![]() |
Not missing Dad. |
"He
should already have one," said Bale the office manager.
"Why
should he?"
"Because
he's the most important."
I
paused, then a realization dawned on me: crew cannot be members absent a
captain. "Oh, Mike didn't arrive with us," I said.
"Who
sailed the boat here?"
"I
did," I said.
"Then
you are the captain!" She smiled.
"Yes!"
I said.
It
wasn't a lie. There's no strict hierarchy aboard Del Viento, and with
Mike gone there was no question who’d been captain these past few weeks. But
that was new. The three hour sail from Nadi Bay to Musket Cove had been my
first solo sail—though it wasn’t truly solo because I had my kid crew with me.
I
thought back to that journey. I’d been nervous. Even though everything I’d be
doing I'd done a hundred times before, I realized that I'd never taken total
responsibility. Perhaps I'd never captained the boat before? Does Mike feel
this responsibility? Or have we truly split the job, always sharing
responsibility?
I
realized how much peace of mind having backup had always given me. Countless
times, two hands aboard had been better than one. Simply raising Del Viento’s
huge old mainsail is usually a two-person job. I thought back to groundings
that did not happen and collisions avoided because we had two sets of eyes on
the job. Just recently I’d caught a sheet on a hatch. It was certainly
something I could have dealt with alone, but it was helpful to have one of us
on the foredeck to free the line and the other at the helm managing the boat.
![]() |
Eleanor and Dillon (Sangvind) flying a kite. |
What
concerned me most was equipment failure, especially engine failure. Our
raw-water engine pump was on its last legs. In fact, Mike was returning with a
replacement. I was banking on squeezing a few more hours out of the old one. I
came up with a plan in the event I lost the engine en route.
Having
dropped Mike off at the airport, the day of departure was upon us. Together,
the girls and I raised anchor and headed across Nadi Bay, weaving through the
fleet of boats anchored off Port Denarau. Once underway, my nerves calmed.
Winds were light and on the nose. We continued motoring toward Musket Cove. I
kept an eye on the temperature gauge. When the wind later increased, still on
the nose, I advanced the throttle. I could have raised the sails, but we'd have
had to tack back and forth and I was eager to reach our destination.
Then
I noticed the engine temperature needle creeping towards the red. I leaned over
the transom. Water was spitting out of the exhaust, but the volume was
diminished and was accompanied by a bit of steam. Alarmed, I throttled way
back. While I watched the temperature gauge, I ran through my options in the
event I lost the motor:
- sail
- drift and let the engine cool and try again
- anchor
- call for a tow
I
decided my best option would be to raise sail and head back downwind to Nadi
Bay, which is wide open and shallow. I would be comfortable getting there and
anchoring under sail.
Fortunately,
it didn't come to that. Throttling back did the trick. The engine temp returned
to normal as did the water from the exhaust, the steam was gone. After an hour
of slow motoring we entered the mooring field at Musket Cove. The moorings
were full. Circling around, we found a spot behind our friends on Full
Circle. Within minutes of anchoring I was sitting in the cockpit with a
cold beer, watching Frances fly around the anchorage on a surfboard, towed by Sangvind's
fast dinghy. I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back: this was definitely
going to be worth the journey.
Quick thinking about the captaincy and way to go Windy! Musket Cove is now on the bucket list...
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