PART II 28 DAYS LATER
Today’s destination is Pudcombe Cove. It’s an idyllic little spot but there are too many submerged rocks for my liking and I make a sharp U-turn back towards Sabbacombe Sands. Pushing the throttle forward, Seashanti is soon skipping along at 21 knots as we gaze in awe at the undulating rock strata in the cliff faces. I turn round in time to see a partially submerged fisherman’s pot bobbing in our wake.
Slamming the throttle into neutral, I switch off the engine and raise the sterndrive to see if we have caught the rope. Sure enough my worst fears are confirmed, the rear propeller has a thick rope wrapped around it. We limp into Sabbacombe Sands where I don my wetsuit and arm myself with the serrated bread knife. Once under the surface I can see the extent of the problem. The rope is wrapped tightly around the shaft between the two counter rotating props. It takes me an hour and half of sawing away, interspersed with regular pauses to warm up my fingers in a bowl of hot water that Debbie has put on the bathing platform, before it comes away.
It is 7pm by the time we leave Sabbacombe Sands heading for Dartmouth. I’m just starting to think that the route seems to be taking longer than usual, when I on one of the mid-stream pontoons. By now it is dark and it takes a while to find our new neighbour.
