NUTS & BOATS
The twice monthly newsletter for to-be and already-are cruisers Volume 2, Issue #14 - July 15, 2004
Publisher: Trish Lambert
www.takehersailing.com
(C) P. Lambert 2004
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CRUISER’S EYE VIEW
The Cat's Meow Rescue by Hermy Vogt Note from Trish: July has turned out to be "Baja Month." Last issue featured a story about the joys of cruising the Sea of Cortez for a season. This issue features the flip side of the story: a catamaran's near-sinking and the heroic efforts of the cruising village to rescue her. Our visiting author, Hermy Vogt, is another "family member" of ours from Silvergate Yacht Club in San Diego. She and her husband Jack have been cruising their Tayana 37 IWA (a homophone of EVA) in Mexico for, let's see, three years now...at least. She kindly gave me permission to retell this story. ********** N 25 35' 338"
W 111 10' 019"
Hot Springs, Cosme Anchorage, Baja California Wednesday, May 19
At 10:00 pm the wind shifted, now coming out of the west at 35 knots. Because she was riding on a lot of scope, Cat's Meow (a 50-foot wooden catamaran) ended up on the rocks once she came into the wind. Martin and Robin were asleep until the boat hit bottom. They were up and on deck in seconds. To a totally black, moonless night. Martin turned on the engine, windlass, GPS, radar, and depth sounder. Very disoriented, he proceeded forward very slowly, and drove the boat right into the rocks. Attempts to back out did nothing...they were stuck. They called nearby boats via VHF; their crews responded and came to help. Several hours of attempting get them off the rocks were fruitless. The tide kept coming in, the boat kept heeling over, and water was up over the rail and coming into the boat. The pumps were running but could not keep up. Martin and Robin abandoned ship around 3:00 am. They put out a call for help to the Mexican Navy, and they came to help. Thursday, May 20
Jack and I heard about Cat's Meow's situation in the morning on the Sonrisa Net (the "crack of dawn" 80-meter cruiser's daily ham radio net). We were anchored in Bahia Salinas on Isla Carmen. Robin was asking for help with pumps, fenders, and lines, anything that could help keep the boat afloat. Many boats started to call in from anchorages all around the area to say that were on their way to help, and we were one of those. It took us four hours to get there. Cat's Meow was stuck in the rocks facing the beach, listing to port. The port stabilizer was stuck in the rocks. The Mexican Navy was diving on the boat along with Martin, trying to tie as many fenders, cushions, and anything else that was buoyant under the port side. They couldn't see any holes in her at that point. Several powerboats tried to pull the boat out, but no luck. The Mexican Navy called their panga, which came in to try to pull her off. They made all the boats move out of the way so they had room to maneuver in their light cruiser, which is about a 220 feet long. It made at least three attempts to pull her off. Each time, the heavy towing lines broke. The noise from the tow line when it broke was so loud it could be heard for miles! People in other anchorages said later that it sounded like a shotgun going off!! The cat would move ever so slightly each time. At one point the Mexican Navy was going to give up but Martin and Robin pleaded to try one more time. They said that they would get a heavier tow line ready and that they would need help from all the cruisers in their dinghies to hold the one and a half inch tow line up so it wouldn't sink. It was getting close to dark at this point, and we were all getting worried. All the dinghies strung out about 75 yards apart to hold the line up and moved away as soon as the big ship started to pull on the line. It was quite an effort on everyone's part. One of the cruisers dove on the catamaran to see if he could remove some of the rocks around the stabilizer before they towed her so that it wouldn't rip off before the last attempt to tow her out. It was so wonderful to see so many caring cruisers there, even cruisers that didn't know Martin and Robin. The strain on the tow line was quite something. We were all fervently hoping that it would not break with the strain and would able to pull her off this time--and it did! When Cat's Meow did come off, she immediately started to sink. What a heart-wrenching sight! Everyone was yelling, "Start the pumps"! And you could hear Robin crying and yelling out on the radio "Pronto, pronto, start the pumps"! The water was coming in fast! She was sinking by the second! The Navy tried their darndest to get their pump to the boat, but too late...she was going down. Made of wood, the boat ended up just barely afloat; the top deck was the only visible part...everything else was underwater. Now there was enormous commotion, with everyone yelling to tow her to the beach. Dinghies everywhere waited for instructions. One of the Mexican Navy pangas came over and grabbed a tow line from the cat to tow her into the beach, but she was just too heavy, filled with so much water. They asked for a powerboat to tow her in closer to the beach. One responded, with the help from several dinghies pushing on the powerboat to keep it from going sideways. They finally managed to get Cat's Meow closer to shore with an anchor securing her to the bottom to be sure she wouldn't go anywhere in the night. She was listing to port badly. Everyone was so tired and the emotions took their toll on everyone, especially Martin and Robin. They had been so sure that once the cat was off the rocks they could get her pumped out and floating. They hadn't taken anything off the boat except their cat, the computer, their important papers, and themselves. It was a very sad scene. At one point Martin was missing; the poor guy was found hunkered down in a fetal position on the bridge of the cat, just exhausted. It took several attempts to pry him out of there and get him to another boat to feed him and put him to bed. Another cruiser organized a watch crew to stay with her all night. The Mexican Navy also slept on the beach and kept a watch. Friday, May 21
