Day 3 Controlled Disaster at Sea

Saturday, the 20th of June, 2009. Another day I will long, long remember. We were cruising along the coastline of Baja California when we had major problems develop with hose lines erupting and spraying gallons and gallons of sea water throughout our engine room. Not only did the approximately 1500 gallons of water, weighing approximately 6 tons, cause our bow to sink, but effectively caused us to lose ALL power to Argo. No power, no way to make the emergency bilge pump work to pump all that excess water overboard. No alternator, no engine, no transmission, and no radio to call for assistance. I was at the helm and Ron told me to steer for the dark reddish rocks in this photo in case we had to 'beach' Argo. We were SINKING.

Ron out by the dinghy which has been loaded with our most precious possessions, official papers, and survival equipment. With our 2 onboard radios requiring power and thus not working, we were left with the portable radio which was found not to be working either. Thank God Ron had hailed Sea-tacean when alerted to the problems down below. ---Before we lost our power systems.

This is a wonderful sight to my distressed eyes! Sea-tacean, with Archie and Bev aboard, coming to our rescue. Not only did they have a portable generator to use with our emergency bilge pump but they had a radio. When Bev spotted a power boat off in the far distance she was able to hail it and more help was soon in sight.

This is the sport fishing boat "Catchin' Memories" who came to help with the rescue of Argo. They had an extra pump for the overflowing bilges below, and were also gracious, and powerful, enough to tow us the 80 nautical miles back to La Paz.

This is yet another sight of the rugged, barren, yet beautiful landscrape we were cruising alongside. Beautiful, yes, but nowhere to be stranded.

Many, many, thanks, muchas, muchas gracias to Bev and Archie on Sea-Tacean and Kevin, his wife and 3 daughters on Catchin' Memories for saving our day . . . and so much more. I'd say we were all 'catchin' a few memories' that day.