Sail-World.com : Megayacht crew save runaway yacht for German sailors.
Megayacht crew save runaway yacht for German sailors.
'Admiralty Bay, Bequia'
Worrying about your anchor dragging is bad enough when you are on board, and worrying about it when you are ashore for dinner is something to make the cautious sailor only leave the boat when the anchor is secure and the night is calm. But it was Christmas! So spare a thought for the couple that went to dinner on 25th December at Bequia in the Caribbean. It could have been you or me.
Arriving back to find their yacht missing, the German couple were panicked until their boat was returned to them by the tender drivers of megayacht One More Toy, under the captaincy of Capt. Mark Diekmann.
Diekmann found the yacht on his radar after it had dragged its anchor for 1.5 nautical miles to the west, and when found was still tailing its anchor and moving at a creditable 3 knots.
Diekmann described to The Triton how 'it really grabbed my attention': 'Upon closer inspection, we could not see any people on deck, no navigation lights were on and no sails were up. I continued on to the anchorage and had two crew members investigate the vessel using one of our tenders that they were already manning.
'My deck crew reported no answer after knocking on the hull and an anchor line dangling from the bow of this 45-foot sailing catamaran. I ordered my crew to take the German-flagged vessel into tow and reported it to the St. Vincent & Grenadines Coast Guard.
'About an hour and fifteen minutes after the initial radar contact, we had the vessel secured in our possession, turned it over to a very relieved young German couple and notified the local Coast Guard that the vessel is secured in the owner’s position once again.
'All of this was done while our charter clients were being served a formal meal and never knew of the events that unfolded on this Christmas evening.'
The grateful couple, who had been 'given their home back' tried to give a gift to the kind megayacht crew, but it was declined.
Editor's Note: Bequia, in spite of its popularity, is so renowned for a slippery bottom that having your anchor drag is called 'doing the Bequia slide'.
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