When adventure calls...
Remember when we called Randy to go rescue our dinghy? See Dink Outing blog if not... but we got our chance to even out the karmic scale. Norm from Barbara Ann calls about 9:30 Sunday night and asks if I'm busy and can help. Turns out Bob from to-be-named C&C 33 and Keith on Content got into a bit of a race out in the river Sunday afternoon. Bob ran aground. Keith tried to help. Third time wasn't quite a charm because his third pass he ran hard aground. Yow. So Norm, Tracy from the GCSM yard, and I go out a mile or so across the St. John's river.
Long story short...neither boat was going anywhere with tide dropping. They were safe so the owners stayed overnight and we brought 7 people and a chocolate lab back in the dink... A new record.
Next morning we got up and saw Keith had gotten off and was gone. Bob was still there, sails up trying his best to extract himself from the bottom of the river. Heather and I went out and spent the next 4 hours taking anchors out to set, kedging & winching the boat around and out to deeper water. The wind and a fairly choppy day made it quite a chore. Handheld depth-sounder told us the water went from 3ft to 7ft...they just happened to find this shelf in reverse order...7' to 3'.
By lunchtime Bob decided he's had enough as had Heather and I. She had spent much time running lines back and forth while Bob and I took turns grinding on the winches, hauling the boat out to deeper water.
5:30pm...Bob calls and asks if we will try one last time. Of course we will. Heather is tired from the morning's events, I caution her to take it easy since she's still healing. Bob gets Tracy from the yard and off we go across 2' rollers in the river (the wind had really picked up...but, of course.) After about 2 hours we get the boat free, finally kedged her off. We had mapped out the area with the handheld depth sounder so we knew the route out of Bob's shoal. All is well.
Below is a picture of a provisioning trip. A bit chilly...hooded sweatshirt and foulie, yuck! It's always fun carrying provisions the necessary distance, thankfully there is a dock right across the street from Harvey's grocery. There is also a Hardee's hamburger joint there so we can get our arteries hardened and then walk them clear again on the way back to the dink.
| 