BLUEMOMENT

Just back from a few days live aboard diving, Koh Phi Phi and the surrounding area, a trip that came close to disaster.
65ft wooden boat, dive deck, entry to the lower saloon, galley, cabins forward and cabins down at a lower level. Above the dive deck, open (but shaded) area with seating, bridge forward with captain and crew cabin. 12 passengers, 3dive instructors & 4 crew. Anchored off "the beach" for the night, head on the pillow when the power goes out. Next, the whiff of smoke, not the warming, welcome peat-fire kind of smoke, but more acrid. Turns out that the generator has gone up in flames.....
The crew opened the hatch to get access, a couple of torches the only light, apart from the wall of flame that flared up from the now open hatch, not to mention the billowing smoke that makes it all a bit more dramatic. Self, wife and 3 kids with an inferno between us and the only exit. Not good. The crew got the kids and my wife upstairs by helping them past the flames, but I had to turn back as the smoke was building up. I got some fresh air from my cabin window (door closed to minimise the draft through to the fire) and tried again, but another passenger had twisted her leg and was blocking the exit. 3rd time lucky and I got upstairs.
The crew extinguished the flames and checked for damage. They managed to isolate the genny electrics and rig up a starter system for the main engine. By this stage I checked for nav lights/anchor light, none showing, and asked what the plan was:
Stay until morning and motor back at dawn
Or
Manually lift the anchor (winch not working) and motor back, hoping that the burnt out genny was the only damage in the bowels of the boat (4 hours at normal cruising speed, lots of fishing boats & other traffic)

What do you think happened next and what would you do........

From what you have written, I would say that they exercised plan B, being the most foolhardy.
To answer your question "what would you do" as if it were "what would you have done" I would have stayed put at anchor.
To answer it as if it were "what you would then have done" (given that they set off in the dark) I would have:-
1 Mutinied.
2 Failing a successful mutiny, mustered aft with life jackets/wet suits & passports etc.
3 Hang on, this is Xmas eve and I haven't yet done......

BTW well done with the fire....very scary.

Jings, pales my North Sea DFDS ferry ride into insignificance.
If I had any authority at all, I would stay put till first light and then had back to base after an inspection of the damage had resulted in an assessment that it was safe to do so.

I have a feeling that is not the answer....

Have a good Christmas

Hope you put your lifejackets on and used the tender to get safely ashore before the whole bliddy lot went up.

Donald

Life jackets stowed in drawers under each bed, so no one had one on the upper deck. The 25 man liferaft was sitting there and it as in-date, so some comfort.
The fire started around 23:00 and was out by approx 23:30. Pitch dark, crescent moon and some cloud so not much light. I suggested to the tour leader that someone with a torch to flash at approaching fishing boats would be a good idea as we were showing mo lights. After the flames were out, the captain put on the navlights by a temp re-wire from the battery bank.

My suggestion to the tour leader was to sit for the night and check for damage in the morning when there was more light, as not all the damage would be apparent from a torch light inspection. Concerns: through-hull fittings and hoses, controls for the rudder, gearbox and throttle, structural weakness and then water coming in, what pumps were there and how were they powered.

The captain got the main engine running and then manually started hauling up the anchor........

The captain didn't want to know about waiting until dawn. I'd said my piece and there is only one boss on board so that was that and we drifted out from the mooring which was in the lee of Koh Phi Phi. Eastern culture puts a lot of emphasis on "face". The captain had lost a lot of face so i guess he wanted to regain some face by getting us back to Chalong under his own steam and also not requesting outside assistance.

it took about 15 mins before they got the boat into gear and started motoring slowly back to Chalong Bay.

I then took the opportunty to speak to the tour leader and emphaise my concern: unknown damage, limited control of the boat, moving away from a safe area with other boats close at hand etc. I praised their ability to repair the boat and suggested that having proved his point, the wise decision was to stay put.
At this point, the captain agreed with me and turned back. Unfortunately, the anchorage he we were going to had no free moorings and with the anchor winch u/s, we couldn't anchor, so with the wind building and viz dropping, we turned back again and headed for Chalong.

Twice during the trip back we lost drive as the temporary repair to the gearbox linkage un-repairs itself, but we get back safely to Chalong and pick up a mooring around 05:00

Lessons:
1. always have a torch handy. Small LED waterproof one would have been great (I didn't have one)
2. take a small 5-10l waterproof bag to use as a grab bag for passports, wallet, mobile phone (again, I didn't have one, mine was lying in a drawer at home)
3. if you have one, take your h/held vhf with you (charged) (you've guessed by now where mine is...)
4. double check your escape routes. in our case, it would have been out the window into the water. OK when the boat was upright but could have been a different story if the boat had sprung a leak and listed badly
5. keep your mobile charged (mine was half charged but with no power on board, couldn't be re-charged)

the good things:
No one panicked. All on board were calm, probably as much due to ignorance of the real dangers and implicit trust in the captain!
One of the dive instructors really stepped up and guided everyone out calmly
the crew reacted quickly and bravely to get the fire out
.........but to use a phrase from Sir Alex Ferguson, it was "nippy bum" time for a few moments!

What happened next:
The dive company got a replacement boat organised and we completed the trip losing only one dive. Seemed silly to head for home, even if through the magic of 3g and ipad my EA had flights available for us by 08:30!

All's well that ends well but I still contend that it was an unnecessary risk to motor back that night.