I have heard this story from a friend who joined the crew of one
Croatian sailing school on their way from
Central Adriatic to
Malta and back.
This trip has been organized for years as the
completion of sailing courses within education for
advanced level skipper. The boat was prepared for
long-distance sailing, the crew has gathered, the provision was completed and the
forecast was
favorable.
Everybody was excited but keen to take off as soon as possible. The chief instructor was well known
Croatian skipper and a member of team that competed in
Whitbread Round the World Race (
Volvo Ocean Race as it is called nowadays) for two times, so everybody was confident that everything was going to be OK, even if the weather went worse.
Our crew has left
Jezera on Murter island in
Central Adriatic in Croatia and steered their
Elan 45 to
SE. The administration procedure regarding leaving Croatian territorial waters was done at
Ubli, island Lastovo and the yacht headed
towards the Otranto gate. The mood onboard was fine and everybody enjoyed non-stop sailing, changing watches every two hours. The experienced instructor was telling stories from his journeys, mentioning few
seafarers’ superstitions and
interesting anecdotes linked with them.
His only superstition is about the
umbrella and flowers onboard. He believes that
umbrella attracts rain and storms while
flowers bring bad luck. So neither umbrella nor flowers are allowed onboard the yacht under his command. The crew enjoyed their cruise until they passed the Otranto and started sailing
alongside Sicilian coast towards Malta. They got the
gale warning and counted that there is enough time to get to Malta before the gale comes.
Unfortunately, they misjudged the distances and the speed of the gale as well as they did not count on the ‘calm before the storm’. They faced another problem when the
engine refused to start. Things were getting better and better…
Our crew found itself
in the middle of the storm while the
waves climbed
up to 10 m. The storm originated above
Rotterdam where the port was closed for the first time in its history, and continued its way to the
Black Sea where it sank two ships. At the same time, neither ships nor planes were connecting Malta with the rest of the world.
Our crew struggled the storm but was confident about the sunshine after rain. After about
36 hours of struggle they noticed
a leak because the saloon was full of water. Since the engine was off, the bilge pump stopped working because the batteries could not be charged. The water had to be
pumped manually so another ‘pump-watch’ was established instantly, still trying to find the source of the leak. The
struggle against waves continued
one more day when the storm went away and Malta appeared some 10 NM ahead the yacht.
However, the instructor decided to
change the course and head to
Syracuse, Sicily. When they finally moored at Syracuse the crew
inspected the yacht in detail and discovered that it was taking water because the
bow hatch was not closed properly – some tiny rope was stuck between the deck and the window… This simple oversight made them pump some 1600 liters of water, as calculated later according to the capacity of the pump borrowed at Syracuse marina.
However, one of the
crew members decided to leave and catch the first
plane from Sicily to Split because he had enough of sea adventures while his roommate admitted he had an
extra small umbrella in his luggage.
The umbrella was instantly given to the guy who had the plane to catch. There is no data about aircraft accident but sailing back to Croatia was smooth and pleasant, regardless of unfulfilled dream about sailing to Malta.
I wonder what would have happened if someone of the crew decided to express his love to another crew member with a posy…
I wish you a calm sea, a fine wind and a strong mast!
