Our son is rolling his eyes at Cathryn’s use of exclamation points, we’re sure, but in this case, we think their use is warranted.
During our 7 years of training as boaters, some in a classroom, some in the school of experience, we’ve imagined many disasters that could happen, as they’ve happened to others. We’ve imagined on-board fires, hitting rocks, becoming grounded, or worst of all, sinking or falling overboard and drowning. But NEVER have we worried about what happened to us today.
After settling in at the dock here at Princess Louisa Marine Park, we undertook a common activity for us: walking the dock to look at all the other boats (about 15, in this case). We stopped to talk to a couple on a 42-foot trawler who are up from southern Oregon. Ten minutes later we heard people down the dock loudly exclaiming, and Bob looked back and noticed someone was on our boat. Next we heard someone say a seaplane had hit one of the boats on the dock! Guess whose boat? That’s right – ours.
A 4-seater Cessna seaplane had arrived shortly after we did this afternoon, unloaded its’ 3 occupants plus 2 big dogs, and 2 hours later they were ready to depart. As they headed out of the seaplane docking spot, the pilot mis-judged his clearance, and his left wing smashed into our anchor light, and rear of our bimini and aluminum canvas support frame. Since we didn’t actually see it happen, we’re relying on the reports and photos of others who did, but we’re told the impact turned his plane toward our boat, and the propeller came within a foot of smashing into the boat. Spectators from nearby boats began running away and yelling, saying they expected the airplane to crash through our boat and into the dock. Fortunately, that’s not what happened.
When we realized what was going on, we approached the seaplane, asked who was the pilot, and identified ourselves as owners of the boat that was hit. The pilot was absolutely mortified, appearing near tears, and wouldn’t look us in the eyes. He was busy duct-taping the damage to the leading edge of his wing, where a light was smashed. If you look closely, you’ll see the duct tape on the wing to the right.
While Bob examined the damage to our boat, Cathryn got the pilot’s business card, asked to see his driver’s license, asked the name of his insurance company, (which he couldn’t recall) and gave him our “business” card with our names, phone numbers and email address. The pilot was clearly nervous, said he didn’t want to file an insurance claim, and asked what we thought the damage would cost to repair. We have no idea, but it didn’t seem extensive. Our anchor light is destroyed, the frame for our canvas is bent, some webbing straps broke, and there’s a bit of damage to the canvas. If there’s more, we haven’t yet ascertained it. The pilot pulled $500 out of his wallet, gave it to us, and told us to please let him know if we needed more to cover repairs.
When the pilot took off from the dock a second time, he did not decline the offers of assistance from others in getting the plane turned clear away from the dock AND our boat!
So . . . . there’s our excitement for the day. How was yours?
