Polly Put the Kettle On

by Warwick Fatches on 2 Sep 2010 Saturday morning of the Heaven Can Wait 24 hour race. An incident or a moment that could have been tragic. It happened onboard Jessily my Traditional 30.

My crew of Ian, Dale, Mark and myself were motoring from Wangi Bay, where Jessily is moored to Toronto RMYC (about a 45 min voyage) to meet the fifth member of our crew Gavin at RMYC and catch the 8.30am briefing.


If you can remember, Saturday morning was very rainy, windy and bleak and Ian had drawn the short straw and was steering in this miserable weather, while the rest of us were downstairs in the cabin packing and stowing, planning race tactics, reading SIs, etc.

When we passed Coal Point, about halfway, a cup of coffee was suggested to warm us up.

Mark, who was onboard for the first time, has over 20 years' navy experience and is Vice Commodore at Wangi Amateur Sailing Club, was our nominated catering officer.

Eager to familiarise himself with his new galley, Mark quickly lit the two-burner metho stove and put the kettle on to boil some water to make us coffee.

We continued on toward RMYC; I had installed a new speedo throughout the week which needed calibrating, and this kept all of us busy.

We arrived at RMYC all excited about the upcoming event and little pushed for time. We quickly secured Jessily to the wharf and slid the hatch shut, put the companion way door in (as it was still raining) and and hurried ashore to catch the 8.30 am briefing.

We made it for the briefing, we paid some money, had a chat to our friends and fellow competitors. We tucked into a great big hearty breakfast, (thanks again Toronto Rotary) and generally just killed a bit of time. For once I felt organised.

As departure time was drawing near, Dale and Wayne, a friend of ours (who was still waiting for his ride, Fly Blown, to arrive from LMYC), wandered out to the wharf and stood by Jessily waiting for his ride while the rest of the crew and myself headed for the toilets to get rid of some unwanted nerves.

With Wayne and Dale standing by Jessily, Wayne asks Dale 'What the hell is that whistling noise coming from Jessily'.

Before Wayne could finish his sentence, Dale had scrambled onboard opened the hatch, climbed down into a floating sauna with a cabin filled full of steam and with condensation droplets dripping off the cabin roof everywhere and my poor little kettle still screaming its head off -- which it had been doing so for more then one-and-a-half hours.

Woops!

Wayne met us back in the club, and asked us if anyone would like a coffee -- to which Mark and myself responded by looking at each other and yelling out 'O SHIT' (or words to that effect).

Needless to say Mark now has a new nickname of Polly around Wangi Amateurs.

Thankfully no harm was done and all was well that ends well.

PS: I must otherwise thank Mark for his wonderful catering skills as we enjoyed a wonderful 'Curry chicken' for tea and tasty 'Savoury mince' for breakfast.

After the race we were tied up to RMYC wharf unrigging and enjoying a chip and vegemite bread roll and beer for lunch, when Mark -- who was suffering from a little heartburn and indigestion -- pulled out a packet of Mylanta to ease the pain.

Turns out the entire crew were suffering from the same symptoms, and had been since tea the night before. We finished off that packet of Mylanta in no time.

Thanks for a wonderfully run event -- I trust others will get a giggle out of our Heaven Can Wait experience.

See you next year