Rocketman said I should post this up, so here goes.
Yesterday, a few of us here in Marco decided to have some lunch over at the Dolphin Tiki. It was Jason from the Seafarer Facebook page, Rocketman, Jamey & Char ( sailboaters passing through going to Islamorada) and myself.
We all sat around feeding our faces and chatting up
boats, routes, and sailing stories. Rocketman had to leave after the meal, and Jason had to run an errand. So it was just us three. We chatted a spell, and noticed that the
wind had really picked up from the north as the cold front was moving in. We commented that Jason sure was taking a long time to run his errand, and his
cell phone on the table would ring occasionally, but no one answered it. Bout an hour had passed, Jamey had excused himself to the mens room, so Char and I just small talked. Suddenly Jason came rushing up with a look of desperation on his face. He said that
boats are sliding in the bay and Jamey's boast was about to go into the seawall. We told Jason that Jamey was in the
head, so Jason darted down the sidewalk to get Jamey. Char and I just looked at each other for a second, then I headed for the
dinghy dock on a run, tripped on a chair, almost landed on my face, but managed to stay upright. I could here people around me asking each other what was going on as I headed out the restaurant. I got to my
dinghy, and looked across the
dock to see Jamey and Char in their dinghy, and Jamey was having trouble getting it started. I went to get out of mine to go over and help, (like what was I gonna do, push start him?) I dont know, but before I get out of my dinghy, I saw Jamey
charging out of the slip. So I fired up mine, and followed him. The
wind was really blowing hard, the
water real choppy, I could see Jamey's
boat ahead, the stern about 30 feet from the concrete/rebarb seawall. By the time I got close, Jamey and Char was already climbing up their stern ladder with Jamey headed to the bow, and Char in the
cockpit. I could see jamey start his
windlass, and watched the
anchor chain going up. " Is there anything I can do Jamey", I shouted. " Naw, we're ok for now" he replied. So I hung around anyway, just in case. Then I remembered I had a sailboat too. So I looked off to the north near the condos where Rocketman keeps his
boat docked. My boat looked like it was still in the same place I had left it, but I headed off to check on mine. Earlier that day, Rocketman and I had taken my boat over to the marina to get some
fuel,
water, and I learned how to use the
pump out thing. As I headed for my boat, I kept looking back towards Jamey's boat, they were well away from the seawall, and draggin their
anchor headed to where they had orginally anchored. They probably had enough chain up to safely move the boat I guess, but getting away from that seawall was the main thing to get done and fast.
I got to my boat, actually bounced off of it a few times before I could get a good grab. I aint that good in a dinghy witha
motor yet, but getting slowly better. At first I just slowed down real good, but realized the wind kept pushing me back away from my boat, so I just gassed on it, bounced off the stern, got along the right side, bounced off that, turned the dinghy around for another go, and it was bounce, bounce, grab, bounce, grab. I scrambled onto my boat, and looked around. I could see 6 or 7 other boats had drug their anchors and were close to the other seawalls, but not getting any closer.
I stood in the
cockpit of mine, and scanned around to see if I was moving for about 10 minutes to make sure I wasnt moving. Then I remember that it was Rocketman who was at the
helm when we got back from the marina, and he set the anchor. Hell, I thought to myself, he's a professional, I got nothing to worry about.
All night long I could hear the wind howl, and feel my little boat being tossed around. Ocassionally, I would look out the windows and see I was still in the same spot. Well, I thought, this little boat aint going anywhere, and slept through the night.
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