It was turning out to be a hot Saturday so everyone and their dog was on the water. As we all know.....some are experienced and some are not AND things happen to even the best boaters. We sat in the cockpit under the shade and just took it all in. What a zoo. The Aux Coast Guard nearly took out s/v Honey Ryder's starboard bow towing in a sinking SeaDoo and rider. The strong current caught them. We fended them off and they got parked right in front of us. Great! How is Woody going to tow us?
Turns out Woody and his boss got the call to tow the sinking SeaDoo and soon they were on the scene. He told us they will take care of this SeaDoo and then be back at slack tide to move us. In the mean time, the sinking SeaDoo, tons and tons of boats coming and going with their wakes, a tourist helicopter and then a very low flying US Coast Guard helicopter....made it all feel like the beach surfing scene from the movie Apocalypes Now - Ride of the Valkyries...without bombs, death and napalm of course. But very surreal. The song was thundering in my head as I watched the marine zoo.
Woody and boss towed the SeaDoo across to the fuel dock and then proceed to dink around with it for over 3 hrs! OMG! Tide's gone out, slack tide is here and we've got to get moved now. We only have this one shot at getting s/v Honey Ryder in. Woody wanted to come move us but his boss continued to dink around with the SeaDoo. We are freaking out! The slack tide window has now passed but Woody finally zooms over in the tow boat and tells us he THINKS we can still get her in the slip. THINKS? Okay. We let the current swing s/v Honey Ryder stern around so Woody can do a port aft tie up.
Oh yeah - a squall line has come through, firing up the winds and driving boats off the harbor and into the marina like rats off a sinking ship. Great - traffic to worry about.
But we cast off. Again Woody is the engine and I am the helm of our two ships. Tom is on lines and fenders. The idea is to let the current float us down past our row and then we can power back up and make the turn into our dock row. The trick is to stay straight while floating down with the current and not get swept sideways. If our keel catches the current, it can swing the whole things around into numerous boats and such. The first floatdown we get a bit sideways. We try again. I think we've missed again but Woody says we can still make the turn into our dock row. We crab along to starboard, aiming at the sterns of all the boats to account for drift. * Such a weird sensation to be aimed directly at the stern of a boat and yet not hit it. We approach our slip and turn slightly in. Tom, the dock moneys from the marina (Woody's term NOT mine) and neighbors help guide us in on the dock lines. I quickly untie Woody so we won't hit Greg's boat which is on the port side of our joint slip. We're in! Whew! No one got hurt, no boats were damaged. s/v Honey Ryder is home. Double whew! Thank you Captain Woody!!!!
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