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Serendipity - Serendipity - Operation Save the Treacle Miners



After suffering engine failure and very little wind on a lee shore off Cape St Vincent on the last leg to Lagos the Treacle Miners on Serendipity wish again to thank all the boats in the ARC Portugal for the tremendous efforts to help get us alongside safely. The suggestions for technical solutions to our engine issues, weather and sea state information from ahead and practical advice on creating a good tow were invaluable. This is exactly why we chose to do this trip with WCC so that we were surrounded by experienced and helpful fellow sailors. The level of seamanship within the fleet is why we are tied up in Lagos Marina safe and sound.

A special thanks go to the crew of Ocean Trilogy who arrived in minutes and very professionally took a tow to take us away from the cape and into more wind. Arcarius also arrived within minutes to stand by, which they continued to do for many hours.

Serendipity then managed to sail for a while during which time Abraxus who, by a massive coincidence, had the correct model of starter motor as a spare. Gary and Karen showed extreme skill and experience despite being short handed, to successfully complete a boat to boat transfer of the said item. They then continued to stand by for many hours also.

During all of this time the treacle miners were busy trying everything possible to resolve the problem but unfortunately, despite numerous suggestion over the VHF were unsuccessful.

Unfortunately within 15nm of Lagos the wind dropped again but standing by for this event was Charlie and Kate on Webster. They had also done a boat to boat transfer with only two of them on board to send a set of jump leads to try another fix. Webster then towed Serendipity to the mouth of the river to be greeted by failing light, waves breaking, a SW swell and the bottom of a Spring tide. Despite all off this they committed to the entrance and with exceptional seamanship towed us into safe waters. For this we can not thank them enough.

We are very pleased to say that an engineer from Bluewater Marine has found a couple of issues which conspired to cause our problem. A cell down on the engine battery despite reading 12.9 volts on the meter and a faulty connection on the starter motor cable. But all well that ends well.

Finally a big thanks to Andrew and Kieran of WCC for their help and assistance on the whole event and everyone's tolerance of the Treacle Miners high jinks.

Hi hooooh

Sent from my iPad

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