Monday, July 02, 2007

S/V Elysium Lost

Well, in our last episode we mentioned that the EPIRB of the trimaran Elysium had gone off and the USCG was checking with the family to see if it was a legit deal or not. Sometimes they are set off by accident which can cause all kinds of problems and expense for searches, etc. that are not needed. In this case it was the real deal but none of us knew that at the time. NB: Maggie Drum has an EPIRB on board right next to the boarding ladder ready to grab if something goes wrong.

The cruisers out here try to take care of each other, and, everyone likes to hear of problems and talk about them, etc. Just like normal people back in the real world. Well, we did not know if this was a mistake or what and much of the radio chatter was about that and whether any one knew anything more. I should back up a second though and fill you in on how we knew them.

When we came in to Suva two weeks ago they were the first new boat we met. The crew was at the Royal Suva Yacht Club for sundowners and we were introduced to them by Steve on S/V Oz who we knew from NZ. Louis was the skipper/owner, Roberta a past friend of his, Patrick a friend of Roberta's and Dorothy who knew somebody before too. Louis takes new crew on a various places and they go diving and cruising and drinking. Louis is a dedicated cruiser from the Caribbean. He flew a Puerto Rican flag instead of a US flag on his US boat, has long hair, enjoys his beers and diving and is very laid back. The crew were lively and entertaining and knew some people we knew from other places and boats (small world out here).

They had been on the hard at the small boat yard here for several days and I found out later it was to fix a bent prop shaft which was causing a lot of vibration while motoring underway. It was fixed by a local from another town, but when they put it in the water for a sea trial, the boat still vibrated bad. I also heard later that a hole was punched in to the side of the plywood boat when they hauled it. I also heard that it may or may not have been rotten wood, which would be bad juju. It was patched before they got launched.

There was a lot of discussion in the anchorage as to whether they should get it all fixed 100% before leaving (which was my opinion) but Louis was in a hurry to go and did not think it was "a big deal". I then lost touch with them and did not know if they had made a final fix or not. It may have been bad or misaligned motor mounts, a still bent prop shaft or a bearing, but who knows now. They took off two days before we did, bound for Vanuatu.

When we heard about the EPIRB on the net, we also heard from Paul on Ranger that a Mayday had been reported the day before on the net, which we did not hear. The pieces were starting to come together. The family had called the net controller for the Pacific Seafarers' Net, which is a amateur ham radio net out to the US that helps with just this sort of thing. Turns out, the USCG denied knowing anything about the EPIRB, as did the Honolulu station that is supposed to coordinate for out of country searches in the Pacific. So no one knew for sure if it was still real.

We found out yesterday by radio from Steve on Oz, that the boat had been lost near Vanuatu, and that all hands were safe and sound on the little island of Fatuna which is near the island of Tanna where Elysium was going. We will try to find out from the skipper or crew what really happened. It was reported that when they did the Mayday, they said the prop shaft had come loose from the motor/transmission coupling and was trying to back out of the boat, which would leave a hole about 1 inch in the back of the boat below waterline - also bad juju. We heard they were keeping it together with pipe wrenches.

So now the backseat drivers of the world (like me) will be out in full force telling everyone that they knew these guys, and how unwise it was to have gone out with known problems, etc. etc. The truth may be entirely different and may never be known. It will be interesting to hear though and is a cautionary tale for the rest of us who should never get too complacent. Our motor died on the way over to Gau (next story) but that was just a plugged fuel line and we got it fixed in about 15 minutes.

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