Ton's Test Trip
"Kirumba I am sinking!"

The next morning I felt normal. This day we were invited for the test trip of Ton's ferry Kipepeo.

Photo: rudder steering was somehow blocked, but with two engines a catamaran can engine-steer. Ton tries speed, we do not reach max and have turbulent prop stream. An engine man reports: maji! (water)

Photo:  rear compartment of starboard hull leaks through rudder shaft outlet, first attempts bucket bailing (Philemon invisible down under, later turned out to have dived up the panel that served as propellorshaft gland that had simply got loose from the main stern panel)

Starboard engine and starboard generator, both in the leaking compartment, are shut for safety. Kipepeo down to zero rudder and port engine only, and starts to heel.

Photo: guests go for life jackets

Guests went for life jackets. Not me of course. I explained that due to compartments, each boat of the catamaran was really 4 separate boats and we were floating on 7 of the 8. Nevertheless some called a boat to take them off.

Photo: 4 year old Tonia Bronkhorst not amused

4 year old Tonia Bronkhorst was not amused, I told her we were going home, she refused to believe it.
Now we got an opportunity to test the multi million dollar "rescue boat" aid project of the Netherlands. Since last year there is a steel rescue boat in the Mwanza industrial harbour capable of towing with a very powerful engine (picture). However, on discreet request of the army directly to builder Kamkala Sinnautics also a foundation for a cannon was built. After all, sometimes it is the country that has to be rescued. Now we were eager to know whether the army would have to open handedness to give the rescue boat free for rescue.
No way, of course. First, channel 16 Kirumba harbour kindly said some Mr. Obese would call back and .... stopped listening. After a long time Ton, who had only one of the four starboard compartments leaking nevertheless felt that to get a towing ship he had to go for "Kirumba, Kirumba come in, I am sinking!". An offloading cargo ferry came after two hours to tow us: (next picture is a 6 picture slide show)

Slide show (or rather, slide operetta): showing the star role of Philemon in the towing action, 1. Philemon and Ton, 2: Shooting line coming, 5. Towing captain deems shooting line strong enough for towing (???), or miscommunication, they changed their minds after a minute 6. dressed in flags we reach rescue jetty (background Annemarie)

During the connecting and towing procedure everybody on the fright ship was screaming and gesticulating what had to be done, all had different ideas. Ton later said he had been on channel 16 with the captain, but could not prevent a full forward on the shooting line! After a minute of thinking, however, it was concluded (by logic! the shooting line had not yet broken!) that it was better to haul the towing line and tie it to the ferry.

Photo: Starboard rear deck sank to water surface

When later I drove 4 year old Tonia Bronkhorst on the compound, I reminded her I had told her we would be going home. She refused to deal with the matter. A paradigm example of how my entire life is going. Reason: life time refusal to comply with dress codes, in-crowd vocabulary, pronunciation and a too high exposure of my - impeccably founded - disbelief of common opinion give me an image of untrustworthiness. But my harvest: treasures of information: I found for instance that there is no global warming, foreign aid is ruining Africa, terrorists do not exist, the Twin Towers are still standing and Europe is a big Gulag (Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey). As Spinoza recommends, you hide the valuable part of your truths, as you do with all your valuables, but securing these is infinitely easier that securing, say, my motorcycle: who wants to know such things?
Ferry damage turned out to be limited and of course, Ton felt lucky to experience the failure on day one in a test.