It was nearly midnight before we got home on Sunday night, the ambilance crew had very kindly offered to take us home from Lizard RNLI Station, and when we arrived I had to break a window to get in because we had left almost everything aboard Elektra when we abandoned her. There wasn’t any milk for even a coffee, it seemed like the best thing to do was go to bed, but I couldn’t sleep! So I got out and did some computer work and went back to bed at about 0400hrs, slept for 2hrs before waking up coughing because of the powder from the extinguishers, so got out. On Sunday while we were on passage I had contacted my shore contact (Patti) to say we had left Scilly and were on passage to Gillan, our eta wasn’t until 2300-2400hrs. Patti replied and said she was on holiday out of the country and 2hrs ahead, so don’t expect a reply, but safe journey. At 2140hrs Sunday, I sent a text saying “we had a problem, but all OK, tell you about it later” at the time we were sitting in the lifeboat station. So at 0625hrs on Monday I told Patti the story of our problem!
Then about 0720hrs I decided to walk to St Anthony (it would help clear my head) to get some stuff from Elektra, but before hand I looked around for spare keys for as much as possible. Then I walked to St Anthony, when walking along the road which overlooks the moorings, I couldn’t see Elektra out there. And talking to Anthony the boss of the boatyard, he hadn’t been in when the Lizard lifeboat tried to contact him. So now it was search for Elektra time, I used the spare key to drive the pick-up to Helford and hopfully find Elektra. And there she was about 3 mooring into the river, her foresail flapping in the increasing wind. I phoned Anthony, who had a shortage of avalible help, so I suggested I help bring Elektra around from Helford River to Gillan Harbour, which he thought would work. I tried to phone Vicki to tell her what was happening but no reply. The tow went well and we moored Elektra between the waiting mooring and the shore to let her dry out. Only then did I have a chance to look in the cabin of the yacht we had abandoned aprox 15hrs before. I started packing bags to take home, cleared the fridge and picked up Vicki’s tablet and phone, all the keys, everything was going to have to be removed and cleaned or washed before use again, white powder covered all! I didn’t have long because the tide was going out and it’s difficult when alone to get bags off from cockpit to dinghy, I took what I could and locked her up and drove home.
After brunch, I phoned my insurance broker to report and start claim process, I also phoned my engineer and told him about the fire, he was going to be down at St Anthony on Tuesday working and would have a look. I returned to Elektra now dried out with more bags to fill, this time I started to remove the items from the quarter berth, the powder was about an inch deep in there! We had always used the quarter berth for stowage as the berth was difficult to get in and out of because of the chart table. In the quarter berth was all my tools and spares, the rolled up cockpit encloser, a bag of recycling which we still had from Scilly, spare lifejackets, a plastic folding box, a folding sack trolly, a new 30lt ruck sack, a new empty grab bag! All of which was covered in a thick layer of powder. As I moved this out into the cockpit, I think the powder looked like smoke as it blew away in the wind and David J asked if I was OK. By now I was getting grouchy with lack of sleep and the powder was really awful stuff to deal with, and I don’t think my answer was very nice.
I unloaded more bags and loaded them into my pick-up and drove home, most of this stuff went into my shed to deal with later, with only a few bags coming indoors for Vicki to deal with. I wasn’t doing anymore today and went for a shower, afterwards I was sitting on the bed and noticed a WhatsApp message, it was from David P who knew we had been in Scilly and asked if we were back in Gillan, David was one of the first people I told or texted to about it and it was surprising how much it helped with processing what had happend.
The rest of the week continued with much of the same, my engineer Anthony had a look at Elektra’s engine on Tuesday evening and said the engine harness was good, only a earth cable from the batteries will need replacing. I had tried to contact the eletronic company who did the work on Elektra in the winter, looking for them to do a quote for repairs, but now a week on, they haven’t reponded! I asked a sailing friend Rob, if he could contact Bob Orchard for me as I knew they were friends. Bob told Rob he was winding up his buisness but gave another name and number to contact. So by the end of Wednesday, I had contacted a local marine electrician who was away on holiday but was coming back at the weekend (Rupert had called me from his hoiliday and asked for photos sent on WhatsApp) From the photo’s he said the job was doable and he said he would contact me Monday.
The damage seemed to be mainly wiring and the alternator diode which were burnt in fire. The fire had spat into a new ruck sack which was stowed in the berth, but that had saved everything else under it. The cockpit encloser was rolled up and stowed in the berth, the canvas was fine but the plastic windows had suffered because of the heat of the fire. The fire had blackend the ceiling above the alternator diode. There was powder everywhere and the cabin needed to be emptied and totally cleaned. The only other damage was external, the bow nav light was broken.
Love Sailing 