When Big Boats Hit Little Boats

It was a dark and stormy night.

It wasn't supposed to be stormy. No meteorologist predicted a strong and prolonged squall, with winds estimated over 50 knots, to hit Suva Harbor. As South Pacific weather guru Bob McDavitt put it, "weather is a mix of pattern and chaos...this was part of the chaos."

Chaos, indeed.

Exhausted from the passage and eagerly anticipating blessed sleep, we had just finished dinner when there was a horrendous BAM!!! and scraping sounds, and our boat heeled over. Art rushed outside--yes, he did put a lifejacket on--and we got slammed again. He expected to see a sailboat and saw instead the huge hulk of an interisland ferrry, with a man leaning over its stern shouting "I have no power!"

The vessel pushed us onto the next anchored yacht, Ms Murphy. Art and Ms Murphy's owner, singlehander Gordon Gregg, struggled valiantly to keep us away from each other. Meanwhile, in close quarters with extremely limited visibility, I worked at the helm to keep us from drifting into other sailboats nearby. When our two boats were finally several meters apart, Art managed to pull up the anchor--only to discover it was entangled with Ms Murphy's anchor and also with a fishing net. Because the anchoring area is small and close to shore, soon both of our vessels were aground.

Our chartplotter at 11:30 p.m. shows the path we took after the collision,
and where we came to rest

Our keel is 7'1" deep, and already we were in only 6.5 feet of water. As the tide went out, that depth decreased to 4.5 feet. We spent the rest of that night cringing at the horrid sounds of  our keel grinding against the bottom. Our luck ran both ways: at least the bottom was mostly mud and sand, not coral and rock.

Joe and Ben from the RSYC clearing our fouled anchor

The next morning an assist crew (3 men in a small boat) from the Royal Suva Yacht Club retrieved our two boats' anchors and cut them free from the large fishing net. Ms Murphy wasn't in as far as we were, so she managed to get towed out by a harbor pilot vessel. We had to wait a few more hours for the tide to rise even further, and even then it took 3 separate attempts. By the time the RSYC boat and a similar boat from the local dive center returned for the third try, we had only 45 minutes before the tide started to go out again.

Art and Paul (RSYC) on the bow, directing the opration

Joe and Ben heeling our boat over with long lines from the top of the mast,
getting a better angle to pull her out

Second Wind shuddered and shuddered, fighting hard to break free. She would move a couple feet then get stuck in another shallow mound, over and over and over, struggling and stopping and inching forward and stopping...finally, with just 10 minutes left, she started to float. When I saw the depth meter read 15', I cried for the first time; the relief, the release, was overwhelming!

They towed us to the anchorage then cut a lot of fishing line off our propeller and prop shaft, so we were finally free. The diver's inspection didn't reveal anything immediately evident in terms of keel or rudder damage. We had dodged the most drastic bullet: the keel bolts were dry, and remained so. What a tough gal Second Wind is! Not wanting to spend one more night in that spot, we motored to a nearby bay and stayed there for the remainder of our time in Suva.

We are incredibly fortunate that the only damage was to stanchions, deck hardware, and the rub rail on the port side, and a lot of paint scraped off the bottom of the keel. Had the derelict ferry not swung away from us when she did, we would have been in much more personal danger and incurred much more damage. As it was, the Princess Civa went on to hit our friends Elysium, sideswiping their freshly painted hull and creating sparks as their rigging scraped along Princess Civa's hull. The ferry then hit the Australian SV Sahula bow on, damaging that vessel's windlass, bow pulpit and bulwarks. Sahula was shoved onto SV Squid (like Ms Murphy, NZ flagged), who lost the most expensive type of anchor and chain available. Ms Murphy had damage to her bow pulpit and propeller blades. Though it took several days, eventually all 5 anchors  were recovered by divers; and thankfully, the structural damage to all vessels was minimal compared to what it could have been. Most important, no one was injured. Again, our luck ran both ways.

We wouldn't choose to repeat the experience, but we did learn some things about boat handling in that situation, and about ourselves. We realized later that we were not frightened, as one might expect--we  were just very, very busy. The task at hand was to save our boat; we only had time to think about what needed to be done, and then do our best. 

Princess Civa,, now aground, near Second Wind

Acknowledgements

Though we would have preferred it be in different circumstances, we enjoyed getting to know the other sailors involved. Gordon Gregg told us later he appreciated that we weren't yelling--not at each other, not at him. Of course, yelling wouldn't have made anything any better, but it is often a first instinct when people get thrown into high-stress situations. We, in turn, appreciated that fact about him. He was very calm, worked to remedy what he could and took the situation in stride. It turns out he is the author of the well-named book Cruising with Murphy, which I will order on Amazon!

Anthony of SV Squid was very helpful and supportive throughout the following morning as the powerboats were trying to drag us out of the shallows.

David Haigh of SV Sahula is near the end of a world circumnavigation, and his crew partner is none other than Lin Pardey--whose writings about cruising we have read over many years! David was instrumental in organizing a group response and pressuring the ferry's owners to compensate for damages (successfully in the case of 2 boats, but so far not in ours).

Paddy Todd, Vice Commodore of the Royal Suva Yacht Club, has been tirelessly diligent in looking out for all of our interests.

Last but not least, sharing the experience friends Dave and Wendy Kall (Elysium) provided the decompression we all needed for several days afterward.

Thanks to all!