Mr Proach
Well-Known Member
Cruising at a sedate and steady 15kts from Port Camargue to Cap D'Agde the other day was akin to negotiating a minefield! Full sized, semi submerged trees, logs, fish crates and of course the lobster/crab pot buoys. We managed to avoid them all, although with the swell some were close calls. Well today luck ran out and between Port Leucate and Argeles there was the dreaded bang! Again, taking it easy at 15kts and with a good lookout we hit a semi submerged pot buoy with no flag so I suspect we weren't its first victims.
Back to idle and gingerly exercised both engines to find a horrible vibe on the port engine. Luckily we were less than 1nm from Argeles so limped in and arranged a lift out to inspect for damage. I even found a marine engineer, on a Saturday who could do the inspection with me.
There was about 1/2m of aluminium pipe and associated lines wrapped around the port prop, amazingly the only damage was the shaft anode had been pushed out of position.
Having mentally prepared myself for a credit card melting experience we were back in the water after an hour and only €230 down.
I guess the moral of this story is don't let your guard down, the traps are out there, and be prepared to change plans and improvise !
Back to idle and gingerly exercised both engines to find a horrible vibe on the port engine. Luckily we were less than 1nm from Argeles so limped in and arranged a lift out to inspect for damage. I even found a marine engineer, on a Saturday who could do the inspection with me.
There was about 1/2m of aluminium pipe and associated lines wrapped around the port prop, amazingly the only damage was the shaft anode had been pushed out of position.
Having mentally prepared myself for a credit card melting experience we were back in the water after an hour and only €230 down.
I guess the moral of this story is don't let your guard down, the traps are out there, and be prepared to change plans and improvise !
