We were all set to leave Nadi and head back to Lautoka for provisions and to check out of the country. Everything was packed up and secured, and all we had to do was grab fuel and water before returning the marina keys. We were waiting for the fuel dock to be free, but after waiting a while we figured we may as well pull up to a small dock nearby and fill up our water in the meantime.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion - Garth was going to reverse into the dock, so he went forwards to line the stern up so we could just back in. I was standing in the middle of the boat ready to jump off and tie on, like we'd done 100 times. There was a small aluminium boat parked in front of us alongside the fuel dock, and we were slowly getting closer to it. Still facing forwards, I said 'Reverse, Garth.' Then we started going forwards a bit faster, and I screamed 'REVERSE, REVERSE!' I flung around to look at him, only to see him yanking the gear leaver around. His only response was 'I can't,' and we both watched, completely powerless, as the bow smacked into the aluminum boat. There was absolutely nothing we could do. As we headed towards it my brain went into overdrive and I desperately looked around, but there was nothing to grab, nowhere else to go and nothing we could do to stop. People started yelling as we got closer, although I didn't register what they said. Time seemed to pass so slowly, but I suspect it all happened very quickly. Then SMACK.
They were parked along the straight bit, and we were reversing into where the big white ferry is.
There was a blue canopy around their wheel area, with clear plastic in the middle. Our anchor went right through it, but it looked like one of the bungee cords had snapped and the cover just folded inside. I watched as the other boat tilted sideways with the impact, and the metal bent inwards. Our little boat can bend metal! Which I guess is an interesting side note to the whole incident - we're possibly safer around rogue shipping containers than we thought.
Then we were just left sitting there, with our anchor inside their boat and everybody looking at us. I almost burst into tears right then and there. I didn't even know how to start getting ourselves out of the situation we were in, but the stern of Heartbeat was swinging towards shore and the first thing I did was desperately ask somebody how deep the water was closer in. Our boat is literally inside another boat and i'm worried about running aground.
We were fine. Well, not really, but we weren't going to scrape the bottom. Garth came up and very calmly pulled the anchor back on our boat to unhook us, which terrified me - that left us floating around not attached to anything with no means of propulsion. But he put me on the broken boat and I stood there holding us off while he ran to talk to the owner and figure out what to do. Then the rest is a bit of a blur - two nice girls helped me hold Heartbeat, the boat that had been fueling up grabbed our lines and towed us alongside them to a berth, while 1000 tourists watched on.
Some guys tied us up, and there was a really nice yachtie in the boat next to us who helped me put on a spring and made sure we were secure once the marina people had left. I love that guy, because I wasn't really thinking straight. Then the whole day was filling out papers and looking up insurance information and getting quotes - we didn't even get to look at our boat until the afternoon, after handing over $1620.95 fjd to the guy from the other boat. There was some legitimate damage - the cover had a small rip in it, some welds had come off and the canopy frame was tilted a bit. So it has to be hauled out for a day to get the work done, which costs even more. We're not sure whether or not to lodge an insurance claim - there will be an excess and then our premium will go up. So we had to just pay them cash and we'll figure out what to do later.
Unfortunately it was a resort boat, so it has to be fixed. If it had been a local Fijian in a beat up fishing boat or something I'm sure we could have just given them some cash and they would have ignored the dent and fixed the rest themselves. On the other hand it could have been a super yacht - there are a few floating around - and that would have hurt us a bit more. So it could have chosen to break at a better time, but it could have been a lot worse as well.
When we finally got back to inspect our boat, we found a tiny bump on the bow where some fiberglass had been scraped off, a scratch on the port side and a dent in the rubbing strip on the starboard side. So the one good thing to come out of this is that we know the boat is tough.
This is looking straight at the bow - the top and bottom dings were there when we bought it, the only damage was the scraped bit in the middle.
Garth found the problem with the gears immediately - the gearshift cable had disconnected from the end fitting to the gearshift lever. So when he put it hard in reverse after slow reverse didn't work, it told the throttle to go faster without also conveying the information that it should be going faster in a backwards direction. Hence us speeding up instead of slowing down.
Thank god it wasn't the gearbox that was broken. We were both terrified it would be - we kept the old gearbox with the new engine, but Garth's dad really wanted us to get a new one. I can't imagine what he would have said if this had all been caused by that stupid gearbox - luckily there's nothing wrong with it and it's working fine. Did you hear that Mike? Don't panic!
A really nice lady, Michelle, sorted us out and she organised the repair quote after it happened, so Garth took the broken bit in to her and they're making us up a new one. Really quickly as well - it would have been done today if they'd had the right tap for it on hand. So everything is kind of organised, we've settled down after the shock and nothing of ours is really broken. I felt really bad for the captain of the other boat - he wasted most of the day stuffing around as well, and it's going to inconvenience them by having to haul it out, but there's nothing we can do about it. At least we didn't hit them by being stupid. It wasn't anything high maintenance that we had neglected or anything we should be checking or maintaining all the time - just a freak accident. Which is pretty scary when you think about all the other little things on the boat that aren't supposed to break. We have a list of things to check on regularly, and we can't just write down 'entire boat.'
Everything that needs maintaining is supposed to be checked on after x amount of time, and we've been doing our best to stay on top of it all. The winches need servicing soon, which we'll do in Australia - they're due once a year. I have it written down in the log when we did them last. The bolts and shackles on the rigging need to be checked regularly and we just replaced a heap of them. Oil, filters, impellors, ropes... they all have a due date for maintenance and we check on them all the time. But I seriously can't just write down 'check everything everywhere always.' Garth has just spent a month with his head inside the engine, fiddling with every little thing and the fitting was firmly attached when he put it together. So there wasn't much we could have done about this and we can't even learn from it - we've been looking after the engine as if it were our baby. We were coming in slowly, we'd scoped out the dock, figured out where the cleats were and where the wind was. We had a plan and room to abort if we didn't come in cleanly. We just had to be going in the right direction...
Xxx Monique
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