Xmas

Into another new year and I just hope it will be better than the last one, which was pretty shit in parts.

Over xmas I was busy refloating a ship and securing it to a new mooring and piloting a boat up and down the Sierra Leone river.

Cat 1, 15 passenger capacity, cruising speed 20kn.

 
The ship was the Fotherby, owned by a friend of mine, which ran aground during a storm back in October. luckily for him it managed to hit the only bit of beach in a quarter mile of rocks. had to wait for the spring tide on Dec 23rd to re-float it as in Nov the catamaran we used to tow it had her engines out for service.

Fotherby on the beach.

 

 

 

Cat 1 with tow rope attached.

As the pictures show we tried to do this during the day but failed as the tide was just not high enough. The highest tide was at 9pm so we had to attempt this in the dark which caused its own problems. Fistly we only had a searchlight on the cat and a couple of torches on the Fotherby. Along with this we had a slight language problem with the locals never fully listening to you but guessing what you want and doing what they think you want. i had a Brit driving the cat and a yank on the Fotherby ensuring the rope was tied securely. The problem was with the run around boat which was manned by a couple of local lads trying very hard not to get things wrong. Only they tried too hard and were guessing what was needed and were not always where they were needed. Anyway all came together with a bit of shouting and swearing and we managed to get the Fotherby on the anchorage we set a few days before. This time she will NOT drag or break her moorings as we have her on a half ton anchor and great big heavy chain. now all that is needed is to get the engines checked out and have her back in service.

Fotherby floats.

After this came the back to back thrashing of the Aussies in the Ashes. Don't mind being up all night for 5 days running when England are putting the aussies to the sword with innings defeats.

Have become involved in a new bar project along with driving boats and diving. A bar is being built by the jetty where the cat is docked sitting out over the sea. unfortunately as with everything else here it is a very slow process as there is no sense of urgency in this place. We are hoping to be open before the 50th anirversary of independence in April.

New bar ....... eventually.

Happy new year to you all.