A quantum entanglement!

16th April 2024

In light of the weather forecast over the next few days we decided to leave St Vito lo Campo this morning. We planned to make the 35 nautical mile passage to Palermo which should take around 6-7  hours. Long enough that you want it to be comfortable.

We knew that there was a window in the weather as a Mistral wind is on it's way, due to arrive tomorrow, Wednesday. By getting this passage done before the bad weather hits we can put some extra miles in and get to see the sights in Palermo while the winds are too strong for sailing.

Lots of checking of weather forecasts last night to see what was happening with the winds along the coast of Sicily.  They didn't agree, some said no wind, some said medium winds, the directions forecast varied. We decided to wait until this morning, look out of the window and make a judgment.

We woke up around 7.30. It was calm and overcast but not cold. OK, this'll do, let's set off. Igor made coffee, we turned the engine on and carefully released the mooring lines in sequence. He put the engine in gear, the boat moved slightly, a few feet forward then...it stopped. Oh dear, the measures he'd taken to treat the fuel didn't seem to have made a difference.

He tried again - forwards, reverse, the engine didn't like it. Without the mooring lines holding us in place we drifted over and our fenders gently touched the boat on our starboard side. The best thing to do was to hold onto its stanchions and walk the boat back to the pontoon, tie up again and sort out the issue.

Normally a boat on the water is really easy to move around. Ours weighs several tons but I can move it easily even if it's fully loaded. Not today. The two of us pushed and pulled but it wouldn't budge, neither forwards nor backwards.

We scratched our heads and looked around to see if we could see any explanation. There was a slim white rope in the water. Igor immediately realised that it was probably fouling our propeller.  It turns out it was the thin pick up line that is used to lift the heavy mooring line that secures the front of the boat. The idea is that it's light and easy to see and pick up when you dock. From the fact that it was sitting with no slack at all it was obvious that it was wrapped around our propeller.

Igor put on a wetsuit and goggles and lowered himself into the chilly water. A few seconds later he popped his head up and confirmed that this rope and the thick rope were wrapped round and round the propeller, which was why the engine kept cutting out. We realised that this happened when we were coming in and was the reason we had difficulty reversing.

We were floating about 15 feet from the pontoon, resting against the boat next to us, unable to move. This was obviously not where we needed to be. I called the marina office to ask for some help. This wasn't straightforward as I don't speak Italian and the lady in the office speaks very little English. She thought I was asking for a mooring and told me the marina was full. 'No, no, we are in the marina already, it's Libra!' She came out of the office, saw us, I waved, she waved and said 'Marinero will come'.

A few minutes later he arrived, lit up a cigarette and said he didn't speak English. With sign language and a bit of 'help' from  Google Translate Igor managed to ask him to undo the white rope, hoping that if it wasn't under tension he might be able to free the line. Igor went back into the water and tried again. No joy, there was just too much rope wrapped too tightly for it to be feasible to him to remove it. We needed a diver.

The marinero brightened up. It turns out that the guys on a nearby boat speak English and are divers. One of them came over and things improved rapidly. For 100 euro his friend would dive in and free the rope. We saw him getting his weight belt ready and heard that he was in the water, and a few minutes later saw his fins through the dark blue water.

It took him quite a while, at least 15 minutes, but eventually he emerged, carrying the end of the white rope and a large pile of bits of frayed rope that he'd had to cut off.

Igor secured the mooring lines at the front and once the diver was safely out of the way tried the engine again. It didn't cut out this time, so we gently reversed and secured our aft lines so that the boat was by the pontoon again.

What a palaver but we decided it must be a message from above that we weren't supposed to put to sea today. By now it was raining and thoroughly uninviting.  

As things go, this wasn't quite the disaster it might seem at first glance. OK, we had to pay 100 euros but if it had been an engine problem we'd have had to pay a marine mechanic a lot more than that.

Also, we're in a lovely place that we are getting to know our way around. Not travelling today meant we could do lots of 'housekeeping'. The boat was filthy, there was a lot of red sand deposited on the deck that was turning into mud. Being here means we can clean it.

The laundry needed doing too, and the town has 3 laundrettes, all highly recommended. Oh, and we needed to buy ice creams to get some change for the washing machines.

We've hired a car from tomorrow for a couple of days so we can do some sightseeing and in the meantime are considering all the many positives of our situation. It's not what happens to you, it's how you choose to react.

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