Tangled Anchors
by Chef Carole CastleSo, there I was holding my breath to beat the band, eyes wide open staring at Patty through my flooded snorkel mask, wondering where the underwater stuff was in my job description of catamaran chef/crew. Sheesh!
I had applied for the job as crew/chef after a "girl’s" vacation to the Virgin Islands where we visited Captains Scott and Cara, friends from Miami. Although I had quite limited boating skills, I had hoped the motivation of a new life in the sparkling Caribbean Sea would carry me through my inexperience. The Capt. who hired me offered a free training week with his existing crew, Patty. I was to shadow her for the week’s charter with 2 well-behaved couples from New England. How perfect! I promised to stay out of the way in HER galley, and to make myself useful at her request.
I learned the art of outdoor table-setting in the wind, gracefully hooking a mooring ball, tying off fenders at just-the-right height, and pulling-in or letting-out the dinghy when under way as we had no davits. I quickly learned why this was important.
Patty was in the galley preparing something complicated. I was on deck watching the Captain turn the boat after leaving our mooring. Suddenly, he turned to me and shouted: "Get in the water and unwrap the dinghy!" I had absolutely no idea what he was walking about.
Being brand new to the boating world, bikini clad, I jumped in the water, as requested. He frantically pointed at the propeller where I saw the tightly twisted line on the metal shaft. I prided myself on my strength, being a former gym rat, so I just starting tugging on the line. Freeing it was easier said than done! With the encouragement of those on deck, I managed to extricate it. Yay! What an initiation to unexpected duties. This was early in the day as we started out for Dead Man’s Cove at St. Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands. And now, the fun begins.
We were day 3 into the charter, Patty and I had learned to work together with the established pecking order, and now trusted one another – and none too soon for what was about to ensue.
It was crowded in the popular day spot. We had arrived early enough to snag a prime anchorage. The Captain had been running charters in these waters since the 1960’s. He knew the good spots. His anchoring techniques were superb. He always patiently waited to make sure it was set, personally dove the anchor, and kept an eagle-eye on incoming traffic, often helping bare-boaters choose appropriate places to drop anchor. When it was time to leave, I went to my post at the bow to signal progress of the rising anchor chain. Much to my surprise, there were TWO anchors at the end of the chain. I did a double-take, not fully comprehending what my eyes were telling me. He lowered it quickly! We saw another catamaran being pulled toward us. Where was the crew? Oh boy. Yet a third boat was being inexplicably pulled in our direction. Everybody was puzzled. As the boats got dangerously close, we knew something was terribly wrong.
Patty leapt into action! She looked at me and shouted: "Get your stuff on!" I thought to myself, "What stuff?".
As she hastily donned snorkel gear, I followed suit. We dove to the sandy bottom and there was the spaghetti snag of all three anchors. She immediately assessed the situation, started pointing orders at me, and we went to work disentangling. We surfaced for air and saw three 45’ catamarans converging to a center point, exactly where our "gasping-for-air" little selves were, adrenaline kicked in, we re-submerged and untangled the mess. We surfaced to find both crew and charter guests snarling at one another, as to who was at fault.
Patty got her strong voice on and yelled "You’re free. Go!" When they realized what she was saying, each boat slowly motored away from the pack and went their merry way. Patty and I boarded our boat, looked at each other and burst out laughing. We felt like the "Bond Girls" from the 007 movies and now we are "bonded" for life. It was only after the event that I realized the magnitude of what we had done. I can still vividly picture those 3 seemingly massive objects creeping toward us. What an initiation!
Patty taught me a lot in the galley, as well as on deck, but what I learned that day will forever enrich my life. Don’t panic, assess the situation, do your best, and top it off with a smile! Such is a day in the life of a charter crew; you never know what the day will bring.
Smooth sailing!
Carole Connolly Castle was formerly Chef/Crew under Capt. Mike Satterlee, and is currently living in Santa Cruz, California.