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In 1992, I took a group of charter guests around the
island of Mallorca on a whistle-stop ten day tour. On the ninth day, I took the schooner into the pretty anchorage of Portals
Velles.
We had all had a wonderful week and, miraculously, had had no breakages or breakdowns. I
was feeling very pleased with the boat, and myself, and decided to take
my guests to spend their last evening in a seafood restaurant located in the westernmost of the three
'calas' that make up Portals Velles. We would leave early the following morning
and I would drop my guests off in Puerto Portals.
We sailed into the 'cala', rounded up into the wind, dropped the two staysails
and, as
the boat came to a stop, let go an anchor. We dropped the mainsail and, by the time I had lowered the
dinghy, everyone was in the cockpit enjoying sundowners and commenting on what a lovely
anchorage this was.
The wind had picked up and I felt it prudent to drop the second anchor before going
ashore. Basking in the guests' comments of "nicely done, Skipper",
I motored up to make a Y , nipped smartly up to the foredeck and released the
anchor. At first it ran smoothly out but then the chain jumped the roller and jammed.
I leaned over, took the weight and got one of the guests to jemmy the chain out of the
gap. This done, I released the anchor and whatever chain had still to
run. Somehow or other, I must have got the tripping line wrapped around my wrist when hauling to take the weight of the chain because, as the chain rattled out, I was jerked over the side
like a rag doll!
I guess I had inadvertently made a rolling hitch as, whilst there was pressure on the line, I couldn't undo
it. I had dropped the hook in approximately 5 fathoms and my ears were popping. I had to go down, I reckoned, to come
up. I pulled some slack on the line and got free, rising to the surface coughing and spluttering.
So much for my trouble free week and attempting to appear
'Mr. Smooth'...
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