Crew's Views from
Andrew Jackson

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Date: Wednesday, October 4, 2000
Location: Baltimore, Ireland

A Few Minutes With Andy the Cook

He managed to get everybody but Chris Landers who was out with his parents, and he showed up next morning when it was too rough to send in the Zodiac for him. Chris found Captain O'Driscoll of the Shirkin ferry and caught a ride with him.

So they're getting close and the crew is all clustered aft holding fenders, the boat is pitching and rolling around, and Captain O'Driscoll slows down and considers his approach.

"If you can get under the mainsail boom, I can just climb out on the footropes," offers Chris.

"Are you mad?" cries O'Driscoll's deckhand, aghast.

But Captain O'Driscoll thinks a minute. "I suppose it's the kind of thing you lads do all the time," he hazards.

"Oh sure," says Chris. "We always do it this way."

And O'Driscoll times his approach and Chris steps over as the ferry rises on a swell. Then he crabwalks up the main boom and hops on the quarterdeck. We didn't even need a fender.

But an hour later the wind rose up again and both anchors start to drag. And the fun really begins. We're in this shallow little harbor that's open to the south. And the south wind, along with some remnants of hurricane Isaac, is blasting right in the narrow treacherous little mouth of the bay. So we really don't have a place to dodge the wind, which is up to Force ten and eleven. The highest speed our instruments recorded was 68 knots, which is Force twelve. Wind like you read about. So we have to use our engines to position the boat till the wind shifts a little and we can get out of the way. The props are coming out of the water every couple of minutes, and making a shrill noise spinning in the air.

And that's when one of the engine exhaust pipes snaps in two down in the engine room. John and Chris have to put on respirators and refit a new pipe while the engine room fills up with exhaust fumes. So John puts his respirated head up out of the engine room hatch and catches Brad Fleury's eye.

"Tell Dan he has to kill the port engine for a few minutes," says John.

"You're kidding, right?" says Brad.

And once that crisis was over and we got in the lee of Shirkin Island and dropped our eight hundred pounds of anchor, they start dragging again. So it's raise the anchors again, which, you must know, we do by hand on a windlass - just like the good old days.

"No worries," said Keiron Walsh. "When it blows out of the south, it's never more than a puff."

A puff to blow the soup right out of your bowl.

Andy the Cook

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