Towing OPB (other people's boats)

No pictures this time, it would have been embarrassing to most of the participants.  Okay, maybe a few.  Later.  These events occurred last summer, along with most of the writing, I just never got it finished or published.

Our friend Karla, who lives on this big old wooden trawler on the end of the dock, is a Yacht Broker.  Great with people, but not much of a sailor.  She got a Mariner 32 sailboat on contract, owner had died, estate was selling, not much interest, so she put in a low offer herself and won it.

It needed some hull work, so she motored it over to the boat yard and had that done.  Bottom looks beautiful.  Insides are pretty good.  Decks?  Not so much.  But that doesn't need a boat yard, just some saws and stuff, which Karla has back at our marina.

So, they splash the boat from the yard, fire up the engine, it runs for a few minutes, and it runs out of fuel.  This is not particularly good for a diesel engine.  Mechanic friend puts in diesel, bleeds the fuel lines, tries to start it, nada.  A day and a half of nada.  Thinking bad fuel, clogged filters, something, but still nada.  So the decision is made to tow her back to our marina, so repairs can be made without extra yard fees.

We volunteer our dinghy and outboard.  Have we done this before?  No, but we had been on the receiving end in the San Juan Islands when our chartered boat had a bad impeller, so we knew in theory.  Flash back to...

Our neighbor’s boat here in Ensenada, Bold Venture.  Needed to use the crane at the boat yard to re-step the mizzen mast, which had gotten broken off at some point so they shortened the mast and it needed to be set up again.  Owner was absent.  Not sure why they just didn't motor over with the inboard, but the owner hired a crew with a panga (small motor boat) to tow it over and back.  The Keystone Cops move a boat.  When we got a clue what was going on (our boat is close to danger), we were standing by with boat hook, extra lines, and fenders.  And a lot of our dock-mates are out to help fend off (self interest, and the cruisers willingness to help.  Some do it to stave off boredom).  At one point the panga driver is having problems keeping his engine going when he gets it in gear.  I yell "La linea!" (the rope).  It was wrapped around the prop of his outboard.  He said in perfect Spanish "Oh shit" (no, that's not translated). I hold his boat while he gets it untangled.  Bold Venture is drifting towards the rocks.  Captain gets his boat going, gets Bold Venture away from the rocks, get's himself attached to the side of Bold Venture, crosses himself (wish I had a video of that) and away they go.  On return they did much better.  We were still standing by.  BTW, "linea" means rope or line.  Ropa means clothes.  Don't say "tirarme la ropa", you might get a striptease. 

Back to the present...We attach the outboard to our main halyard and lower it from the aft station on to the dink.  Our outboard hasn't run since San Diego (5 months), so I have a little problem getting it going.  Have added that to our monthly to do list, getting longer by the month.  Most of the monthly to do list is handled when we are actually out of a marina.  We motor over (about 1/2 mile) and met Karla and Rob over there.  Turns our Rob the mechanic has been on the boat all morning, still hasn't gotten it running.  But he has invited a guy over to help move the boat.  I've never met this guy.  He has a better boat for the job (rigid bottom inflatable and a more powerful 18HP engine).  But he's either an idiot, or drunk, or both.  He has an ego.  Let's call him Captain Bozo.  Karla knows the guy and is not pleased, but no one is willing to send him packing.

Quick explanation.  To tow a sailboat it's normal to tie along side.  The dinghy provide propulsion, the sailboat, with it's big rudder, provides steerage. The captain of the sailboat is in command.  This is important.  We discussed ahead of time where in our marina we were going, what side we were going to tie on, was it deep enough for the tow boats, etc.  Enter Captain Bozo.

Bozo ties the bow line of his dinghy to the bow line of the sailboat.  Guess what?  His boat won't hold a straight track if the tow line is not connected to the stern of his boat. It will keep trying to turn around.  Rob the "Captain" tries to get him to run the line backwards and sit on it.  I suggest he tie a line to his stern, then realize there are three captains in this farce, and I don't need to be one of them.  We just need to do what's right.  Cindy's with me, we pull along side the sailboat, deploy fenders (new topside paint), and attache for and aft lines where we can.  Not according to Hoyle, but enough.  The wind has picked up, pushing sailboat towards other boats.  Bozo is ineffective, arguing over how the bow line needs to be attached.  We reverse engine and pull the sailboat away from the other boats and dock.  When we are far enough away, I clarify with the "Captain" that I will be providing propulsion, he will be doing the steering.  Got out of the docks, "Captain" "Bozo", and "Owner" still figuring out how to get Bozo to be effective while our 4hp dink was doing the job.  Apparently Bozo was hollering at us about our speed, which was constant.  Some sloppy waves and wakes in the bay, lots of splash in our boat.  Cindy got a bit wet but none of our auto-inflating life jackets deployed.

We got to the assigned slip, Bozo dropped off (he would have gotten popped against the dock otherwise) and became a dock hand.  We disengaged and motored back to our boat.  Showers and decompression later.

Lessons learned:
There is one Captain, and he needs to be assertive.
Everybody needs to know who the Captain is.
Talk out all aspects of the task with all participants before starting.
Tell the Bozos to go home.  Don't spare feelings for sparing boats or lives. 

Karla had another friend more familiar with the Perkins engine take a look.  It took him 10 minutes to bleed the fuel lines in the proper order and then fire it up.

Windows or not and weather!

Crazy year for weather!   We are doing well even though we did get hammered by Storm Frances which is aka the leading edge of Kayla.   Plastic wrap turned our boat into an igloo almost a month ago to remove windows for replacement.

 It stayed that way while they drilled, grinded, sanded, sprayed toxic chemical, re-sanded and resprayed because paint severely orange peeled the first time, then sanded some more to prep to insert windows.  Sealant did not set up as well as should have so some will have to be redone.   We are 5-10 degrees colder than usual so at the edge of cooperation for each of these chemicals.  We at least had the 4 long windows sealed in and the 2 front ones set in.  Then we tarped in front of the igloo for rain protection.  Then rethought about the wind-age and lowered it.  Then rethought more and moved it again as the winds were picking up.  Then they picked up and shredded the igloo portion.  During a lull we went up and rearranged the tarp to just on top of the cabin top and tied back the flapping plastic.   Next lull we tied more plastic and duck tapped even more.  This morning we repeated the duct tape.  Can you say sloooow learners????  lol  Then a friend says 'almost hurricane winds' and we go DUH!

Winds/gusts here were clocked by several boats at over 56 MPH.  I felt like we were laying sideways a few times and one sailboat in between big boats measure a 7 degree lean.  We did not measure but wind swooped down from the parking lot and over the cute little blue Bella beside us.  We got very little sleep but that was OK cause the only damage was shredded plastic wrap!  No water leaked in the unfinished windows!  Most of the other boats fared well thankfully, just various degrees of discomfort

After windows are in, we will return to grinding, etc to restore the rest of the boats deck finish.  Should be another 3-4 weeks of 2-4 guys and working on our roof before returning to 'normal.'  HA HA  Like we know what that is!!!


love to all and sleep well before Kayla catches you!  Be safe!!!