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Trip Start Apr 17, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End Ongoing

  St Mary's Island - Scilly - England, Spain
Saturday, June 18, 2005

(continued from yesterday...)

By 6pm we were only 10 miles from the Island of St Mary's but due to the fog we couldn't see any land yet. A few ships were around looking like ghost ships in the mist. At 1.5 miles away there it was...

"LAND!" i shouted totally pleased with myself that i had won the competition to spot the first bit of land. I cant say that it looked welcoming, no bacon and cheese toasties, no warm tropical beaches or girls. Just a jagged dark rock protruding out of the ocean.

"ENGLAND! that's god damn England!" said Tim in a voice of great relief. As the detail of the rock came clearer, other rocks, slightly larger came into view behind it.

We were looking for the marker buoy in the water to guide us in when the engine stopped. All 3 of us didn't say or do anything for about 5 seconds, the engine hadn't been running too well lately so it was about this time when a lump appeared in my throat. Ditmar opened up the engine hatch and, using the spare battery he sparked the engine back to life. Tim spotted the buoy in the distance so we headed straight for it.

We were going slow at around 1.5nm/h due to the large number of underwater rocks around. There is a cocktail of ship wrecks around the Silly isles, not so long ago a navy ship in the same area as we were now ran onto rocks and sank killing 300 people on board. When we were about 100 meters from the buoy the engine stopped again.

"what's going on now" said Ditmar

I looked at Tim who was at the helm and he looked worried, he was probably thinking the same when he looked at my face. He was having trouble keeping the boat on course as we were hardly moving now with no power, the sails were still down as after the storm a few days ago there had hardly been a breath of wind. Water was breaking over small rocks to the left and we were starting to drift dangerously close to them. As we neared the buoy Ditmar got some rope and tied one end to the steel cleat on the left side of the cockpit. The idea of this was to secure the boat to the buoy and attempt to get the engine running again or call for help. As the boat passed the buoy he threw the rope onto it, the rope wrapped itself around the steel frame and it caught! The joy was short lived though as when the slack of the rope tightened it was too much strain for the cleat to hold so it snapped completely away from the boat almost taking Ditmar's leg with it. The speed in which it left the boat was incredible. It was bolted down but it snapped like a twig.

We all shouted different words of surprise and we all realized that this really wasn't a good situation now. Ditmar went down below and grabbed the radio...

"mayday mayday mayday, this is sailing vessel crusader do you copy?"
"we copy crusader, name your state of emergency, type of boat, your position and number of people on board."
"we have engine failure and are drifting onto rocks entering St Marys harbor, we are a 40 foot sail boat and there are 3 people on board"

At this point i was considering what to stuff into my pockets incase this boat did sink.
The sirens went off in St Marys, as two lifeboats were launched. The fog was even thicker now. My mind was racing thinking to myself 4000 bloody miles and we sink on the last mile, there can't be a god!. I felt sick.

Rocks were roughly about the length of a train carriage away so we let out a bit of the Genoa to try to get some speed to steer away. The life boat was alongside us in about 4-5 minutes. A man by the name of Paul stepped on board...

"it's possible to sail in but it will be interesting"

5 minutes later with the Genoa half let out, Paul told Ditmar and myself to get some rope and fasten it to the front of the boat. We went forward, did as he said and waited for his next instruction. I could feel my body becoming exhausted from sleep deprivation and lack of food. As we neared the harbor the wall appeared through the fog, it was on the right side of the boat at a 45 degree angle.

"right, i'm going to swing her around this wall and hug the corner as much as i can, there are steps a bit further up going from the water right up to the top of the wall. When we get close i need you two to jump off onto the steps with the rope and tie it to the iron rings as quick as you can but be careful, the steps are covered with algae (so they are slippery)". said Paul

Ditmar and i climbed over the outer lines and were standing on the outside edge of the right hand side of the boat facing outwards with the ropes in our hands. With the Genoa half out we were going 3nm/h which is about 2.9nm/h too quick when jumping off a boat!

