I lay on the bed in a semi-doze when I
suddenly heard a sound like air being let out of a tyre at high pressure. I leapt out of bed (how do you do that with
an excruciating back spasm? Adrenaline!)
and saw water squirting out of the hose from the pump leading to the
watermaker. I ran up to the instrument
panel, turned off the watermaker and then back down to the bilge to shut off
the sea-cock (valve to the hose leading from the seawater intake to the
pump). To Tad’s surprise I appeared at
the helm station standing, to inform him that we had a ruptured hose in the
watermaker system and then went back to bed.
To spare you the long and boring details,
here is what then transpired in brief: the wrong type of hose had been
installed by the mechanics in La Rochelle who were responsible for installing
our watermaker and a new hose had to be ordered and sent to us in Mar
Menor. The problem was, as we were at
anchor, we had no fixed address. We took
the dinghy into Puerto Tomas Maestre at Manga Mar Menor and asked them if they
would accept a FedEx package on our behalf.
Initially they balked, explaining that they had a marina full of people
they needed to look after and couldn’t be accepting packages from random people
such as ourselves, etc. but eventually,
somewhat reluctantly agreed. This was
Tuesday and we hoped we would have the hose by Thursday at the latest.
Stalled in a rather lovely place, we
decided to make the most of our unanticipated stopover and really relax, heal
our backs and take things as they came (the best way when cruising,
really). We made forays into the marina
to park our dinghy and go shopping at the local (rather well-stocked and
well-priced) supermarkets, the chandleries (hopelessly under-stocked and open
at random times not commensurate with the hours detailed on their doors), and
enjoyed a few meals at the local restaurants.
One lucky find was the grassed areas to the west of the row of holiday
apartments along the promenade, just southwest of the marina. This area, supposedly ‘reserved’ for the
patrons of the apartments, is a lovely area to sunbathe and, as we discovered
to our delight, enjoy a massage from a ‘mobile therapist’. This nomenclature is
rather tongue-in-cheek as these two or three gentlemen are generally of
oriental origin (two of them were from Shanghai, China) and although they carry
around a Chinese book showing acupressure points and meridians, I doubt that
they went much beyond looking at the photos and ‘educating’ themselves
thus! However, both Tad and I thought
that a massage would do us a great deal of good and so we indulged over the
next few days. The water was very warm
and although plenty of jellyfish were in the area, the beach near the promenade
was netted so they didn’t tend to come in.
Apparently these particular jellyfish (Cotylorhiza tuberculata) are not vicious stingers but we both made
sure to steer clear of them when we saw them!
The suitable repair hose finally arrived
late Friday afternoon (how it took 4 full days to get from France to Spain by
FedEx is beyond me), and Saturday morning was spent installing it with great
success! We had watermaking capabilities
once again! You don’t realize how
accustomed you become to having fresh water literally ‘on tap’ without having
to enter a marina to fill up. Plus the
fact that desalinated water tastes so much better than chlorinated tap water
from the town! Our solar power
capability allows us to make water even without the engine running so we can
literally make water anywhere at any time (although generally we choose not to
make it where the water is not reasonably ‘clean’ so as to not clog our filter.
Tad having a massage on the grass at Mar Menor (Puerto Tomas Maestre)
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