soggy_feet
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2009
- Messages
- 713
This season was my first as a boat owner, and while I've been around boats for many years... never have I dealt with anything larger than maybe 18ft.
So there I was, my first day on my 40' houseboat. It was exciting and a little intimidating at the same time. First order of business after settling in at my mooring was to leave the mooring and go show my friend the boat. His boat, a 28' Silverton, was moored on the other side of the bay. It was a little breezy over in the marina, but I didn't think much of it, but as I crossed to the other side of the bay, it got much more choppy, and a lot more windy. Its a good size boat though, its not like its rocking around, so I think nothing of it.
Now, the boat doesn't have a marine radio yet, and even if it did, my friend doesn't have one either, but cell phone reception is great, so its easy to just call.
I gave myself some space, but put my boat upwind from his when I dropped anchor, thinking it'd be nice if I didn't have to fight the wind rowing the dinghy. I felt the line tension, went to the back of the boat, noted that I was probably a good 140ft away from him, and on the phone he said it looked good from his end.
I shut the boat off, and starting closing things up in case I decided to stay off the boat for a few hours, and as i worked my way to the back of the boat, I glanced out a window... to my surprise, I was about 40' from my friends boat. And closing.
I quick call him back as I'm now rushing to get the boat restarted. I warn him that Im drifting into him and prepare to catch the boat. He now starts scrambling as well, and by the time my boat is started, my prop is dangerously close to his boat, and mooring lines.
I left the boat idling and rushed on deck to help wrestle the boats away from each other enough that I can power away, but with a slight change in wind direction, instead of pushing the boats off each other and letting mine slide by, the front of my boat is suddenly pushed across the front of his. I'm now ontop of his mooring line, and its drawn tight like a guitar string.
We finally get the boat pushed past, but my lower unit is still snagged on his mooring line... that he's still attached to.. so we work quickly to get a little slack, enough he can get himself free and let the mooring line slip past my drive. At this point, Im clothed, and soaked to my thighs from trying to stand on his mooring line and push it down past my lower unit..
He finally get free, and powers away, I watch the line slip away from my boat, and quickly power away myself, as we were both, as a tangled mess, still drifting towards docks and other boats.
Exhausted, he got his boat back to his mooring, which we had dragged a bit, and got tied back up, and I went even further out, NOT straight upwind from him, and got my anchor set, FOR SURE this time.
Lesson one of big boats for me: Make sure the anchor sets in the bottom, and doesn't just get caught up in heavy weeds, BEFORE you turn the boat off or walk away.
Other stupid little things I did this summer was:
1-Put my car key on a carabiner so I couldn't drop it in the water, but sliding off the dinghy dock into my inflatable, the key got caught between deck boards, tore free, and sank anyway. I went back over to my buddys boat to borrow a dive mask, ended up having some drinks with a floating neighbor when i got back, and then swam around under the docks with my mag-light at 11pm in my boxers looking for that key so i could go to work in the morning. (found it)
2-Same friend... our first time tying our boats together (intentionally), and as he floated up, I snapped a quick pic with my cellphone. Wanted to put it down quickly so I could help him with lines, but when I hastily put my phone on the window sill above my controls, it bounced, bounced again off the open side window, off the rail, and splashed into the water.
I looked out the window and said to myself, crap, thats gone... before walking out on deck to look over teh rail to see if i could still spot it. Lucky for me, the screen was still lit, and it wasn't sinking as fast as I expected. Before I even realized what I was doing, I threw myself over the rail and into the water to chase after it, fully clothed. About 15ft down I stopped to glance around for it, since I lost track of it when I dove in. I couldn't have done so with better timing. Just as I righted myself underwater, the phone floated right in front of my face.
I grabbed it and quickly swam to the surface, tearing the battery out of it, and shaking as much water out as I could. Its a touchscreen LG, and was less than a week old, as the one I had before it I accidentally dropped and stepped on in a gravel parking lot in the dark.
