I make my living as a vet, I have loads of hobbies and I easily get into fusses... but not too big: I´m still alive and the outcomes of my adventures so far has been mostly positive, not without some ups and downs along the way but... Everybody knows that smooth waters have never made a skilled sailor!
The Ti-ta:
My beginnings as a sailor weren’t extremely orthodox. I was paddling in a rowboat on the Txingudi bay with some friends, when we saw a beautiful and unique sailing boat for sale. I called to enquire for the price. The seller didn’t tell me, claiming it was better to see it before revealing the price. They sold it soon after our conversation. A couple of years later, on September 7 of 2012, I went for a nap to my rowboat when I saw it was for sale again. I called asking for the price, 5000 €. I was already on board. The next day I was looking for partners to buy the boat. I didn’t find any. I did the maths and bought it, without having sailed in my life (it was and is beautiful and different from the rest). I took out the PER (sailing license) and I’ve sailed
thousands of adventures ever since, some alone, some with people and few more we still have pending. That wooden Requin from 1948, it is called Ti-ta. According to the guy who sold it to me, it was not suited for novices, as it has no railing, is all wooden, has vely low freeboard, with running backstays and a boom
that surpasses the cockpit at shoulder height. I didn’t care about all that, I liked it and it and to me that was enough.
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| The Ti-ta and its crew |
Shortly after I bought it, I saw another sailboat that caught my eye. It had an open aft cockpit with the highest mast in the whole bay. Even with my null experience with boats I sensed it must be a big thing. One day, I told my cousin about these other boat, he said “let me guess which one you like, it must look like it is about to sink”. He doesn’t like boats at all, but he got it right, he knows my weak spots, I’m a romantic! It was the Sagartxo. It certainly looked like it was abandoned, but far from sinking. As it happened with the Ti-ta and with lot of things in my life, I liked it no matter how much work it was going to require. I didn’t think about it for some time. Its buoy was close to the Ti-ta’s, so I was seeing it every time I was in mine, but I had just bought my own boat, I didn't even know how to sail, so I shouldn’t be thinking of buying another boat.
The Ti-ta is beautiful.
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| In no real story everything is perfect... |
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| ... but it's better to end well than start well. |
THE SAGARTXO:
The Sagartxo is an imposing, 40 feet long and almost 13 feet wide quite unique sailboat, they only made 12 like it. A thoroughbred racing boat with a hull built of fiberglass and carbon fiber. If you want to know more about the model, check this web: http://www.histoiredeshalfs.com/One%20Tonner/OFirst%20One%20Ton.htm
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| A one tonner stomping |
Let’s talk about the history of the Sagartxo and it’s skipper, and how it ended up in my hands.
Few years later, the Sagartxo was still unrepaired, dirty, with it’s deck full of garbage, and moss was growing all over and covering it. I was already improving my sailing skills with the Ti-ta, so I decided to dig deeper into the peculiar history on the peculiar Sagartxo. It seems it was sold in 2009 for 1 Euro to a block who lived in his own car. The boat was motor less and so the guy couldn’t sail with it, but he could live in it. That, for a guy who lives in his car, is like living in a palace. By the looks of the boat, by 2014, the owner was not living there anymore. I found out that he was a street musician, and one day I decided to contact him to find out what was the boat´s situation. He confirmed that he was not living in the boat anymore and he had no budget to repair it. He didn’t want to sell it either, even after my offer doubled the initial purchase price, the astonishing amount of 2 Euro! The owner admitted, he had no way to reach the boat as he had no dinghy and that was why it looked so abandoned, even then he felt really attached to the Sagartxo. Getting rid of the boat was not on his plans. From our conversation I also discovered that on top of the missing engine, the
boat was missing its rudder, it simply had disappeared. Things were getting more complicated but I could not get the boat out of my mind.
One day, I met my sister and her partner and we cleaned the cockpit. Have you ever imagined how weird it must be the smell moss on a boat that is in the sea?. You’ll be thinking, why would bother cleaning a boat which is not even yours? Easy to answer, let’s imagine you have a neighbour with a Ferrari Testarrosa parked on the road. The car is dusty and covered in litter. Is heartbreaking seeing it in that condition, giving it a quick clean it’s not a big deal.
One day, I met my sister and her partner and we cleaned the cockpit. Have you ever imagined how weird it must be the smell moss on a boat that is in the sea?. You’ll be thinking, why would bother cleaning a boat which is not even yours? Easy to answer, let’s imagine you have a neighbour with a Ferrari Testarrosa parked on the road. The car is dusty and covered in litter. Is heartbreaking seeing it in that condition, giving it a quick clean it’s not a big deal.
