Page 130 - The Tigris Expedition

Problems Continue

sheets and braces, and the sail was packed np around the yard-arm
on deck before the little anchor was thrown overboard. Perfect
team-work. It was 10.30 p.m. , ,
Moments afterwards we heard shouts from the bow t la
drowned in the noises of the night. Norman on the cabin root
thought he had heard that we had lost the anchor. HP shouted the
same words from somewhere up in front. At first I thought it was a
bad joke. The reefs were just ahead of us. I refused to believe it until
Dctlef came fumbling out of the dark and reported that the anchor
rope had snapped.
‘Hurry! The other one!*
Fortunately we had a second, smaller anchor, Carlo and Detlef
were already busy getting it ready. This time from the stem where
it lay. We all checked and double-checked the knots. I repeated
again and again: ‘Make sure nothing fails. This is the last thing we
have on board that can grab hold of the bottom!’
Our second anchor went overboard. We began to get outside the
lee of the invisible isle now and with the high bow and stern
catching wind we picked up speed. The anchor did not seem to take
hold. Someone quietly suggested that perhaps we had lost that one
too. Silence. Detlef tried the rope. Began to pull in the slack. An
empty end came out of the black water. None of us uttered a word.
Detlef remained speechless and motionless. The young German
captain, used to weighing tons of anchor chain by pressing a button,
just stood there with the short piece of rope dangling from his hand.
Once more we all searched our minds forjust anything that could
stop our drift if we threw it out on a rope. We had nothing.
We were picking up speed and drifting straight for the unbroken
cliffs and rocks awaiting us, no matter how we turned our rudder-
oars now. We could clearly see the many dim lights scattered along
the invisible coast of Failaka. They soon spanned the entire horizon
where the wind was carrying us, and we could not escape on any
side, even if we hoisted our sail.
If only it had been daylight we would have seen land. We might
have picked our course and steered towards some less rugged part
of the shore. Perhaps there was some small opening in the barriers
even though the pilot book said there was no landing on this side.
But it was now just before midnight. We would strike the rocks
before we saw them. We would be shipwrecked in complete
darkness.
109