A REALLY Stupid Thing Done While Doing a Stupid Thing

[Dick Pluta]

This incident happened about 6 or 7 years ago and was stupid, but this morning, for the first time, I realized the REALLY stupid thing I had done.

My wife and I were bringing our Pearson 30 down to Florida from New Jersey. We had just completed a long leg from Ocean City, MD, to Watchapreague and had a lot of trouble cming in. The channel is long and shallow and not really suited to sailboats. We had gone aground twice. Once we got off by ourselves and the second time were pulled off by a passing fisherman. The second time, the rudder was stuck in the mud and, as we were pulled off, the boat turned around the stuck rudder, sweeping the cockpit, breaking the pushrod off my autopilot and breaking the rudderhead fitting. No, we're not at the stupid part yet. When we got into the marina the only space available was tied up to a bulkhead. The tide was running out and our deck was about 8 feet below the dock. After our traumatic entry, we decided to go out to dinner. My wife got dressed up a bit but had problems getting onto the dock. She was sitting on a stringer along the face of the bulkhead and couldn't muster the courage to step off the boat. Well, we all know the classic rule. You can be on the dock or on the boat but not both. The boat moved away from the dock and she went in, fully clothed. It was dark, the tide was running out and the ladder on the bulkhead was about 4 feet out of the water. I couldn't get her ou alone so I threw her a line and said "Hold on!" while I ran for help. The rescue squad arrived (headquarters was across the street and half the members were in the bar), we rigged a sling and got her out of the water. No, we're not at the REALLY stupid part yet. We spent the night in the local motel and, amazingly, my maritime career didn't end that day. She took it like a trooper, we finished the trip to Florida, sailed the P30 over to our winter home in the Bahamas and now have a lovely Islander Freeport 41 that we both love.

This morning I was thinking about how I almost lost her that night. Having to leave her in the water while I went to get help could have gone really wrong. Here's the really stupid part. I had a boarding ladder on the stern of that boat.

Dick Pluta
AEGEA