The Sagartxo goes for a “walk” (I).
Year 2016, I was commuting from work. I realised that the Sagartxo was not on its buoy. Surprisingly, I saw it moored in the port of Hendaye (just in front of my home town), that tall mast is hard to miss. I called immediately the owner, who obviously was not aware of it. The boat had got loose from its mooring and drifted (the boats on buoys are like this, if you do not take them for a ride every so often they leave without a warning!). The owner had not been notified as, officially, the boat had no owner. By 2009 it had been unregistered and the current owner did not bother to register when he bought it, leaving the boat officially orphaned. Desperated, the owner, with no engine, no rudder, no dinghy, no cash and actually, living 18 miles far from the boat, had no idea how to solve the problem… and that was when I offered my help to bring the boat back to its buoy. I had a day off from work. It coincided with live tides, which made it very easy for me to find the anchorage chain (it had sunk into the muddy bay bottom when the anchoring line broke). I walked during low tide (covered in mud to the waist) and found the anchoring in just 10 minutes, I did not realize how lucky I had been until the next year (as you’ll see later). I did a quick fix to moor the boat. With the tide coming in, I met the owner and my cousin (the one who joins me on every adventure) to tow the boat back to it’s buoy. Towing, sounds easy, but towing a 12 meter monster, 5 tones, no rudder, with an elastic band
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| That looks like the Sagartxo towing, but slower |
Already moored at the bouy, the musician and I had a serious conversation. That man truly didn’t want to get rid of the boat, but he had no budget to repair it. I had no cash either, so I would have to sell the Ti-ta to invest the cash and my effort on fixing the Sagartxo. The owner suggested we could be partners, but everybody knows sharing a boat is complicated, and a bad idea if the other half has no money!. I offered to fix the boat myself, keep all the invoices from the materials for the repair and if he found the cash, he could buy the boat back without any charge on labour as the plan was to fix it myself. The only condition was that the boat would be registered under my name. After letting the owner know about the danger and responsibilities of having a boat in that condition, this time he had been lucky, but the boat could get lost on the Atlantic or crash on some rocks, if that were to happen then he would be responsible for removing the 2.5 tone keel
of the boat. In fact, the year after, an insurance company contacted me to talk about some damages the boat had done to other boats while it was drifting free before it was picked by someone else. The owner and I did not reach an agreement. I charged him for a stainless steel swivel I’ve installed and advised him about setting a proper anchoring line.
The Sagartxo goes for a “walk” (II): the party begins.
The Sagartxo goes for a “walk” (II): the party begins.
As you can imagine, he did not fix the anchoring line and the boat got loose during a storm in February 2017. But before jumping to the current situation, let me explain how we got to this point. The Ti-ta had been in the same buoy it was when I bought it until the Spanish authorities set an exit path for Hondarribi’s veterans pier delimited with green buoys. The Ti-ta’s buoy was inside this path and I had to move it out, so I hired a diver to move my anchoring from its former place. The diver in question broke the anchoring chain (it already needed to be replaced) and left the boat on a buoy that, according to him, was free but, the buoy was not free. It belonged to a very nice French man who had his boat grounded for the winter. He told me I could use it, but I should leave it by April. I had the Ti-ta on a buoy that was not mine and nowhere to leave it tied up from April. This happened in February, April was fast arriving... But my brother-in-law had a free buoy while he was repairing his sailboat on the ground.
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| Here it is! |
- Saturday, 04 th February, 2017: The Sagartxo goes for a “walk”, this time
during a storm.
Commuting back from work I noticed the Sagartxo was not on its buoy, it was again moored in France. This time it was not on the port but in the fixed dock where fishing boats unload. I called the owner who had no idea about what to do about it. So I told him my previous offer was still on the table, which made him think about it.
- Sunday, 05 th February, 2017: The Sagartxo is already mine... and contemplates the surface of the water... from beneath the waves.
Early that morning I went to assess the condition of the boat. It was in good condition, no crashes, no more lost parts. I tightened up the mooring as the pier was fixed and the tide was rising. French authorities were looking for the owner of the boat, they don’t like having such a massive boat with an unknown owner, as they would have to deal with it. The owner called me back accepting my offer, I could keep the boat, repair it, keep all bills and he would get the chance of buying it back if he had the money for the materials, while the labour was on me. As you can see, I’m not a good businessman, but I had been given the green lights to start with the project Just that same evening I met my beloved trouble mates, my cousin and his sister to show them my new acquisition, when from far away I spotted the mast (the one you could not miss) it looked tilted. The boat had sunk! My cousin, who can make me smile in any situation, told me “hey Xabi,
you’re evolving, instead of buying a nearly sunken boat you just bought a sunk one!”. My mood changed immediately, "It´s true!" I said. I could not stop laughing...
