Re: My poor boat (pictures)
Re: My poor boat (pictures)
glad it worked out. It's amazing how lines that seem "good enough" can fail.
I came out to the dock to retie my boat and it was gone. Dark and stormy night, on an island, outgoing tide. Went back inside and found the guy who was with me when we docked and we went together to the end of the pier. There, hanging off the cleat, was half of my bowline. "Sorry about your boat but I sure am glad to see this!" he said, as we both assumed he hadn't tied it correctly. It appears the line, which was old anyway, rubbed against a rusted sign on the piling and cut through.
I ended up OK. Although the surrounding marsh had flooded, my motor was still down and it hung up on the edge of the marsh just out of sight of the floodlights; we got another boat and retrieved it. Had it kept going, it may have blown for miles in the dark across flooded marsh, or it may have drifted with the tide out a nearby ocean inlet.
it's scary how a whole boat, maybe worth tens of thousands of dollars (or a couple of bucks, like mine!) ride on a cheap old piece of equipment like a line, a cleat, a bilge-pump, a sea **** valve.