The Great Sailboat Rescue!

It all started with a knock on the door.  Bob answered and found our neighbor Marc, who said, “Is that Jim’s sailboat out there? I don’t see him in it.”

In fact, 3/4 mile offshore, there was Jim’s boat bobbing in the wind, 1-3-foot waves, with its sails down.  We called Jim, who answered his cell and said he was 8 miles away at Home Depot and would come to our house as quickly as possible. 

Unfortunately our dinghy was tied to our buoy offshore, so Bob went out in a kayak, retrieved the dinghy, installed the 2 horsepower motor, and went out in the wind and waves to mount a rescue.

It was a long way out there (this pic taken with a 200 mm lens), and seas were rough as the wind was blowing hard.  The good news/bad news was that the wind had caused Jim’s anchor to slip, and the 60lb anchor, 30’ chain and 60’ of rode was all there hanging off the bow.

Bob struggled to pull the chain and anchor into the dinghy, but was unable to for fear of capsizing the dinghy. He had out his pocket knife and was just about to cut the chain and anchor away, when he looked up and saw a small tug approaching.

The 2-man crew on the tug stopped to ask if everything was OK.  Bob asked if they would tie onto the chain and anchor and haul the sailboat back to shore where we could deal with it.  They agreed, and off the flotilla went.

Just as the tug  got to shore, Darren and Steve, two other neighbors, showed up in Steve’s motorboat.  Still another neighbor, Francine, had called Darren to report she’d seen the boat drift away, so Darren grabbed Steve to launch a rescue.

After we got Jim’s boat tied up to yet another neighbor’s buoy,  all the guys went off north of the Point to reset the anchor on Jim’s buoy system. We’ll hope it bites solidly this time.

So, that’s the story of the great sailboat rescue, and the explanation of all the activity in this picture.  We guess there are a number of scenarios in which the saying “it takes a village” applies – 7 households from our street made this work, plus the tugboat guys! Happy ending.