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| WTF... |
- Monday, 06 th February 2017: Crisis Cabinet.
It was a working day. I had to work from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 16:30 to 20:00, so I didn't have much
time to solve the problem, the boat had sunk! The weather was still bad, and I was feeling ill but, still I decided to head to Hendaye´s port to confirm It was not a nightmare and to explain to the French authorities about the situation, I would be taking care of the boat. I think the boat had sunk due to the way it had been tied up, facing the tide. The Sagartxo had a melon size hole where the axle drives the rudder. On the bouy the hole would not have been a problem, as the boat can align itself against the wind to protect the whole from the waves (good boy!). The hole was about 12 inches over the water level, but being tied to a fixed moor, it had no way to move so water was coming in through, until it
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| Well...really it's sunk. |
sank.
If my theory was correct, then all I would have to do was to attach the boat to a crane to lift it out of the water, and gradually empty the water. I made the arrangements, found a crane and I told the diver about the plan (It was the same guy who helped me with the anchoring). I told him that we would need to place the crane straps under the hull. He said that "no problem". I started organizing the helpers for the rescue.
If my theory was correct, then all I would have to do was to attach the boat to a crane to lift it out of the water, and gradually empty the water. I made the arrangements, found a crane and I told the diver about the plan (It was the same guy who helped me with the anchoring). I told him that we would need to place the crane straps under the hull. He said that "no problem". I started organizing the helpers for the rescue.
At midday, I went back to have a look. I found the authorities, all very kind and worried, they wanted the boat out of their dock. I was dangerous for other boats too. They advised me to set some position lights to alert boats, as the only visible part was the mast. I dressed out, hung the lights around my neck, and just before entering the water in underwear the boatman said "I'll do it, don´t worry!". I told you they were very kind. I explained to the city council, my plan to refloat the boat and take it to my brother-in-law's buoy (the one who had the boat on the ground). The guy at the town hall gave me permission to take it to a nearby beach and strand it there, to assess damage to the hull before leaving it tied to the buoy. Sounded like a good idea and gave me a week of stranding. My optimistic plan was to take it to the buoy on Saturday that same week.
That night, and precisely after 43 phone calls, I had arrange a non professional rescue team formed by:
- A diver.
- A vet (myself)
- A 5'5 tn crane. The new boat has a displacement of 5tn, the margin is a bit fair, but considering that the boat has no engine and that the idea is not to take it out of the water at all, should be enough.
- My cousin (the usual one). Has no idea about boats, he does not even like them and strives in forgetting everything he learns from them, but was willing to help. He was also bringing an industrial bilge pump rented at a hardware store.
- Another cousin (the sister of the above). It seemed she would enjoy it as it would be interesting and fun. She is the one who took the pictures.
- Another cousin. A big, strong dude (I do have a “Popeye” cousin) with a diving license, my cousin´s name is the same as the crane´s operator (this caused more than one confusion).
I meet the whole “dream team” the next day at 7:00 a.m. at the port of Hendaye. Low tide was at 8:00 and I had to go to work by 10:00. Our plan was based on luck to work!
- Tuesday, 07 th February, 2017: "D" day, "H" hour.
It was 6:00, raining, I was still sick, but the storm looked like it would give a wind break. I had a nice breakfast while planning. I was feeling not too keen on wearing the wetsuit I had borrowed from a friend. I decided to wear it from home filling it with warm water in the shower and went to pick up the diver and my cousin (Popeye) with my Citröen 2cv. We arrived at the port and the diver was ready to put on his suit, my cousin... No. He did not bring one! He was not planning on getting into the water, he had only brought his water boots and umbrella. The crane operator arrived with his 4-axis monster and began to prepare. I had the feeling I was getting into trouble, but the plan did not look bad at all: the diver had to pass the straps through the front and the back of the keel to start pulling up the crane. The diver told me he could do it (he was the only
one with exprecience), so I delegated a little bit on him... (As I‘m writing, 3 years later, my chest is shrinking just thinking about it!) My cousin (the usual one) and his sister arrived late, they had been at a hardware store
renting the industrial bilge pump.
