April 19, 2017
Dispatches From Afar
The other day I got a staticky phone call from my mother informing me that "...the boat is heeling so far over that I'm standing against the floor and water is up to the pilot house windo... and your dad...YOUR DAD..."
My 77 year old parents continue their adventure.
Aaaand...that was it.
No further calls went through for several hours until my mother finally answered with "...wait...WHO IS THIS?" "No! I was on the other line! No, we're fine but I've got....THEY'RE COMING!" She then shouted my fathers name several times before the connection died.
My next contact with them was equally terse. "Can't talk now. We're in the emergency room."
So.
I called my sister, who knew no more than I did but had gotten a cryptic and disturbing message on her answering machine.
Anyway, it turns out that they ran aground in the ICW, which, as part of our nations failing infrastructure, is no longer as deep in some places as the charts indicate. The tide was going out and by the time they called for a tow, they were stuck fast. When the contractor was pulling them out of the mud the boat heeled over almost on its beam ends and water rose to the pilot house windows.
When I finally got through to them they were racing a storm and a yacht into a small marina with one available slip and my mother was trying to pay dockage over the phone when I called. The yacht was attempting to zip into the slip ahead of them and they nearly collided...fortunately, the yacht did not think to call ahead and actually pay for the slip so the dockmaster resolved the matter in favor of my folks and the yacht had to ride out the storm at anchor, but not before many obcenities were tossed at my parents. (Canal rage is a terrible thing.)
My dad, who some of you may remember, went on this excursion with a broken foot, went to the hospital to get it checked, re-set and more antibiotics as it was still infected.
Since then, they've managed to render their engine air bound, which took them two days to resolve and as I type this they are completely without any electrical power to their pilot house (though they have running lights).
They seem to be enjoying themselves immensely.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
06:58 PM
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Posted by: Rick C at Wed Apr 19 22:40:45 2017 (ITnFO)
2
Air bound diesels can be a real pain to get started. Especially ones buried below decks on boats. And sailboats really hide the auxiliaries.
Posted by: jon spencer at Thu Apr 20 21:45:37 2017 (6SO50)
3
Any updates from the sea?
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon May 15 11:10:18 2017 (XOPVE)
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