January 26th, 2013, Providence, Colombia
Our friends Dick and Petra came over in their dinghy from their boat Sally Lightfoot (an aluminum monohull) and joined us for a sunset drink and a nice chat. We met them in San Andrés, and then we are both anchored at Providencia.
We went to bed at a reasonable hour. At around 1:30 am, the wind picked up and it started to pour rain. I got up to close hatches and put out buckets to collect rain water. I’d just got back to bed when there was a big thump. Gayle was first up and first to identify the problem. Sally Lightfoot was pinned perpendicularly across our bow. (Her anchor had dragged.)
Our anchor couldn’t hold both boats, and we were then sliding back together. Luckily, we slid past and not into the catamaran behind us.
We managed to back up enough so that Sally Lightfoot could pull away from us. Both boats went off in opposite directions to re-anchor in the rain.
In the morning, we inspected the damage — not as serious as the loudness of the thud, but through the gel-coat nevertheless.
Pete and Gayle had already noticed a guy in town doing some first class fibreglass work. It turns out he worked at the power station, and did fiberglass work as a hobby (he was building a 35ft boat). He (Justino) came out to the boat on Monday afternoon and made a very nice repair. He refused payment, but did ask if we had the plans for our boat (perhaps he’ll build one like it), so we made photocopies of what we had and gave him a very nice bottle of single malt scotch to say thanks.
Sally Lightfoot sustained damage to her stanchions. Happily, they were able to find a welder on the island who could straighten and strengthen those. Her repairs were done by Tuesday. It’s a small island (5,000 people) but they have good crafts people. Pete has commented multiple times on the quality fit and finish here relative to San Andrés.
[For the record, Dick and Petra are welcome to visit anytime, but we hope that this is the last visit unexpected for all of us.]
Looks good! Happy for you, quality craftspeople are available there!! Love your posts!!!
See you soon! We leave Newark tomorrow morning around 9am, first to Houston, and arriving in Belize City around 3:30.. We arrive at Ambergris at 4:55..