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| Everyone in their posts |
It was the first time I had rescued a sunken ship and my second time
wearing a wetsuit. I did not have diving tank, but the diver did. The water
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| Where does this go? |
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| Shall I give you a hand, cousin?? |
it seems like it's floating, but it stays at the same depth. I dropped the mask and the snorkel that I had on my head and that I had borrowed with the suit (I hate not returning the things people lend me). This was going well with no
injuries so far!
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| Horizontally! |
The diver did his job and we were going for the stern. It was quite joyful swimming into a sunken boat in brown waters, where you can get hooked on anything... In one of these manoeuvres the diver got hooked to one of the running backstays (yes, this one also has running backstays, like the Ti-ta, but 4!) and asked me for help. I had to let go and spread the belt through the stern of the keel without further complications. The time finally had arrived! We gave the crane operator the order to start slowly lifting and the diver discovered that he no longer had the knife he was carrying. He started swearing about his 200€ lost knife... “Forget the knife! I'll buy you one! Focus on the boat!" It’s not a good idea messing around about the knife when we're pulling this mole out of the water. On top of all the difficulties, I had to go to work in 30 minutes, so there was no time for those things either.
It was impressive to see the boat gradually emerging from those brown waters, in slow motion, while we watched the ropes, running backstays, shroud, stay, crossbar... anything that could break or get stuck, while it
slowly drained water.
We lifted the boat and started the next phase: draining water. We set the bilge pump and let the machine do the job. It seemed to work wonderfully until some jeans clogged the pump, which heated up till boiling point the water in touch with it (it was powerful). We solved the problem but it was already 9:00, I had to leave my cousins with the diver and the crane operator, but there should not be any more problems.
I left for work at 13:00, smelling like diesel (even after having had a shower before I arrived at work). I called my cousin asking for news: the Sagartxo was floating! The plan worked well, there were no injuries or more damage than expected by water! I took the car and drove straight to the operations area. My team had been with the crane for 5 hours, they had problems with the crane chains and the shroud: while removing water
from the boat, it was tilted (as you can see in the videos) leaving the shrouds and spreaders in a delicate position. As I was told, dude we didn’t know, saw the problem, jumped to the dock, released and fixed the
chains (Cliffhanger way)so the boat got balanced again and the crane operator could keep lifting the boat. There are no videos of the unsung hero, but I was really grateful!. By the way, the diver's knife was not lost, it was in the aft cockpit. We found it later!😁
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Refloated! |
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| This sail to the carrier |
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| It sails!! Towed... |
Well, the most complicated part was done, I had to get back to work at 16:30 and we had to take the Sagartxo to a safe place. The tide was already high and our idea was to take it as a puppy tied to its leash, pulling it from the ground to its destination (we had little means but we had will power). Finally, the boater towed us to that beach and brought us again back to land (had I told you already that they were very friendly?). To prevent the boat from roaming around, my cousin (Popeye) took a piece of heavy asphalt to use as a bow anchor (innocent...) and at stern, I placed the regulatory 33lb anchor of the Ti-ta.
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| Anchored to asphalt |
At 20:00 I left work and went to ensure everything was in order. I got home excited: The Sagartxo was mine! I went to bed thinking that the next day, Wednesday, I had a day off so I could spend it cleaning all the crap that was inside the boat!. The day was interesting! But it had all worked out… How can I surpass this! I closed my eyes and fell asleep...More or less. The storm was blowing again and there was wind at night of those who worry.
- Wednesday, 8 th February, 2017: you won't believe it...
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| That looks familiar... |
As I drove to the beach, I saw the mast of a boat stranded in another area, "The wind has blown hard tonight" I thought... I was surprised how long the mast was and when I spotted the rest of the boat… my morning happiness disappeared: it was the Sagartxo! What the hell is it doing there?
Errors made for underestimating the forces of Nature (I had been so
naive ...): the Sagartxo managed to drift even with the asphalt block and the 33lb anchor of the Ti-ta, the anchor had been placed in “comfortable mode”. Let me explain, one day the anchor got stuck and I had to dive to release it, I was told to hook it with the shackle to the tripping ring and from there to the ring with a plastic flange. So I could pull the anchor easily. I forgot to remove the quick fix and the Sagartxo was pulling the poor anchor across the cross, without being anchored to the sand.
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| Me at 9:00 on 08/02/2017 |
I had already found the cause of the problem, now it was time to fix it: I had a 5 tn boat without an engine, a rudder or insurance, stranded at a beach where it should not be and I was alone... At least it was low tide!! For me the most important thing was to get it out of there as soon as possible and make sure that when the tide came up he did not move drifting on its own will.
