Caught Some Lobster

[sailorboy1]

So sailing along July 4th I went down below to get something cold out of the frig (because I have cold stuff) when I hear my wife a daughter (things seem to always go bad when our daughter comes to the boat) yelling "Don we are dragging something".

So ever though from below I didn't hear anything wrong I "popped" back to the cockpit to see what was up to find looks of panic and impending death. Once up there I didn't see anything and the boat was sailing along just fine at 6+ knots. So I ask what they are talking about.

They pointy aft and trailing from the dinghy that was hanging on the davits was a line in the water, and it is tight looking. So I'm looking at it thinking "how the hell does some line jump 5 feet out of the water and get caught on the dinghy?". The next thing that crosses my mind is "how the hell do I get to it to cut it away because the only way to it is to go across the top of the dinghy and the davits wouldn't hold it and me".

So I turn the boat into the wind to stall it out and then crawl between the hanging dinghy and the stern. I'm still wondering how it is possible to have caught anything with a line on it 5' off the water unless it fell from the sky.

Once I get below the hanging dinghy I can see a candy cane buoy stick and realize it is a lobster pot float, but still wonder how it got up onto the dinghy. I finally manage to hang out aft enough to find that it is caught on the painter line for the dinghy that was coiled up and tried to the stern rails and that we are dragging along a lobster pot.

Son we managed to untie the line and let it go and the buoy fell away and let use go. After I recoiled the line and from the paint match I could tell that prior that the line was hanging maybe 6" from the side of the boat. Which turned out to just be enough to hook the buoy as we sailed by it (because I know for a FACT that lobster buoys are magnetic to fiberglass hulls).

Lessons Learned
Con -god d*m lobster buoys and their magnetic attraction to boats
Con - I caught the lobster and didn't think to keep it so threw it back and later had hot dogs

Pro - nothing got broke


Meanwhile ....................... I forgot to bring the cold one up with me.

[Teknav]

Don, buddy...you need a vacation...you're too stressed out that you forgot your cerveza! Stow away mosquitoes and now stow away lobster... take a few days off...and don't try catching anything!

Mauritz
Pay Him The Two Dollars! <Ziegfeld Follies>

[Crimea Cruiser]

Probably that natural sex appeal of Hunters that lured the buoy aboard!