LETTERS

An unnecessary snag

We sailed Alita from Genoa to Gibraltar in June 2021. Being the Mediterranean that meant motoring to get from one storm to another. Just after sunrise, halfway between Calvi, Corsica and Mahon, Minorca, there was a loud clunk and the engine stopped. From experience, I knew that meant fishing net around the propeller.

This time there was so much net we could see it trailing for a distance behind the boat. A good rope cutter will sort out line from a lobster pot, but there is no way that it can deal with metres of net. After pulling the trailing end on board, and then going under to cut the remains off, we were able