Part of the solution was as simple as repairing the anchor of the Ti-ta in. I removed my clothes and walked as far as I could, the water reaching my head, with the anchor in my hands... It wasFebruary, 9:30 a.m., I had the flu and the weather was awful, it even started hailing! Hail pouring over my icy body felt like being hit by rocks, I do not recommend it. After my joyful “bath” I took shelter inside the Sagartxo and managed to warm up by drying with whatever clothes I had that were not soaked. I did manage to feel warm until I reached home later that day. It's funny how relative things can be: Sagartxo´s interior even though it was full of mud, wet, there was garbage everywhere and having been underwater a day and a half, seemed to me welcoming as I heard hail bouncing off the deck.
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| Me at 10:00 on 08/02/2017 |
The idea was, I would wait for the tide to rise and then pull the anchor to get the boat out of there. While waiting for the change of tide inside the boat, the previous owner, the musician, approached to take a look and see if he could help. The tide was already starting to rise a bit and he could not get to Sagartxo without getting soaked, little could he do... but then an officer of Baiona's maritime captaincy came to see what was going on. Since the musician is half French they cleared things out. The tide rose and the ship floated again, I pulled the anchor and I got the Sagartxo out of there. Then I just had to bring him back to where he had been. I called a couple of skippers who refused to tow me, but the third one is the charm, and came to my rescue! He was the one who sailed for many years with the Ti-ta and told me that he would come by 14:00 and tow me to the other beach!! Thanks Fernando!! I left it anchored in the bow. The problem was that when the tide goes down that area gets empty of water, there are rocks and the Sagartxo could lean on the catwalk, breaking it, and then onto the rocks, damaging itself. To prevent this, I located all the stuff on the opposite side of the catwalk, so when the tide would come down, the boat would tilt to the opposite side where there are neither rocks nor catwalks. Everything was under control. I was going to have lunch and prepared my plan to leave the boat in the middle of the beach (I wasn't going to leave it stuck to the catwalk).
In the afternoon I would pick up my cousin (the usual one) and we would look for the 44lb anchor and his extra-long chain from my brother-in-law's boat (His boat being on land did not need it). The idea was to place the anchors 30yd away from each other and aligned where I wanted to leave the Sagartxo, firmly anchored by bow and by the stern and then when the tide rises it would pull the two anchors leaving the ship opposing them.
Simple and effective. This time we left the anchors properly attached to the sand. By 23:00 I had to put on the wetsuit and waited for the tides to rise. The night was quiet, clear and pleasant and I even enjoyed a night bath stuffed in the wetsuit as the tide stood. Finally a moment of relaxation! As the tide rose, I discovered water coming in from a stanchion that had broken when the boat was heeled. Good thing I was able to cover the waterway with a kind of super-dense grease that I had brought just in case. The water inlet was not very big, but it looked like I had bought a sail-submarine! I managed to leave the boat where I wanted by 3:00 am. Took a swim to return to the shore and went back to bed. In the morning I had to go back to work. The day had not turned out as I had expected, but in the end everything turned up quite alright.
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| Me at 3:30 on 09/02/2017 |
-Thursday 09 th February 2017: Damage report
It had not been windy that night, the boat was well anchored and therefore, nothing weird should happen. I woke up, had breakfast and before going to work I went to check that the Sagartxo was still where we left it and not gone for a dive under the cold water again (floating is a good quality in the case of boats and on the face of it...). Everything seemed in order. At noon I would take a closer look:
- The boat looked like a seafood salad: covered in oysters! OMG! It was all ok because the boat, without the engine, should not reach the maximum load of the crane, but I didn't count on the weight of the oysters!
- Water leak: the bow of the boat had no oysters and was polished. Hitting the bow with the bottom during the storm damaged it creating a water leak. It was not a large hole, about ½ inch, nothing that could not be solved with a little fiber paste. Good thing I had listened to the Hendaye authorities and letf the boat stranded at the beach. If I had moored it at the buoy It would have sunk for sure, I rather not think about that.
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| The boat beats with the bow polished |
- The night before I found a bent and broken stanchion
- Navionics: It had none before sinking, so nothing to worry about.
- Interior: Imagine a fight between the incredible Hulk and a hurricane inside the boat. It was about time to do a serious, very serious deep cleaning. The good thing about starting from scratch is that you can renovate it to your liking.
- The sails were preserved, the main sail was still in its sack and all the rest were several mounds at different points of the boat. Their condition was wet and dirty.
