Docking Surprise

Posted from the hamlet of Olcott, part of the town of Newfane, NY
Photo: Bob repairing the damaged "S" in Sea Change.

Yesterday, after Sea Change hit the wood box encasing the steel rod at the end of our slip, climbed it and slid back down to finally come to a stop, I said to Bob, "I won't put this in the blog". News that the boat was for a few minutes moving dangerously in the wrong direction might scare some of the people who care about us as it certainly scared us. When Bob had tried to stop the boat by putting it into reverse as one does when docking, the boat continued forward and picked up speed. When the bow of our boat hit the wood box, it split open but cushioned the impact. Some of the gel coat on the bow was scraped and part of the S on the port side "Sea Change" is missing but that, surprisingly, is the extent of the damage.

This morning Bob put on his goggles and went under the boat to see if there was weed wrapped around the prop. Negative to that. The boat was shifting into reverse and forward but the shift was sticky - and inconsistent. Catherine, from New Bliss in the next slip to us, got on her bike and went to alert Marine Services that we were on our way over to have the boat pulled again and that we would be arriving with compromised stopping capabilities. It turned out that the longer screws that Bob had put into the zinc at the end of the prop yesterday (to ensure that we didn't lose it), had "bottomed out" and were preventing the prop from turning properly. The addition of an extra washer to each screw fixed the problem.

So - since, ignoring my oath of secrecy, I told everyone that I talked to throughout the day about our mishap, and also since, as it always seems to be with these experiences, once you have some distance from the event and especially once you can explain it, it doesn't seem so bad after all - I'm putting it in the blog.