Day 30 Troubles and heros

When “Swell” isn’t swell
Decisions - We planned to leave this afternoon for Fatu Hiva so Mark and I went to the hotel on top of the hill to use the Internet one last time. We have been unable to send from the boat for several days so a working connection, even if it is a slow dial-up is quite a luxury.
Before I went to bed last night I began to feel ill. Fever, achy joints and a touch of “Polynesian revenge.” As the morning progressed, I began to feel worse and Mark decided we should wait a day since the medical facilities on this island are better than Fatu Hiva. If I began to feel worse, it would be better to be here.
That decision led to some good and some bad outcomes. The good was that I was able to talk to Tim, Jordan and William on Skype. We had tried to Skype when I was in Mexico but could not get a good connection. Here, the connection was clear and by using “radio” language, we had a great talk.
Over, Over - What is radio language? When two people talk on the ham radio, they cannot both talk at the same time (like you can on a telephone) or they cancel each other out. To avoid that, when each person is finished speaking they say “over” and that signals to the other person that they can talk. With Skype, there can be a significant delay between when you talk and when the other person hears you. This results in the same kind of canceling as the radio so by using “over” you can control the time lag and each person can hear what the other is saying. It takes a little time to get used to but it is very handy and it works. (We did not go so far as to use the radio terms “copy that” and “roger that” but maybe we will the next time)
Swells - The bad outcome was that by nightfall, some significant swells built up in the anchorage. Ocean swells are the result of weather or storms that might be hundreds or thousands of miles away. They are long parallel sets of waves that are quite far apart. As they approach shallower water, the mass of the wave top catches up with the slowing bottom water and the wave breaks. For surfers, this is what you live for, but for an anchored sailboat, this can be trouble. The force of these waves can throw an anchored boat around and cause the anchor to drag pushing the boat closer to shore and to shallower water.
I had gone to bed early as I was not feeling well and Mark, Kurt and Andy were on deck getting ready to turn in when a large wave broke over the bow of No Regrets tearing their dinghy from its place in their stern. It was about 10:30 and cloudy so it was very dark even though the moon was almost full. We radioed No Regrets and got them up just as another wave hit and tossed them violently about. Southern Star was anchored slightly in the lee of the breakwater so we did not get the full force of either wave. By the time everyone was awake enough to react, their dinghy was gone and No Regrets was in trouble so they started their engine with the intent of pulling up their anchors and moving. While the rule says “never put your motor into gear when you have a stern anchor out” it is easy to forget such rules when you are being slammed by one wave after another. Needless to say, in a second, the anchor line wrapped around their prop and stopped their engine. In a a flash, Mark and Andy grabbed snorkel gear, jumped in our dinghy and flew to the rescue. In the dark - with the sailboat heaving in the surf, Andy performed an act of heroism by jumping into the shark inhabited water and unwrapping the tangled rope from their prop. It is easy to speculate that without motor power, the next thing to happen could easily be the bow anchor dragging and their sailboat going ashore.
No Regrets was able to move to a safer location in the area which commercial ships use that is safely behind the breakwater.
Read on about the continuing adventure that happened after midnight.