- No engine... almost better, because it would have been ruined, nor rudder it would have been ruined too, I have to look on the bright side of live (Monty Python dixit)
- Good news, I just found my friend's diving mask! When it fell from my head it must have sneaked through the bow hatch (which was open) and was inside the bow cabin. After this adventure, I think that Sagartxo is a kind of black hole where all the things that fall into the water materialise...
I asked my cousin (the usual one) to buy me a bottle of fiber paste that afternoon, and after work, at 20:00, during low tide, we fixed the bow hole. I wanted to get the boat out of the beach by Saturday, since Sunday
was predicted to have bad weather again, and the following week I would have to work so I would not be able to go back to France.
-Friday, 10th February, 2017: perfect plan.
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| Everything in order... |
tugboat with the tiny 5hp (remember him?), leave him in the area where the anchoring should be and in the meantime, prepare the tow while meeting the previous owner of the Ti-ta (the one who left me with the Sagartxo by the beach). The whole plan would give enough time for the diver to locate the anchoring while we
were towing the boat back. On top of that, a colleague would help us if I needed him. Everything worked perfectly in my mind with no surprises, or needing any plan change. I couldn’t believe it!
Definitely, I should not have believed it...
-Saturday, 11 th February, 2017: ferpect plan.
It was sunny. The plan was, met the diver at 15:30 in Irun and the 100hp tugboat with a colleague at 16:15 in Hendaye. But an early call by an acquaintance who was also aware of the rescue mission, offered himself to help with another boat and find the anchoring too (it turns out he was also a diver), I couldn’t believe it! I was being so lucky! (definitely, should not have believed it...). I called the 100hp tugboat and the diver to give them the day off.
At 15:00 the acquaintance called me, "Xabi, I'm sorry, I don't have a boat
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| Me at 15:00 on 11/02/2017 |
or a diver." "What?!" Nothing was going as planned... He offered to help me the next week, but I did not have another day. I said goodbye to him and thought about my options. I don't have lots of resources but I decided to go forward.
Well, here what I had:
- A vet (me).
- A tiny 5hp tugboat. It floats, but with only 5hp you shouldn’t call it a tugboat.
- my colleague but only from 16:15. Iceman, with him, I sailed the Ti-ta at the maximum speed it ever reached (10'4 knots) just after bursting the lane of the major when taking a reef and just before slashing the main sail by a reef point when the jaw of the reef was ripped. Author of the phrase "everything could go wrong, went wrong, but everithyng had to go well, went well." How hard could it be?
- The free brother-in-law's buoy.
- The "borrowed" buoy of the Ti-ta until its owner claims it, in April.
Since what I missed was another chance before the end of the week; I reprogramed everything and... maximum effort! (Deadpool dixit). I did not want to leave the Sagartxo in my brother-in-law's buoy: its an "official" buoy (he pays for mooring) with a draft, surrounded by many boats paying for their buoys (with rights) and I no longer trust the Sagartxo would not try to escape again. In a nutshell, I would have to take the Ti-ta with our tugboat, swap the tiny 5hp engine, take it to my brother-in-law's buoy, swap back the engine on the tugboat to transform it into the "5hp tugboat", pick up my colleague, get to the Sagartxo and tow it with another fun drifting session (the Sagartxo had not grown a rudder those days) to the "borrowed" buoy of the Ti-ta, easy
peasy. Surrounding the “borrowed” buoy there were fewer boats, and the drought was much smaller in case it decided to go to visit SpongeBob. I would get the anchoring some other time. We carried out the whole plan B without further disruptions, and this time I only aged another year of life towing the Sagartxo with the tiny 5hp tugboat (As it wasn't my first time, I was prepared for that level of stress).
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| That looks like the Sagartxo towing, but slower...again |
peasy. Surrounding the “borrowed” buoy there were fewer boats, and the drought was much smaller in case it decided to go to visit SpongeBob. I would get the anchoring some other time. We carried out the whole plan B without further disruptions, and this time I only aged another year of life towing the Sagartxo with the tiny 5hp tugboat (As it wasn't my first time, I was prepared for that level of stress).
After removing the Sagartxo successfully from the beach, and anchoring it on the Frenchman´s buoy, I hoped it wouldn't take it too bad, remember the Sagartxo being 5tn and 40feet long, has some suicidal tendencies. I really couldn’t delay it, finding its anchoring would have taken time we did not have. It left it there until Sunday the 19th.
