If You Ain't Been Aground, You Ain't Been Around
I'm taking a day off from blogging. Maybe I'll get something new up this evening, but don't count on it. I didn't get to bed until 5am this morning, as I was sitting on a sailboat on a sandbar waiting for a tow until the wee hours of the morning.
Some of the highlights are as follows:
We were using a chart that was two years old, and the flashing green mark we were looking for was no longer there. It was after dark, and we didn't have a good spotlight to see the unlighted marks, just two wimpy flashlights.
We actually ran aground twice. The first time we got unstuck, we had no idea where we were on the chart, as the marks had been changed. Thus we did not know which way to go to get back on track and avoid running aground again and as luck would have it, ran aground a second time.
Our motor was not working, and to get through the skinny channel and inter-coastals, one must motor. The skipper dubbed the motor the "Throttleman's Delight."
The first time we ran aground, the skipper got out into the water in his tightie-whities to try to push the boat and stuff. Another 86 year-old gentleman on board also wanted to jump in, so he stripped down to his tightie-whities as well. The skipper told him in no uncertain terms was he to jump in the water. He never did, but it took him a good four hours to finally put his pants back on. Try to imagine in a good crotchety old man voice "Well, I'm not cold, why should I put my pants on?" Each time the skipper's girlfriend called to see how we were doing, he dutifully reported on the status of the 86 year-old's pants.
Said 86 year-old man was also having some lower GI issues, if you will, and the head on this boat isn't real heavy duty. And lets also say that said 86 year-old man's tightie-whities weren't all that white by the time we got to the dock, and the smell wasn't all the pleasant either.
After we got hooked up to the tow boat, we needed to bring the anchor back up. Said 86 year-old man and I were wenching it up at the same time that the skipper was trying to lift it up. However he couldn't get any slack on the anchor line, as we wenchers were keeping it tight as we wenched it in. So, in effect, we were unknowingly working against each other. The net result of this was the skipper choosing to cut the anchor line and sacrifice his anchor to the gods of Tampa Bay.
A tow like that costs roughly $965 dollars if you let your membership with Boat U.S. run out.
Some of the highlights are as follows:
We were using a chart that was two years old, and the flashing green mark we were looking for was no longer there. It was after dark, and we didn't have a good spotlight to see the unlighted marks, just two wimpy flashlights.
We actually ran aground twice. The first time we got unstuck, we had no idea where we were on the chart, as the marks had been changed. Thus we did not know which way to go to get back on track and avoid running aground again and as luck would have it, ran aground a second time.
Our motor was not working, and to get through the skinny channel and inter-coastals, one must motor. The skipper dubbed the motor the "Throttleman's Delight."
The first time we ran aground, the skipper got out into the water in his tightie-whities to try to push the boat and stuff. Another 86 year-old gentleman on board also wanted to jump in, so he stripped down to his tightie-whities as well. The skipper told him in no uncertain terms was he to jump in the water. He never did, but it took him a good four hours to finally put his pants back on. Try to imagine in a good crotchety old man voice "Well, I'm not cold, why should I put my pants on?" Each time the skipper's girlfriend called to see how we were doing, he dutifully reported on the status of the 86 year-old's pants.
Said 86 year-old man was also having some lower GI issues, if you will, and the head on this boat isn't real heavy duty. And lets also say that said 86 year-old man's tightie-whities weren't all that white by the time we got to the dock, and the smell wasn't all the pleasant either.
After we got hooked up to the tow boat, we needed to bring the anchor back up. Said 86 year-old man and I were wenching it up at the same time that the skipper was trying to lift it up. However he couldn't get any slack on the anchor line, as we wenchers were keeping it tight as we wenched it in. So, in effect, we were unknowingly working against each other. The net result of this was the skipper choosing to cut the anchor line and sacrifice his anchor to the gods of Tampa Bay.
A tow like that costs roughly $965 dollars if you let your membership with Boat U.S. run out.
posted by cookie christine @ 3/28/2005
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