Grounded; Rincon, a Boat Out of Water

Posted on by

May 3, 2024

We must have been very bad as we’ve been grounded. Literally. On May 1st, we were searching for a good place to stop for the day as we did not want to do an overnight run down to Belize. There are few options on the southern Caribbean side of Mexico to stop for the night. Mahuhaul is about the only place.

Note: I may have facts out of order. It is all a bit of a blur and you don’t really need the facts to be in order. The story is still the same.

The pueblo of Mahuhual. The cruise port is a bit further north. This is taken from our “anchorage”

After waiting out the weather in Bahia del Espiritu Santo, we had a nice window and motored to Mahuhual. We looked at the anchorage between the cruise ship dock (this is the Costa Maya Riviera cruise stop) and the real town. Very rolly anchorage so we deceived to try one of the spots inside the reef. The charts said there was enough water and we knew of a boat who had gone to the Y dock.

We continue down, got in through the reef and there was clearly not enough space for our big boat, although the water was deep enough. We exited with some scraping on coral; I was not doing well at following my track from the way in on the way out. Sheez! On down to the 2nd opening. Narrow, but we get in and head for the Y-dock straight ahead then turn to port at the dock. All is going well. We have sufficient water the charts tell us.

I can’t remember if this wrecked boat was before the first or 2nd reef cut…

Well, one little spot about 2 – 3 boat lengths long does not have 5 feet of water; more like 4.5. The charts said there was at least 6 feet. We run up on it and are stuck. The first time we’ve not been able to power through, or back off when we were stuck. The bottom was sand and grass, but we were stuck hard.

Those of you who know Krogens will know we are sitting too high in the water. There is a dark blue stripe and below that a red bottom. The red should be at the waterline. We’ve got a good bit of red visible.

We called the Port Captain but he did not answer. We managed to talk with some local boats and a Pilot boat (for the cruise ships) and they tried for several hours until well after dark to help us get off; to no avail. We had negotiated $1000 USD as payment in a mixture of pesos and USD. Basically all the cash we had. We thought it was highway robbery, but what does one do? They said they would return when it was light, but did not. They had paying customers as there were 4 cruise ships in town. They needed ttheir regular work more than helping us.

The pilot boat and a couple locals trying to pull us backwards from the bottom. There was a young woman on the pilot boat who was our Spanish to English translator. They were using our 3/4″ lines attached to a smaller line that was attached to another boat pulling the pilot boat and to another boat pulling the boat pulling the pilot boat. Note the guy in the water, using Jim’s snorkel to make sure all the lines are OK. He stayed in the water through all this activity. The sun was going down, the tide low.
Their lines were not nearly as strong as our black lines and using these clips, they were sure to break. And they did. Also, the smaller boats, if they had cleats to tie to, they were small and just into a piece of plywood on the deck. We did pull a cleat out of one boat. The guy came back the next day to look for it with his snorkel.

Feeling Despair

By now, we are really in despair, wondering if it is possible to get off the bottom. Having recently been in Puerto Aventuras where 4 boats had grounded that year, one of which had to be cut up, bad thoughts were drift through our minds. Perhaps we’d end up with a hole and sink her!!! We kept these thoughts at bay, but were not being very creative.

Gerardo to the Rescue

One of the locals had snapped a picture and sent it to Gerardo the marina manager and Port Captain; the guy who had helped us so much in Puerto Aventuras. Gerardo contacted me and we had many conversations as he called Port Captains, rescue companies, etc., to try and get us help. Lots of contact with folks, but hard to get any help. Everyone saying they can’t, asking questions and for documents or pointing us to someone else

Here is the picture Gerardo sent to me which one of the locals had sent him. You can see the waves breaking to the left (the reef). Town to the right. The Y-Dock behind us in the pic.

The Navy Rescue boat came over and we signed a form saying they would not be responsible for any damage if they helped. Their boat had 3 or 4 engines and was our best chance. We sign and are chatting with the guys about a strategy and the boat Captain just drives away. Apparently as we were not in immediate danger they were not “allowed” to help us. Really? More despair.

We’ve signed the forms and are figuring a plan. The Captain is on the phone the whole time and just backs away and goes back to the Y-Dock.

