DARK DAY FOR
After a record breaking Adelaide to Lincoln Race many boats were returning home to Adelaide. A popular first leg is from Port Lincoln to West Cape Bay which is regarded as a safe anchorage on the western tip of Yorke Peninsula. It was Friday 28 February. Aquila had been cruising the Sir Joseph Banks group of islands and had returned to Spalding Cove near Port Lincoln on Thursday ready for the same leg to West Cape Bay. Still in cruise mode, we departed hours later than most of the racing boats on the Friday morning. Four of the boats were making their way across Spencer’s Gulf these being Kinetic Energy, School’s Out, Rock On and White Knight. Aquila was a good three hours behind them so by the time we arrived in West Cape Bay it was getting dark and the others looked well settled on their anchors, other than a rolling swell from the large breakers just beyond the rocks at the entrance. We had finished dinner and were preparing for an early night when we began to hear shouting. By now it was dark, very dark, but looking behind us we could just see the crew of White Knight scrambling to hang on to a boat that was suddenly pitching and rolling dramatically more than any other boat in the bay. We turned our radio to Channel 16 in case they were calling and indeed they were.
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She looked high in the water so we assumed she had dragged anchor and hit the bottom and I advised I would launch the dinghy. Kinetic Energy had also heard the commotion and had raised her anchor. I motored over to Kinetic Energy to see if I could help with a possible tow. We joined two sheets together to maximise the length for a tow line. Les jumped into the dinghy to give me some forward stability and after throwing the line to White Knight we motored backwards to attach the line to Kinetic Energy. Alas we were one metre too short and Kinetic Energy was unable to reverse any more for fear of running aground herself. With some further manoeuvering we made the connection but no amount of pulling would budge White Knight. During this time Rock On were calling VMR radio to advise them of the situation. We abandoned any further attempts and considered the safest option would be removing the crew from the boat. Many of us have done a safety course for survival at sea but nothing can prepare you for the opposing motion of two boats in a swell attempting to come together in the dark of night! White Knight was rolling to the extreme! Her water line was 400mm higher than it should have been so she was pivoting on the keel like a child’s punching clown! Her mast was swinging four metres off the water on the port side to four metres off the water on the