The steps appeared and we jumped. We landed and both of us slipped straight away, i picked up the rope which was quickly disappearing with the boat and began wrapping it around the ring. Ditmar did not have time to wrap his rope as he slipped quite badly. We braced ourselves but the boat was going too fast, the rope snapped straight and we were dragged to the rings and the rope started going through my hands causing rope burn. Ditmar held onto the rope for as long as he could causing his hands to bleed. As the rope and the boat vanished behind the wall Ditmar was panicking

"Shit, my boat! My boat!"

We ran up the steps onto the harbor and to our relief saw crusader at almost a complete stop further along the wall. Our rope efforts had done just enough to slow it down in order for the boat to come to a slow stop 20 meters down the harbor. Ditmar and i were both shaking and my knees were like a vibrating nintendo controller. We both patted each other on the back and shook hands. Tim climbed up the ladder and shouted as loud as he could "I've just sailed across the f**king Atlantic Ocean! WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!" The 3 of us came together in a circle and looked at each other with big grins on our emotional faces.

"Look at Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis here jumping off and leaving me on the boat heading for a brick wall!! said Tim with a smile. The first thing i did after this was take a shower. It was clearly the best shower of my life. Tim and I then headed straight for the closest pub, Ditmar said he would follow us later as he wanted to have a cigarette and some time to think. We bought 2 pints of cold beer, some chocolate and 2 packets of salt and vinegar chips. The owner of the pub asked if we were the ones who had called a mayday, we said yes and were then told that he would pay for our food and drink.

The Scilly isles lie 40nm south west of the British mainland, with a population of 5000 it's very quaint and easy going. Tim disappeared from the pub around 11 and i didn't see him for another 16 hours...

"Where the hell have you been?" i said when i saw him the next day
"ahh i ended up sleeping under a rowing boat, i couldn't bear to spend another night on that leaking boat"
"fair enough"
I spent that second afternoon walking around the island, checking out the castle and fortress. I said goodbye to Ditmar, wished him good luck and left him by the side of the wall with all his tools out trying to find out what was wrong with his engine. Tim did not say goodbye.
We boarded the ferry at 4.30pm and were soon underway. I got talking to a lovely couple from London while on the ferry who upon arrival in Penzance were kind enough to give me a lift to the English coastal town of St. Ives in Cornwall. I arrived in the town at dusk. The couple dropped me off in the town center. The place was packed with Friday night drinkers having a good time. I hadn't seen this many people in one place since the States so i sat down on the wall and just took it in for a few minutes. It was dark by the time i finally found somewhere to stay.
"Hi, have you got any rooms left"
"Sorry we're full"
"aghhh"
"you having trouble finding anything?"
"lots of trouble" (my next option after this was sleeping on the beach)
"hang on"
The man went inside for 2 minutes...
"We can do something if you are willing to dos up anywhere..."
"Yes! No problem, that would be great"
5 minutes later i was in a hot shower that wasn't coin operated and happy. That was last night... I am now on a train on my way to Exeter where i will change trains to head to Cardiff in Wales. I have run out of money to go to London at the moment so i will work for a bit first and then continue my journey.

So this is it, i have crossed the Atlantic Ocean, i set out looking for an adventure and that is exactly what i got. After 3 days on a train, 3 weeks showering out of a hose pipe in the backyard of a Norwegian guy named Yawn's house, 4 weeks pissing into a Gatorade bottle (possible future sponsorship opportunity), enough 2 minutes noodles to last a lifetime, 2 months of awesome scenery, whale sightings, dolphin sightings as frequent as the daily newspaper (the daily dolphin?), a sumo-wrestling raccoon. a couple of storms, a mayday call, falling into the harbor while drinking in the Azores, burritos in New Mexico, bag searches in Taiwan and realizing that the Atlantic Ocean is bigger than Don King's hair style...I've had the time of my life. If i ever fly from Europe to America there wont be one minute when i complain about the length of the 8 hour flight...

All text in this travelogue was written by Paul Moses
paul_moses18@yahoo.com

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