Quite frustrated from yesterday, we waited for news from the shipyard early the next morning, when should we come to the travel lift. But it took until the afternoon, until a time slot finally became available for us.

Motivated, we got ready for the casting off maneuver. The harbor master helped us with the lines, so that we could safely move our ship, which was a bit difficult to maneuver at the moment, over to the travel lift. But we had barely solved the last spring, Everything no longer went according to plan. Instead of driving forward away from the dock, Our CESARINA drove backwards and was pulled closer and closer to the bridge by the wheel effect of the screw. I quickly jumped off the boat, to join forces with the harbor master to prevent a collision with the next power box. Dietmar tried to get on board, to get the boat in the right direction, but his efforts were in vain. Even when idling it kept going backwards. All attempts to engage forward gear, were in vain. The bow was already so far away from the pontoon because of the crosswind, that I neither the middle line, could still reach the bow line. Only a stern line was within reach. But we couldn't stop the boat as it was reversing. We tried from the pontoon, to keep the damage as low as possible and keep the boat off the dock. But even a slowly turning screw and 23 Tons of weight develop quite a bit of force. Das hässliche Geräusch des am Ponton entlangschrammenden seitlichen Hecks werde ich lange nicht vergessen. Auch konnten wir den Zusammenstoß mit dem nächsten Stromkasten nicht mehr verhindern. Good, dass es kubanische Qualitätsarbeit war und der Kasten sich mühelos von unserer CESARINA umlegen ließ 🙁 Etwas Glück im Unglück sollte man ja auch haben. Dietmar machte in der Zeit unseren Anker klar und ließ in herunter. Ich sprang hinten wieder an Bord und stoppte endlich die Maschine mit dem Stoppschalter. Endlich war Ruhe im Schiff. Wir lagen quer im Hafenbecken und weit genug für weitere Beschädigungen am Schiff vom Ponton entfernt. Mein Herz klopfte bis zum Hals. Das durfte wirklich nicht wahr sein. After a few minutes of silence, the panic subsided and we began to analyze the situation.

It showed, that our shift cable broke the first time we engaged reverse gear. So you could switch gears, wherever you wanted. Reverse gear was there and it stayed that way. Our CESARINA could only be stopped by switching off the engine.

The harbor master, who was also visibly shocked, organized a boat, that maneuvered us back to the jetty. There we were then able to assess the damage caused. On both sides of the rear, some very deep scratches and a dented exhaust pipe were visible from a distance. Our new wind control system was also bent during the campaign. If the wind control system hadn't protected the stern and rudder from the pontoon, things would have been much worse. That looked really bad and left me feeling helpless, Anger and sadness :-(. But as I said, it could have been much worse. Good, that our ship is so stable and strong.

The power box was quite easy to put back on its foundation. At least the harbor master was happy again. We will probably only be able to see the exact extent of the damage in the Tavel lift. This means, once we make it to the other side of the harbor. A long way to go until then, to find a suitable shift cable here in Cuba, turned out to be almost impossible the next day. So Dietmar had to come up with something. It took him two days to repair it, until we were able to successfully complete the first test drive. In the evening we had some Pina Colada with extra “Vitamin R” to compensate. ("R"=Ron). A week to be ticked off and forgotten in almost every way. Only one thing is certain. Chickens are more likely to hunt foxes in the future, before we ever end up in a Cuban shipyard again under normal circumstances. After the crash, not even the boss came to see us to check that everything was going well. No further comments are necessary.