Sometimes you just have to marvel at how lucky you are. When arriving at the windy, bouncy anchorage at Yanuya we had one such lucky time. We had been fishing from the back of Exodus along the way, and in our haste and carelessness, we forgot to reel in the lines before firing up the engines, dropping the sails, and maneuvering for anchoring. This is really bad, because maneuvering to anchor inevitably involves putting engines in reverse, which is usually a sure way to foul your prop with any line trailing behind your boat. We didn’t even realize it until we were done anchoring and had shut down the engines. Amazingly, neither prop had been fouled! We were so lucky! If one, or worse both, engines had gotten fouled we would have had a hard time preventing Exodus from going up on the reef. It would have been a race to get a sail up into an orientation to move us in the right direction.
Anyway, that wasn’t the first time that has happened. I wouldn’t say often, but more than a few times we have forgotten the fishing lines when we are entering an anchorage. So, we decided we needed to alter our process in some way, because simply relying on one of us to remember surely isn’t working. So, mentally in our process I have tied checking the fishing lines to the moment in time when we need to start one or both engines in preparation of dropping sails or anchoring. Additionally, we have put the boys in charge of remembering. And finally, it’s happened more than once that I remember the lines too early, and Tim’s not ready to bring them in, and then we end up forgetting. So, now, even if I remember too early, we bring them in.
I’m happy to say that with the combination of these things, we have had zero occurrences of forgetting the fishing lines.
Gresham Family Exodus 