After a Nights Sleep

We slept a bit, but a rather fitful sleep. We had dropped an anchor just in case as high tide would come at 3 am. The tide is not more than a foot so it was iffy, but it was more water than we had now. We were not going to try at 3 am. Where would we go if we got off and with no boats to help in the night, we did not think it would work. High tide after that was 5:45 PM. A lot of waiting, but of course we did not have a plan anyway.

The pilot boat comes by again in the morning with a different pilot who speaks very good English. Daniel (the pilot) said he’d be back at 5:15 after the last cruise ship left (4 had come in during the night) and bring some extra boats to help. So far, we’d only tried backing off and that is really hard as the propeller wants to move the boat forward, not back. Maybe we’d try going forward as there is more water ahead, turn the boat so we can then go straight out.

Meanwhile, Dageberto, a boat rescue guy who had recovered the boat in Puerto Aventura while we were there contacted us. He said he will send a guy over shortly to give things a look. He did and Chicho dove the boat and said, 1) there was no damage, 2) it was sitting on it’s keel and they would have to suck the sand out to make a path to remove it. Yes, it could be done. He also showed us a path to go forward through the bay and out a cut much farther down. We finally got a quote from Dageberto, $26,000 USD! Really??? We could not wrap our heads around this number. Again, more despair. What is the right plan to take?

Dageberto’s divers who live in Mahahual dove the boat and took video. It all looked very good. Dageberto sent me the video. Clearly they do know what they are doing. Experience just costs a lot here.

Meanwhile

Jim and I struggle with what to do. The temporary Port Captain Ivan who seemed very sympathetic kept asking questions, asking me to send this document and that document, making sure we were safe and asking about insurance. He kept saying he’d help but it all seemed like paperwork but no real action. But, it was clear the pilots were talking to the Port Captain and to Dageberto.

Dageberto’s diver consults with the B-team (the locals). As we had put Dageberto on hold, his folks showed up briefly at 5:30 but then left.

I took my snorkel and looked below. Everything seemed ok but the entire keel was on the bottom, about 30 feet of our 48 feet. Jim joined me below water for a look and we toyed with the idea of using our big ball fenders to give the boat a bit of buoyancy. Our snorkel skills are not all that good and we did not think we could get a line under the keel to hook the balls together. I KNOW Dageberto with his divers could…. for $26,000. They also have better floats. We decide to put Dageberto off as we did not have $26,000 handy to give him and try the local pilot boat and scuba/fishing boats first.

5:30 Rolls Around

The last cruise ship leaves. Several local lanchas show up, but no pilot boat. Is Daniel going to stand us up? The tide is getting close to high. We’ve been measuring with a tape measure. 4.7 ft. It feels like the boat is trying to float. Maybe, maybe. The bow thruster does move the boat a little and the stern thruster is now deeper in the water (where it should be) We do have a bit more water for sure. The pilot boat shows, but no Daniel. Everyone is just waiting. A small crowd gathers with beer on the dock to watch. (The tour boats have been coming by all day to show the tourists the extra attraction before snorkeling. I’m sure we are all over the web!)

Finally everyone arrives and the lines begin to get attached. No easy to break carabineers this time. Big knots.

The pilot boat goes to the dock and picks up Daniel. We have a leader! All previous attempts were everyone doing their own thing. Yelling to each other in Spanish from boat to boat. Very hard to orchestrate that as they did not speak English and our Spanish is not THAT good to command 4 boats. Even in English, it would have been hard. Everyone has their own idea.

Daniel “carefully” explains how red/white boat (the pilot boat) and turquoise boat will have lines attached to the port and starboard of Rincon and blue boat will be in front of turquoise pulling it.

They will pull us forward to deeper water with us also using our engine to move forward. We’ll turn the boat around and come back across the shallow spot with everyone pulling in the same manner. Everything gets rigged, Daniel joins us on our boat. He says Rincon is the smallest boat he as ever piloted!

They start pulling, we start moving forward using Rincon’s power as well. We all stop quickly even though we are making good progress. Rinconsito is sinking! We’d taken Rinconsito off the big boat before doing this to make it slightly lighter. She was tied backwards to the side of Rincon and was filling with water! I guess too much turbulence and the pulling her backwards swamped her. Two boats in trouble! She is filled to the top of the tubes with water! She is untied from Rincon and tied to a lancha. Her bilge pump is working and they start bailing her manually as well.

Rincon is very close to sinking. The battery box is full of water, but apparently not enough to stop the bilge pump.