So, with the phone dried out after a couple days, I reinstalled the battery, and have continued to use it all summer long, no issues!
So there I was, my first day on my 40' houseboat. It was exciting and a little intimidating at the same time. First order of business after settling in at my mooring was to leave the mooring and go show my friend the boat. His boat, a 28' Silverton, was moored on the other side of the bay. It was a little breezy over in the marina, but I didn't think much of it, but as I crossed to the other side of the bay, it got much more choppy, and a lot more windy. Its a good size boat though, its not like its rocking around, so I think nothing of it.
Now, the boat doesn't have a marine radio yet, and even if it did, my friend doesn't have one either, but cell phone reception is great, so its easy to just call.
I gave myself some space, but put my boat upwind from his when I dropped anchor, thinking it'd be nice if I didn't have to fight the wind rowing the dinghy. I felt the line tension, went to the back of the boat, noted that I was probably a good 140ft away from him, and on the phone he said it looked good from his end.
I shut the boat off, and starting closing things up in case I decided to stay off the boat for a few hours, and as i worked my way to the back of the boat, I glanced out a window... to my surprise, I was about 40' from my friends boat. And closing.
I quick call him back as I'm now rushing to get the boat restarted. I warn him that Im drifting into him and prepare to catch the boat. He now starts scrambling as well, and by the time my boat is started, my prop is dangerously close to his boat, and mooring lines.
I left the boat idling and rushed on deck to help wrestle the boats away from each other enough that I can power away, but with a slight change in wind direction, instead of pushing the boats off each other and letting mine slide by, the front of my boat is suddenly pushed across the front of his. I'm now ontop of his mooring line, and its drawn tight like a guitar string.
We finally get the boat pushed past, but my lower unit is still snagged on his mooring line... that he's still attached to.. so we work quickly to get a little slack, enough he can get himself free and let the mooring line slip past my drive. At this point, Im clothed, and soaked to my thighs from trying to stand on his mooring line and push it down past my lower unit..
He finally get free, and powers away, I watch the line slip away from my boat, and quickly power away myself, as we were both, as a tangled mess, still drifting towards docks and other boats.
Exhausted, he got his boat back to his mooring, which we had dragged a bit, and got tied back up, and I went even further out, NOT straight upwind from him, and got my anchor set, FOR SURE this time.
Lesson one of big boats for me: Make sure the anchor sets in the bottom, and doesn't just get caught up in heavy weeds, BEFORE you turn the boat off or walk away.
Other stupid little things I did this summer was:
1-Put my car key on a carabiner so I couldn't drop it in the water, but sliding off the dinghy dock into my inflatable, the key got caught between deck boards, tore free, and sank anyway. I went back over to my buddys boat to borrow a dive mask, ended up having some drinks with a floating neighbor when i got back, and then swam around under the docks with my mag-light at 11pm in my boxers looking for that key so i could go to work in the morning. (found it)
2-Same friend... our first time tying our boats together (intentionally), and as he floated up, I snapped a quick pic with my cellphone. Wanted to put it down quickly so I could help him with lines, but when I hastily put my phone on the window sill above my controls, it bounced, bounced again off the open side window, off the rail, and splashed into the water.
I looked out the window and said to myself, crap, thats gone... before walking out on deck to look over teh rail to see if i could still spot it. Lucky for me, the screen was still lit, and it wasn't sinking as fast as I expected. Before I even realized what I was doing, I threw myself over the rail and into the water to chase after it, fully clothed. About 15ft down I stopped to glance around for it, since I lost track of it when I dove in. I couldn't have done so with better timing. Just as I righted myself underwater, the phone floated right in front of my face.
I grabbed it and quickly swam to the surface, tearing the battery out of it, and shaking as much water out as I could. Its a touchscreen LG, and was less than a week old, as the one I had before it I accidentally dropped and stepped on in a gravel parking lot in the dark.
So, with the phone dried out after a couple days, I reinstalled the battery, and have continued to use it all summer long, no issues!
