As you know, the Skipper managed to release the rope tangled in the prop and with it, our ability to deal with the balance of our journey, including entering port and docking the boat. However, we still have just over 400 miles to go – sounds like nothing – but wait – is that a nasty weather system sitting up the coast of Africa heading south. Oh yes, that would be it!

We’ve been seeing this new system build and head down the coast bringing Northerly Winds at about 40 knots. Nothing too crazy, but an unpleasant wind direction given we will be sailing directly west. In any event, getting into the port at Cape Town is not something to do in those winds, so we’ll figure something out, no doubt.

BUT, we no longer need a plan b and so the strokey beard session won’t be needed. We just don’t want to get into another slugfest with the weather just before we make landfall – but it would be true to form for this passage!

Anyway, when day dawned this morning, all was quiet aboard. We were trickling along at 2.5 knots in the lightest of winds. Dave had gone down to grab a little  shut eye and the rest of us started stirring. James and I took on our 09.00 watch and we all started to ready the boat for the big dive. First, the equipment had to be checked over and laid out. We needed to put a long line off the stern with a huge fender on the end as a safety line. We opened up the stern gates and lowered the swim ladders. Dave had emerged looking like a prize fighter before a major slugfest where the betting is all on the other fellow, but your family are being held captive until you beat the other guy against the odds and the big bet on you, that will come in just before the first bell rings – pays out. Complicated – maybe. It was best to say nothing, offer no advice and let Dave get himself into the mental position he needed to be in to go and make this dive. I knew in my head, I could execute this perfectly and without issue, but the problem was, it wasn’t in my head it had to be done – and as we’ve already established , not the job for me! Things were tense. Maybe beyond tense. The only way to break the tension was to either do this thing or abandon it. 

Anyway, after viewing the latest recon footage of the prop and the rope, courtesy of the Colombians’ GoPro, having assessed the sea state as being as calm as it was likely to be – which was still a sizable swell, Dave announced it was time. We helped him into the diving suit, added the weight belts and tank and then he was in. The boat was still bobbing significantly and their seemed to be a current flowing. We tried our best to hold the boat still and at the right angle to the wind. But – there was precious little steerage.

After an up close and personal look, Dave asked for a knife on a stick. We duck taped a rope cutting knife to the Boat Hook and he took it down and started to cut into the rope. Some definitely came loose. Progress, and with it, confidence. After taking a breather, down he went again and this time, with just the knife in hand, he disappeared under the boat, emerging soon after for a breath and then diving straight back under. He may have issued a string of expletives about the boat speed and direction in between gasping for air. In fairness, he was entitled to get pissed off and show it, but there was precious else we could do about the boat – it was showing 0.3 knots of speed and without steerage, turning it too a specific heading was impossible.

Anyway, having vented his annoyance he ducked back down and under and two minutes later the huge ball of rope emerged behind the boat and with it Dave! He had freed up the prop! I couldn’t gauge the look on his face, but knowing his family would be safe and the bet had been won must have made him quite relieved! You can imagine the relief and the reaction of the rest of the crew. Well no – a whale had surfaced less than 50 feet off the  Starboard beam and with the exception of Thomas and I who were at the stern supporting Dave, the rest of the crew were in raptures having grabbed cameras and they were “cooing and purring.” Luckily, Dave didn’t know that and by the time he emerged up the swim ladders, attention was all back on Operation Freedom and the glory that was rightly his. Incidentally, the whale moved to astern of us and surfaced again – it was awesome, but only a good runner up to the awesome from the achievement of releasing the prop. The ball of rope was a seriously large jumble of crappy fishing related stuff. We wrapped it in a large tarp, tied it and moved it to the fore peak for later revelation once on land.

So now we are motor sailing and heading towards the coast of Africa. Dave celebrated by having some of us out on deck whipping chaffed lines and generally doing maintenance tasks. Wow, that boy knows how to celebrate – I was for a beer, but we are staying a dry boat until the end! Back off to watch, but tonight it’s a boat with a much lighter feel to it!

Pip pip