Jack and I had the 5:00 to 7:00 am watch. On our way back to our boat, we saw Martin and Robin standing on the bow of the boat they'd slept aboard, staring at Cat's Meow. He said he was so exhausted the night before, he didn't remember going to sleep. Robin's eyes were swollen from crying and she had had only a few hours of sleep. Once everyone got breakfast we all went back to the site. Martin dove on the boat with another cruiser to assess the damage. They found a four-foot hole where the port stabilizer had been. Martin put out a plea for wood, ring nails, and what ever they could use to patch her up. They also asked for barrels to tie to the bottom to keep her from going side to side so they could work on the hole on the port side. Barrels started showing up on the beach, brought by folks from all around the area. Everyone helped bring the barrels out the Cat's Meow with dinghies, and divers tied them to the bottom of the boat. They were able to get 40 barrels in all! I organized a team of ladies to feed the work crews, and I had lots of great help. We pleaded for food and, wow! Did we get some wonderful stuff to feed the crew! Everyone in Puerto Escondido (a cruiser enclave near Loreto) came to the rescue and sent tons of food. We managed to go around and collect money to send someone for provisions. The menu was egg salad sandwiches, ham and cheese burritos, spaghetti dinner, sloppy joes, and chocolate birthday cake for one of the helpers--it was a birthday he won't forget! Saturday, May 22
We stood the 5:00 to 7:00 watch again. The noises coming from the cat were eerie and the diesel smell was overpowering. The Mexican Navy decided that they had to empty the diesel tanks and pressurize them for flotation. About 600 gallons of diesel were pumped out. Not good for the divers trying to patch the hole, but it had to be done. We put out a plea on the nets for more help from cruisers, and more boats came! All told, we had at least 24 boats in the anchorage helping out. There were at least four divers in the water all day long. Another plea was put out for as many anchors as possible to use to keep her up right. They had a bow and a stern anchor and about four anchors on either side. The pumps went on and at one point they had the bow all pumped out but the stern wouldn't come up. It was discouraging. The Mexican Navy guys worked their buns off all day long. They were a wonderful crew! I have never seen anyone work as hard as these guys did. Can't say enough about them! Sunday, May 23
Early start this morning--everyone was at the site at 6:00 am. The strategy was to close all the scuppers with cut up neoprene that was stapled to thin plywood strips and close all the holes in the boat as soon as possible. The pumps started pumping. More barrels were put under each side. Had to have a powerboat keep tension on her tow line to keep her upright. Once patching was done, they started the pumps again and still could not get her pumped out. Martin checked the tide; the lowest tide would be at 4:00 am. He would be there along with anyone else that could help to start the pumps then. The divers would be on hand if the barrels needed to be repositioned. Monday, May 24
THE CATS MEOW FLOATS!!!!!! YAHOO! At 4:30 am everyone was there and willing to go to work. The cat was coming up fast with the pumps working at full speed, and by 6:00 am she was up all the way and starting to look like herself again! Martin was making plans to take her to Puerto Escondido as soon as she was ready. He put out a call for everyone's help to remove anchors and take all the barrels off and to the beach. By 11:30 she was on her way under tow. Some of us went with her as escorts and others stayed behind and cleaned up. She was towed with no problems at all. Word had gone ahead of us that Cat's Meow was coming, and dinghies were arranged to be at the entrance to help push her into the sea wall. It was amazing how she just slid right in. Once we picked up our anchor line, anchor, and other goodies, we were underway, leaving a new crew to help clean the cat up. Epilog, July 15
So that is my view as how the events went. It was quite an ordeal. There was so much going on that I am sure I missed some details. It is hard to keep everything in memory at our age! All I can say is that it is wonderful to see the sailing community come together and help out! It felt good to be able to be able to be part of the rescue team. Cat's Meow was instrumental in helping towing boats back into Puerto Escondido during Hurricane Marty last summer--she deserves to have help come to her rescue too! The cat is now in La Paz having major repairs done. It is going to take a lot of work to get her back in shape, but Robin and Martin have a good attitude and will to bring her back to life. | 