-Sunday 19 th February 2017: search for anchoring (I)
The week passed without incidents. I had prepared a perfect anchoring line (with its chain caught in scrap, a thick rope, the buoy, swivel and gauze ready) for the moment when I found the anchoring. That day I met the acquaintance, the one who offered me a diver and a boat, to look for the anchoring, so there we went with all the material. I couldn't get in the water, as I was on call for emergencies at the clinic, that mean I had to be within 20 minutes from my work place, but the guy seemed to know what he was doing, he had a dry diving suit and the whole equipment ready. We were 1 hour away from low tide (remember with live tides) with good weather, although after a week of bad weather I sensed that finding it was going to be complicated with all the sediments the river could have brought. We got a third boat to check the anchoring area where the Sagartxo had been before going on adventures. As soon as I reached the search area, my emergency phone rang. My mates were looking at me with surprise:
- Yes? Vet emergencies.
- Hello, good morning, is it Vet emergencies?
- Yes, here it is.
- It is that I just got a puppy and I have to deworm it, can you help me?
-Yes, I could, the clinic is closed now, we are closed on Sundays.
-Yes, but I need it now, could you sell me one?
-Yes, but I'd also charge you for emergencies, as I have to open the clinic for you.- I'm freaking out I really didn’t wanna go for such non-emergency.
- Never mind, I want the product.
- Okay, I'll see you in 20 minutes. - Unbelievable bad timing.
I had to leave the diver with the boat searching for the lost anchor. I was back in 1h (time goes by so fast) and I found the diver desperate and freezing. It seemed the diving suit had a hole and was not "dry" anymore.
He couldn’t find the anchor, even with the water at the waist, it was impossible to find it. First attempt failed. I was not on call the next few days, therefore, I had the next week to look for the anchoring, but I had
no diving tank.
-Saturday, 25 th February, 2017: search for anchoring (VII) and diving baptism
As you can imagine from the title, the search continued during the free time I had at noon and the whole Wednesday (usually I don't work on Wednesdays). It was unsuccessful, but... I had to keep trying it! The first Ti-ta officer (the one in the blog photo, Jon) lend me a diving tank and came with a dinghy to supervise the search. I had never dived with a diving tank before, but I was pretty sure it would be easier to find anchoring with the tank. After a short briefing on "how to dive with an oxygen tank", I only remembered the most important piece, "the key not to waste oxygen, was slow breathing". I had dived in apnea several meters a while ago, luckily the bay depth is not greater than 4 meters, so there is not a big risk either. I put the equipment on and deflate the BCD to submerge myself. How cool is being able to breathe underwater! You feel like a
superhero! After the initial euphoria and talked like Darth Vader saying (spoiler alert!) "I am your father", I remembered "slow breathing". I set a conscious breathing pace and to minimize the breathing (as Darth Vader does when he is sleeping). During the week, I had time to think about optimizing the dive, so I had come prepared with a rope and a bar. The idea was to tie one end of the rope to the dinghy and keep walking around to have a reference of the distance I had covered, while with the bar I kept poking the bottom.
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| Me on 25/02/2017 for 90 minutes. |
superhero! After the initial euphoria and talked like Darth Vader saying (spoiler alert!) "I am your father", I remembered "slow breathing". I set a conscious breathing pace and to minimize the breathing (as Darth Vader does when he is sleeping). During the week, I had time to think about optimizing the dive, so I had come prepared with a rope and a bar. The idea was to tie one end of the rope to the dinghy and keep walking around to have a reference of the distance I had covered, while with the bar I kept poking the bottom.
The bottom was a mixture of mud with a bed of leaves in the search area (it must be an area where there was a swirl of currents). I couldn’t find or touch anything. After 1h of poking in circles, the pressure gauge of the bottle began to approach the red mark. "I will have to give up", I thought for a moment, as soon as I ran out of air I would swim upwards as it wasn't very deep. I kept looking when I saw that a yard from me was an iron piece. I got closer without much faith, pulled, It was hooked onto a thick chain. I had found it!!! I smiled so hard that water entered through the regulator. I inflated my vest to help me refloat. I told my first officer, who was in the dinghy, "I found it Jon!!!" Since I no longer trusted this boat, I decided to tie it to a second buoy. I fixed back the regulator but there was no air! I had used all the air left to inflate the vest!
We brought a rope from the Sagartxo to his anchoring and just pulling, we left the Sagartxo in his place (Did you think I was going to use the "tugdinghy" ?).
Since there was not enough space in the dinghy for everything, I had left at home the perfect anchoring line I had prepared, So I would have to return back to fix this. It was enough for one day, I certainly did not
realise how lucky I had been the first time I found the anchoring line of the Sagartxo.
