Cetacea comes to rescue and jump starts Anjaneya

As with any offshore journey you can expect the unexpected. Friday the crew of Cetacea experienced mechanical and rig issues that we dealt with. Tonight we had the more, rare encounter of coming to the assistance of another vessel in trouble.

As we were maximizing our headway in light air we noticed a small light in close proximity to us, at around 2200 hours. First, we thought it was a flare then noticed a flash from a small light and upon further inspection of our radar we confirmed a target that was a small vessel without any navigation lights on an intercept course with us. We hailed the vessel who identified themselves via handheld VHF as Anjaneya, a 42’Beneteau and fellow competitor in class D in the Marion to Bermuda Race.

Anjaneya requested assistance, explaining that they had no power aboard and no way of starting their engine. Without power Anjaneya had no electronics or proper navigation equipment to safely sail the boat back to her home port or to Bermuda.

After dousing our sails we approached Anjaneya and carefully laid abeam, being careful not to have the masts hit as the 2 boats rocked side to side and we tossed lines to each other so as to tie up and offer assistance. This is the first time I was grateful for light winds in this race, if you can imagine 2 sailboats side by side in a rolling sea. Not a very comfortable nor safe position.

After we secured Anjaneya, we removed our starting battery and carefully transferred it to the tired and welcoming sailors aboard. After successfully starting their engine and getting Cetaceas’battery placed securely back in its place we reset our sails and continued on with the race. We have documented our assistance in our log and will request relief from the race committee for the hour that we spent rendering assistance.

It’s late and we have extended our watches to assist Anjaneya, our crew is exhausted and its time to get some much needed shut eye.

Before signing off, I want to wish a happy Father’s Day to my father who was responsible for getting me into boating and who taught me how to sail. We all have great stories and one of my father and son stories is the memory of being about 9 years old and driving our 16’runabout across the Straits of Mackinaw, steering a rhumb line in a storm, with 0 visibility, with a small compass as my dad worked on the engine to keep it running.

Great memories and great life experiences. Dad without you I wouldn’t be sailing to Bermuda.

Happy Fathers Day to all!

Christopher J. Culver and the crew of Cetacea