I Rescued a Boat Today

Maybe I'll get to keep it...who knows. It's registration is good till July 2007 acc'd to the sticker on the side.

We had this terrific wind storm that went on for 2 days solid. Sometimes there was rain, but mostly there was huge wind all the time. It was a lot like a hurricane's arrival or the aftermath if you are on the east side of it. The storm photos are from yesterday afternoon and evening.

I saw what looked like a stray boat banging on the rocks and cracked concrete (from Fredric and Ivan) on the point of some nearby, uninhabited property. Today when the wind & rain finally stopped I put on a swim suit and flip-flops and grabbed a coil of rope and ventured over to it. The going was rough as the water is pushed way up into the lagoon and is over the tops of the bulkheads and the boat slips next door.

Now what I didn't have with me was a lifejacket, a paddle or a cell phone. I managed to get the boat loose after I untied knots and un-did the messed up rigging on this nice little white and blue cataraman sailboat. The mast was in pieces and part of it was dragging in the water (whic I got up and on the 'deck'.... and another part was lashed horizontally across the centerof the boat. It appears that nothing but rope and little swivel-like parts are broken. I had to leave some of the rope behind as it was hopelessly entangled underwater in chunks of broken concrete, pieces of what had once been patios and sea wall parts. One of my neighbors had a dance floor out on the point of his property with Greek styled columns before Frederic.

So I hopped onboard thinking that I'd use the mast section like the Venetian gondelier drivers do to push myself along in the shallow water. Well, I found myself floating out to 'sea' (lagoon really) and in spots it was too deep to use the hollow mast section as a push rod. I began to think that I might end up spending the night on that thing. I figured that I could take off my clothes and hold my arms up w/ the swimsuit over them like a sail to try to catch what bit of wind there was if all else failed. Then , I decided I'd try to use the long , heavy oval mast section as a paddle. It took all my arm strength to go from side to side rowing with that heavy black metal pole. BUT....I began to move towards shore and my part of the world, and I still had my swimsuit on !

I got over to the neighboring uninhabited development's partially underwater boat dock and I climbed on the boardwalk and used some of the rope that was still on the boat to tie it to the posts using a knot that I invented right on the spot. I shall call it the "Lundy Hitch". I figured it was lucky to make it to the boat dock thing and not push my luck trying to get it over to my own property.

Tomorrow or when the water receedes, I'll take a paddle, a REAL paddle and go get it and bring it on over to my shoreline (its new home). Too many curiosity seekers, fishermen, and kids show up at the abandoned development next door.

I hope it is the law-of-the-sea that I can keep this Hobie Cat Wave.
Who know were it came from, somewhere on West Beach.

Looks like they are pretty expensive and it looks like FUN !