Breathing under the water is so cool!
-Tuesday, 28 th February, 2017: mud rackets.
Living in an area with tides has its advantages, it allows you to play with them. There were live tides. In Sagartxo’s anchoring, the water reaches your waist at the lowest point; you can walk the 300yd between the Sagartxo and the coast, at least in theory. things are never as simple as they seem.
I waited till the low sea, at 23:51 and left home dressed in neoprene (I lived close by) with the anchoring line in an old backpack (that chain is really heavy). At night nobody would notice me dressed like that. As soon as I started walking along the estuary, I realized there were areas where mud reaches your knee... This one is a perfect example where the things are never as simple as they seem. Unless I was wearing mud rackets, which was not the case. With lots of effort and a terrible smell from the mud. It really stinks, even underwater, when you shake it, bubbles come out from it, it's really disgusting. I reached the anchoring and made the swap. I squeezed the shackles with pliers and that was it. Another box ticked!It was harder than I expected, but I made it. The Sagartxo was properly anchored, I only had to get the lights we had set on the ship when it had sunk and return them to its owner!
-Sunday, 2 nd March, 2017: rescue of lights
I had to return the lights they lent me in Hendaye, picking would seem simple, wouldn’t it?. The problem was that they had been installed at a certain height over the water, while the boat was sunk. Now with the boat afloat again, the lights weren’t so accessible: one of them was in a shroud between the first and second crossbar and the other on the stay, a bit higher. The boat did not have any halyards, capes or any thing you could hang yourself from to help you reach the lights. I had to climb.
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| First light by hand |
pulley to the rope and I threw it. Since we did not trust the state of the mast nor the crosses, we repeated the operation with the same crossbar on the other side. It seemed safe. I put on my harness and started climbing with Jon's help in case something went wrong. Standing on the crossbar I tied myself to the stick with a machard just in case the crossbars would break. I hardly managed to reach the first light and release it. One down, it was not so difficult! What a relief. A curious fact for sailors, Sagartxo's shrouds are steel rods not wires.
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| Here, making swings |
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| The concave ascending arch with radius equivalent to the length of the swing |
it, and predictively, it fell... over my head. Hurts! I checked my head with my hand I found blood."Are you all right?" Jon asked me. At this point I remembered that Jon gets dizzy seeing blood. "No worries, I think I wounded myself,but nothing too serious." I pressed my wound for a while to stop the bleeding.. Jon tightened the strings and hung me from them, I pulled the rope that reached the stay and "I love when plans come together". I was able to reach the light! I held on to the stay (if I slipped I’d hurt myself badly) and released the second light! Eureka!
Already on the deck, Jon and I gave each other a hug, he finally had his lights back. We had a look at the interior of the boat. A picture, or four, is worth a thousand words!
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| Access to the underworld |
The following week,I started cleaning the interior and removed 11 big garbage bags that meant 4 trips of dinghy and about 200 paddles per round-trip. I have already told you I did not have many means, but I was keen on getting things done!
I returned the lights and a friend asked me if the boat was already safe, if it would not sink anymore. I replied that the only ship that would not sink is either already at the bottom of the sea with SpongeBob and his colleagues or on the ground. Being afloat means that it can sink, just like you can only die if you are alive, leaving it afloat has its risk. Two weeks after our conversation a big tree trunk got stuck under the yacht moored in front the Sagartxo, a very cool one, that was rented during weekends, at low tide the yacht ended resting on top of the log and when the tide rose, the yacht sank. Ships on water are never risk free!
Present day:
By January 1 2021, the boat is still moored to its buoy. Except for a couple of minor repairs I made, Sagartxo’s state is unchanged. I have cleaned the deck and the interior but I haven’t spent more hours on it. After all, It has never been on my plans to repair the Sagartxo until I sold the Ti-ta but since the Sagartxo got loose and sank you have to seize any opportunity! To be honest, the conditions of the boat did not get worse after sinking. They have actually improved, it is still moored at its buoy, has documentation and insurance up to date. Still has no engine, no rudder but on the flip side there are no extra holes on its hull! The boat is just sitting still waiting its turn to be refurbished. Hopefully this will be soon!
You can see all the photos and videos on its Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Sagartxo, where you can also share your sailing experiences. If someone finds any photo of the Sagartxo sailing, it would be great if you could share it!
Good bow
To be continued...
Pd: special thanks to Maria, Oscar, Borja and Crystal for helping me with the translation.
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