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Whilst we were continuing our boat maintenance in exotic places, our friend Barbara on the catamaran Queimarla contacted us. Her news was that a yacht, Mikado, was calling for assistance. They were 4nm outside of the entrance to Salomon Atoll, in the Chagos Islands, Indian Ocean, and we were anchored inside. The Chagos Islands are beautiful, tropical islands, uninhabited except for the US Defence Base at Diego Garcia about 100 Nm away. Mikado's immediate problems seemed to be an engine that would not run, they thought the reason was bad fuel and they had no wind. It was sunrise and I was just getting ready to do some repairs to our starboard rudder. After a bit of confusion as to who would go and tow them in, it was decided that El Kouba, a NZ yacht was the most suitable. They were bigger, heavier and had a stronger motor than the rest of us. The 'rest of us' being Gone Troppo and Queimarla both Australian catamarans and Ynot an Australian mono. Queimarla, with outboard motors, had concerns about their ability to handle the swells, Ynot had engine problems of her own and we had only one rudder.
So Gail, my wife, and I continued on with the repairs and after a couple of hours were half way thru glassing the rudder box we had damaged on the sail to Chagos when El Kouba radioed in. They were having difficulty with their motor over heating, and they would not be able to get out to Mikado, but thought that they would be able to limp back to the atoll. Meanwhile, Mikado was drifting further away and the current was taking them straight to Blenheim Reef. With not too many choices left, we volunteered to go, but asked for an extra hand. Paul from Queimarla volunteered and brought some extra line. While waiting for him to arrive, we hastily finished fibreglassing the rudder box, but had to leave it on the cockpit floor to cure. It was decided to leave the anchor with a buoy on it, as it might be late by the time we returned and clear anchorages were hard to find.
Our boat, Gone Troppo, is an 11m Crowther Windspeed catamaran weighing approximately five and a half tonnes fully loaded and is powered with two 12hp diesel engines. Mikado's weight was thought to be about 25 tonnes. We thought that we might be in for an interesting time, for although the wind was Force 0, there was a swell of about 1.5 to 2 metres rolling in from the southern Indian Ocean, the current was going to be against us, and we only had one rudder. Mikado was now about 8 nm from the entrance to the atoll, which was 4nm from where we were anchored, a total of 12nm away. On the way out to Mikado's position we discussed how we would pass the towline, how we would rig it, and what length it should be and assigned tasks to crew. We thought we would try and throw the line if it looked safe, otherwise we would float it to Mikado on a fender. The tow would be set on a bridle from the stern cleats, as we didn't like the idea of it running past the helmsperson to central winches. We thought that we would like to have about two hundred metres of line out to take up any snatching caused by the swells. We would be using 100 metres of 12mm and 100 metres of 14mm nylon line. As we went out thru the pass, near Ile de la Passe, El Kouba slowly motored in, nursing their motor.
By the time we caught up with Mikado they were about 11nm from the entrance and close to Blenheim Reef. They had already rigged a line from the bow and it was decided to make a pass and have them throw it across to us. All went well, Gail helmed us into position, Paul caught the line first throw, but then Mikado slid down a swell towards us. I just managed to push Mikado's pulpit so it passed astern of our Targa Bar. We knew then that we should have chosen to float the line across, but luckily no harm done. Paul and I then joined both lines together and attached the bridle. Gail slowly motored us away until the tow went tight, and then increased revolutions to normal cruising speed. It took five minutes before the GPS said that we had overcome the inertia and current and were moving in the right direction, albeit at only half a knot. Over the next half hour we slowly increased speed to 3 knots, it was going to be touch and go if we were to get thru the pass before sunset.
The towline would disappear in the swells and then whip up when we were on top of a swell. We also noticed that we would stop or even go backwards when Mikado was on the other side of the bigger swells, thankfully this did not happen too often. The length of the towline (200m) seemed to be just long enough for the nylon to absorb all the shocks and not stress the cleats. We experienced no jarring until the tow was shortened. Engine revolutions were increased to as far as we dared, to give us a better chance of reaching the narrow pass before dark. We slowly clawed our way up to 4 knots as we reached the lee of the islands.
The sun was setting as we shortened the tow to go thru the pass. To avoid bomboras Paul climbed the mast to the lower spreaders to get a better view. Mikado informed us he needed three metres of water beneath him. I told him we could not be sure of seeing reef at that depth in the current light and would he like to release the tow and drop anchor. He responded by saying he would let us make the decision, as we knew the waters better. Paul, Gail and I conferred and it was agreed that we would finish the tow as soon as we found a spot that was clear enough for Mikado to anchor. Luckily we found a suitable spot a few minutes later and released the tow about three miles from where we had been anchored. We promised to return to complete the tow to a safer anchorage in the morning.
Now we had to find our way back to our anchorage, and with our draft of half a metre, it was possible to spot the reefs and bombies and avoid them, we hoped. Our friends back in the anchorage had gathered on Queimarla, which was anchored near us, and as we came close they shone torches onto our mooring buoy. Paul had guided us in without any close shaves. We were picked up and taken over to Queimarla for dinner and a well-deserved drink.
The next morning while we went out to recommence the tow, Hamish from El Kouba marked a clear spot where Mikado could anchor. This would decrease the amount of towing in the small spaces between bomboras searching for a suitable spot. It took a lot of shouting to wake the crew on Mikado, for they had lost the use of their autopilot several weeks earlier and had not had much rest for quite some time. We recommenced the tow and two hours later they dropped anchor on the spot that Hamish had marked. They then went back to sleep and we finally got to meet them the next day. Their motor was still not running when we left the atoll a few days later, and we heard that they had to be towed out of the atoll by another Aussie yacht, Aphrodite.
Funny coincidence that both of the yachts that towed Mikado (Aphrodite and Gone Troppo) were later attacked in the Gulf of Aden by pirates, but that is another story.
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