Women and Children first...Abandon ship!!

[nat]

Hey,

Thought you may like to hear about a little 'glitch' that happened during my weekend diving....

About 20 divers were aboard an Arab dhow sailing to a dive site 3 hours away. We were all lounging about, enjoying the beautiful scenery, when a speedboat races up to us and starts talking to the crew in Arabic, followed by a bunch of nosey divers all looking at the side of the boat. We couldn't understand what he was saying and couldn't see an obvious problem, so off we sailed again. Two great dives, a handful of seasick travellers and halfway back to land later... Apparently the dhow started making a few ominous vibrations and noises followed by a distincy smell of burning (I say apparently, because I was fast asleep). I woke up to find a group of people huddled near the engine hatch with smoke seeping through. The hatch comes off in one swift move, followed by PLUMES of black oily smoke. Hmmmm - compressed air, O2, timber....

We looked around to see a member of crew hanging off the side with his mobile phone - no signal! "Why not just use the radio to call the coast guard?" Radio was 'broken' earlier in the day....

Decision made to abandon ship and quite a surreal conversation between the men about women, children and vomity seafarers first was interspersed by shouts for 'who knows how to play a violin'. We managed to catch the attention of another dhow farther away with torches just as a speedboat comes to our billowing smokey aid. Another passing speedboat enabled us to all offload and get to our harbour.

The whole episode was dissected over some ice cold beers and plesently topped off the next day by running out of petrol in the middle of the desert.

Anyone else have a more adventurous than usual weekend?

Nat

[shinek]

Sounds like an interesting way to spend the weekend, glad everyone was OK. One of those "laugh about it afterwards" things, but not much fun at the time. What happened to the boat? What about your dive gear?

[nat]

Haha to be honest Shinek, it was a case of laughing about it at the time. Dark humoured motley crew! There were quite a few of us who knew each other really well, so there was lots of sarcasm and jokes whilst we were getting on with it. We knew the plan - get off the boat but just decided not to panic and make the best of it (a few others did just launch themselves in to the water!). I think you go into fight or flight initially and then think about the full consequences later when you out of the situation...

The dhow we caught the attention of came (s.l.o.w.l.y) over. Our crew managed to stop the engine from exploding, contained the fire and stayed aboard whilst the other dhow towed it back to port over the course of 5 hours!!! Did I mention how sorry I felt for the tourists on the other vessel?! We left our dive gear onboard and felt lucky when we saw it being driven past the bar we were in during the early hours.

Won't be using that operator again!!

[shinek]

Glad it all turned out OK, and it makes for a good story. I'm sure as memory fades or the drinks flow it will get increasingly dramatic in the telling.

"There we were, far out at sea , suddenly awoken by the sounds of panic, we found smoke billowing from below decks. The crew immediately sprung into action and some immediately sprung over the side. With no thought for personal safety we took control of the situation. Having fought the blaze and the raging seas for what seemed like hours, we were finally able to bring it under control and save the stricken vessel. The crew and passengers then clung to the wreckage, drifting helplessly in shark infested waters (have to get that in somewhere), until the search and rescue teams arrived and were able to take us in tow. Oh yeah, and the band played on!

Another round, why not?"

[The Publisher]

Yes, but think about the awesome, captivating story you get to tell!

Thanks!