Meanwhile, Rincon is clearly floating and turning herself. She wants out of here! Nope, the pull boats have their own idea and have to pull us around. I could have just thrusted us at that point to turn. In any case, we turned easily, got over the shallow spot that had stuck us earlier and dropped the hook at the entrance to the bay, right next to the reef! Yikes!

We are now in 17 feet of water, anchored feet off the reef in the reef cut. We are still attached to the “support boats who are now disconnecting themselves.

Now, we must finish bailing Rinconsito so she is not too heavy and off center to lift, lift her and get her tied down, check the bottom of Rincon to make sure all is good, get all the lines back to the appropriate boats, pay the guy who helped and get through the cut in the reef. Remember that $1000? So much cheaper than $26K! No price had been negotiated with this group and Daniel already said he would not take any money. But he agreed to divvy the money among the boats and helpers.

Rinconcito is home and I’m busy hand bailing. One of the boat men comes to help as well. The bilge pump on Rinconsito is still running. The next day we finished drying her out, checked the radio and fuel and everything still worked. We dodged a bullet there.

Where did we going after these activities? Back to the rolly anchorage where we did not want to anchor. It was nearly dark and we were emotionally and physically exhausted.

Jim trying to get our lines under control after all their hard use.

So there is the saga of the grounding. It is funny that Ivan the, the acting Port Captain kept asking if we were going to stay and visit and to let him know when we were leaving. It seemed that he wanted us to enjoy the town. Or maybe they were trying to get paperwork in order to fine us for hurting the grasses. I’m hoping it was the former.

The constant waves in the rolly anchorage.

We had another horrible nights sleep in the rolly spot. 3 foot waves bucking on the bow that would then turn into side rolls of 10 – 15 degrees. We pulled anchor at first light and got more learning experiences (well, we are still trying to learn on this one) on how to pull an anchor with bucking waves on the boat. All is fine till you get to the end where the anchor is still set and the waves are pulling the boat up and there is no chain to give. Bam! Loud and it pulls the boat every which way. Needless to say, our confidence is not at it’s peek.

After a long day on the water, some of it very calm, other moments in 20 degree rolls, in shallows and waters over 1000 ft deep, we made it to Belize and are legal in the country!

We are very happy to be at a dock right now. That it was Friday afternoon and this small dive company (Amigos del Mar) allows boats to come and check in at their dock makes it much faster and more efficient than going around to the 5 different agencies otherwise. There is lots of talk of bribes and fluctuating prices in Belize and San Pedro being the worst. It went quite well. It took just more than an hour and I think the rates where expected. All the agencies came to us, did not visit the boat and confiscated nothing (even though they could have)

There are no Stressors

Although we are enjoying Belize, we have several issue plaguing us, keeping our confidence less than stellar.

Water

Our watermaker has been acting up. Seems the membranes have gone south. With pretty clean water (i.e., dirty dock water) we can make fresh water. Here in Belize, at least at this dock, there is not enough water pressure to make water. We make a bit and then the watermaker stops with a message there is not enough water pressure. So, we skimp on water, have tried different times of the day and night when others may not be using as much water, are considering trying a bigger hose or isolating one tank for “dirty” water for bathing and toilets only but not drinking.

My brother and sister-in-law are bringing new membranes but that is still a week away. Hopefully this problem will resolve itself once we get the membranes installed.

The Generator

We were having issues with the generator. It ran, but was not delivering the power to our electrical system. Jim did find the broken wire and has corrected this! Yeah!

Poop

We don’t seem to be able to dump our poop tank. There are no pump outs in Belize and sadly, the last two times we’ve tried to dump when at sea, the pump overboard did not work. We’ve checked the pump and think it is working. I ran a clean out through the through-hull from the water side and it seemed clear, at least a foot up. Today (May 5th) we have begun taking the system apart, checking the lines for clogs. So far clear. Jim continues to get more frustrated at boat repairs in paradise. The tank is getting quite full. We need to find the clog, resolve it and take a trip off shore to dump.

Shallow Water

There is a lot of shallow water here and one has to know and find the snickleways through. We have not been doing very well at this, are not trusting our charts as we normally do and are nervous. I have 5 different charts of varying quality and none of them agree. We are feeling a bit like fish out of water, but hoping we don’t end up there again. We will get this sorted, learning to ask more about the best pathways from the locals. Some of whom have already given us some hints. All in all though, the hardest boating we’ve done.

And so the relaxation continues.