Incident today

[Helen F H]

Just thought i would post this before anyone else does.

Newsroom - Press Releases

All details are correct, we are just about to dock in Lerwick. Just to go over it again, EVERYONE is fine, the boat is FINE. I will fill in the gory details once the dust has settled later tonight.

[edit]

Ok, here is the full story.... (are we sitting comfortably? then i shall begin )

We left Kirkwall at around 1.30am this morning in thick fog and totally flat calm. The forecast was good for the crossing, with 25mph winds predicted. When we got to Fair Isle the sea got a bit lumpy (technical description), and we had to start heading into it rather than for where we wanted to go. After a couple of hours of being bounced around like the proverbial cork, Hazel spoke to the coastguard to tell them we were in heavy weather and to be aware. After this i went below to check the bilge and found it full of water . We immediatley started our large bilge pumps, but one of them was jammed from the pummeling it got on the journey. Our little electric bilge pump was doing its job too, but couldnt keep up as we were getting huge amounts of water into a hatch under the whaleback. After finding that we could not be sure to keep up with the water we called Pan Pan to the coastguard. The coastguard launched the lifeboat from Lerwick and diverted the helicopter from another job to assist. The fisheries research vessel Scotia also diverted after the coastguard relayed the message which they upgraded to a Mayday. Pumps were then picked up from Scotia and transferred to us via the helicopter. Climbing to the back deck of the boat while it was pitching to 45 degrees (thats a LONG way) while the heliopter hovered what seemed like 6 inches above us scared the living SHIT out of me. All our divers were sat inthe saloon in their life jackets, mainly being a bit sick.

We got a pump and I rigged it up in the engine room, but by now our pumps had caught up and the water level had actually dropped a long way. We decided to use it as an emergency pump if the others cut out and the levels rose again. In the end we didnt actually need it as our own pumps did their job, however we could never have been able to tell that from the start and tbh i would rather call the coastguard and not need them than not call them and wish i had. The lifeboat followed us all the way back in, but then had to immediatley disappear off on another shout to a de-masted yacht (we wernt the only ones caught out today!).

All divers are fine, although possibly rather hungry having spent all day cooped up and me unable to cook anything. The boat has a few repairs to be done - we had to cut down our derrick on the rear deck for the helicopter to drop the pump, and our third spare generator broke loose and snapped the cold water tank feed pipe (bums).

We are all covered in bruises and i have been awake for well over 24 hours now, so possibly a shower, something to eat and then the mother of all snoozes might occur

[Mal Bridgeman]

Glad to hear you are all fine ... thanks for letting us know .... I guess you owe "Busted Rib Man" a pint or two

Mal

[Scubee]

Glad to hear all is well.

I think it must be about Beer O'clock in Lerwick!

[Buoyant Babe]

Glad to hear you are all well and that Valkyrie is fine. Nice to see Hazel got praised in the press release too.

Love Hxxx

[frosty the snowman]

Glad you're all ok. Did someone leave a tap running then..?

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by frosty the snowman

Glad you're all ok. Did someone leave a tap running then..?

Someone had an extra portion of Helen's soup I think. Caused the boat to drop.

[Rob Dobson]

Big hug to H&H and glad to hear everyone is well.

Congrats to the boss for managing the situation with minimal drama (although I suspect the air around Lerwick will be blue for some time).

XXX

[DIVE BUDDHA]

glad alls ok helen

best wishes leigh

[purple vonny]

That added a bit of extra excitement to the day eh Helen? Proabably excitement you could have done without though!

[the goat]

So,there s no new wreck in Scapa to dive then?







Glad alls well H n H