We had neap tides out the wazoo this weekend.

Water levels were about 2 feet below MSL, and the entire bay seemed dry. Large areas of real estate were exposed in the normally shallow estuary. It was not a good weekend to sail, even though the winds were near perfect from the SW clocking around to the NE, and the temperatures were balmy and warm.

On Friday I went over to Olivia and took care of some interior work including checking the routine things on the engine, checked the heat exchanger anode, the fuel filters, the pumps, oil and batteries.

The tide was so low, that the public ramp was exposed almost all the way down to the treacherous lip, the place where unsuspecting pleasure boaters back their trailers down until the wheels fall off over the edge, and their trailers become stuck with sometimes horrendous results.

My friend, the Commander says that like everything else this place, south of latitude 26, it's just another third world country north of the border.

I had my head down in a port side locker, examining the area near the dinette bulkhead when I heard a commotion coming from across the channel that we're on.

I popped my head up and looked out of the companionway, and laying on the boat ramp was a double axle McLean trailer ripped off of the bumper of a sparkling new white Dodge pickup truck several feet up. A guy was standing there yelling at another guy, fashonably dressed in the latest Bimini Bay attire, trying to get a bay boat, about a 22 foot Kenner with high sides powered by a 135 Johnson under control. The guy at the ramp shouted that he had torn off the trailer ball trying to pull the trailer back up over the lip. 

Bimini Bay-guy was obviously unfamiliar with the controls, as he goosed the throttle to "nose" up to the dock. I figured he knew how to throw it into reverse and stall it near the dock, but he just kept sliding forward, finally smashing into a piling with an audible thud! I watched his head jerk back in an obvious whiplash, that I could almost feel. He tied off  right next to a trailer sailor that was occupying about half of the dock. I guess he decided he didn't like this spot too much, and backing off with a great muddy whirlpool swirl of throttle, approached the dock on the other side this time, with the same resulting thud, and deciding he liked this spot much better hoisted himself up onto the treads. He walked over to ramp and the errant trailer, where he and the other guy just stood there, hands on their hips,  looking at the tongue with the ripped off ball still inside.

They were soon joined by an obese winter Texan with Missouri plates pulling a Lund boat on a trailer who stood there with his hands on his hips surveying the chingaso. Like all winter Texans he was full of advice, telling the two that they could get another trailer ball at WalMart, just "down the road". And he offered to pull the trailer out too.

So he unhitched the Lund boat, backed down, and managed to pull the trailer up, parking it out of the way. Meanwhile Bimini Bay-guy and sidekick jumped into the new white Dodge pickup and sped off, presumibly to WalMart.

I went back to work down below, and about fifteen minutes later I hear somebody in the general vicinity of the ramp shout "IT"S SINKING!".

When I popped my head up and looked out of the companionway again, I saw the obese winter Texan straining to hold onto an aft mooring line attached to the Kenner which was sporting a bow-on erection, the entire front half of the boat pointing toward the sky, stern lip with less than about two inches of freeboard. With the big Johnson on the back, it would be all over in a matter of minutes......

It appeared as though the owner had forgotten the transom plugs....

Just then the white Dodge roars into the parking lot, and seeing the situation, Bimini Bay-guy and sidekick scramble to install the new ball, hitch the trailer and back it down the ramp. A crowd had now shown up from seemingly nowhere coaching the guy down the ramp just far enough.

With the help of several of the crowd, they led the Kenner around to the trailer, and Bimini Bay-guy winched it about half way on, unable to go any further due to the great weight of water. He climbed into the shiny white Dodge, and spinning the tires till they started producing acrid clouds of white smoke, pulled the whole thing up above the transom. A great torrent of water gushed from the open drains, flooding the ramp for a full ten minutes before Bimini Bay-guy was able to finally winch the now considerably lighter Kenner fully on to the trailer.

The crowd dispersed, and Bimini Bay-guy and sidekick drove off. Apparently they'd had enough fun for one day.