Monday 12.19 / Five AM.
Anchored 16 miles offshore, near Marathon Fl.
I made a very large judgement error yesterday and this may
have resulted in our ‘shutdown’ at sea? About 10:30 pm we wrapped a crab pot
around our prop? We were motoring along
when a “new sound” started followed by another sicker new sound. I’m HOPING it’s just a crab pot line wrapped
around and not something more sinister.
Regardless of what or why, we are stopped, at anchor, awaiting daylight
to figure out our situation and determine the best course of action to move
forward.
Yesterday we were SUPPOSED
to sail from Marco Island down to Shark River but I didn’t plan well and we got
out underway before I determined that we would never reach Shark River before
dark. This prompted us to change our
plan – under way – to sail straight through, overnight, to Marathon, Fl. “Everything is going well, what could
possibly go wrong?” Let’s sail now
overnight to Marathon.
In an hour or so when we get first light I’ll know
more. For now we sit and rock, anchored
in 23ft, way out at sea. YESTERDAY was a
smooth day for our sail with light winds off the nose. We made good time till we had to stop. We ate dinner at the table in the cockpit
while underway. Pork chops, corn on the
cob, black eyed peas and corn bread. Thank
goodness we ate before the trouble started.
I’ve heard GOD takes care of Fools and Drunks. So imagine my surprise today when we
discovered multiple ropes
wrapped around my prop shaft… I felt
like he was letting down and old buddy.
I don’t have the vocabulary to describe Lynne ‘riding
the storm out’ in the dingy while I was underwater cutting crab pot
ropes. She had one hand holding a Crab
Pot that kept getting tangled around our air box and the other hand holding the
‘dive rope’ helping me to move underwater.
(“air box” is the milk crate holding the air tank) The seas picked up to 3-4ft with waves
tossing her about. The dingy was
positioned several feet behind Prodigal to be a rescue vehicle should I miss my
safety rope while working. Plus it held
the tools we brought. First we used my
little dive knife with a serrated edge.
(invision the knife sheath strapped to my leg ‘ala sea hunt style’ with
a short leader tied to the handle and clipped to my shirt.) But the line just laughed at my knife and I
was the only thing risking getting cut. Then
we tried bolt cutters to free the two separate Crab Pots that were wrapped
around the propeller shaft. (I dawn
mask, fins, snorkel to swim down to the prop to find 2 floats tangled together
and their pots trailing away down into the abyss.) At first I was holding my breath and swimming
down the 4 feet below waterline to investigate.
I cut the trailing pots and then the two floats. But the ropes were too tightly wound to
untangle. (think spool of thread wound
around the shaft) Next we switched to a
short tree limb saw. But after a few
breaths of practice cutting it became clear that I needed to break out the dive
gear. I just couldn’t hold my breath
long enough to work and get the ropes cut off.
New Scene: the water
is clear and cold. I’m swimming in it. The boat is bouncing up and down with the
increasing waves. Time is burning and we
have to get this done to sail on. So we
take a short break for some lunch…. Lynne
makes us a couple of lettuce wraps to get our energy up for the Sea Hunt
adventure. Yummy turkey/ham shredded
carrot with mustard rolled in lettuce.
Just what every cold diver craves!
Rejuvenated and revived we decide it’s past time to break out the dive
tank. (learning slowly – this is a tough
lesson and I was never a good student.)
We decide to ‘tie the scuba tank into a milk crate’ and lower it over
the side of Prodigal down to the correct working depth so I can breathe down
there and work on cutting the ropes.
(very great plan in theory) Just
make a macramé hanging basket for the scuba tank. BUT, the current is so strong it does not
‘hang’ down so much as trail along behind.
This is where Lynne is bouncing around, in the rescue trail
position. (It’s also where the other
crab pot float is sitting. It’s the
Bermuda Triangle of operations.) Soon we
have the air crate wrapped around the existing Crab Pot with Lynne bouncing
around it all and periodically being bounced up against the ship’s hull. I’m swimming down below all this with a saw
having the ship pummel me with bouncing bucking waves. To do my part of this Circus I swim out and
grab our safety line tied to Prodigal. I
can hold it and relax, catch my breath and fix my gear. I take my other, free hand, the one holding
the razor-sharp saw and pull the Air Crate toward me. (~10ft) When I get the crate and have the regulator
in my mouth breathing air, I take my legs and wrap them around the crate to
hold it. Now I sort of ‘dive bomb float’
below the surface, pulling my self along on the safety rope till I’m just a
little upstream of the propeller. Its at
this point things get weird. I sort of
coast, float, and then drop the rope.
I’m falling backwards (laying on my back) and reaching for the Prop
shaft or Rudder before the current carries me past all this and into the
bouncing dingy above. Mostly I grab the
Rudder because it’s the biggest target and then pull myself down to the Prop
Shaft. I hold the prop shaft with my
right hand and cut with my left. All the
while, 4’ waves are causing the boat above me to bounce and buck. It’s sort of an underwater upside down bronc
riding event with my straddling the air crate and holding on for dear
life. As simple as this all sounds, it
wasn’t. Sometimes the air tank would get
pulled away during the ramming into the hull, sometimes I would get banged into
the hull or shoved by huge water surge and lose my grip. So it took a long time and several tries to
finally get everything cut away. But
eventually we did have the shaft clear and I could spin the prop by hand.
CAN YOU SEE THE CRAB POTS IN THIS ONE?
Unfortunately, it took so long that we only got the anchor
pulled about 4pm and didn’t make much distance at all on Monday. (*that’s why the SPOT didn’t move and the
reply was “equipment situation.”) Now it’s 5am Tuesday and we are
anchored again out in the Gulf of Mexico.
The winds are a little stronger and the waves are a little taller but
I’m not feeling threatened. I’m drinking
coffee in the salon and trying to catch up on the blog. I just hit the SPOT and think a second cup of
coffee is called for this morning!
I can see the lights of Key West, and Marathon in the
distance but will sit tight till I have enough light to dodge the darn old Crab
Pots. I pray that all goes well today and
that we make Marathon before dark!
Warmest at this Holiday Season, xo Skip
PS. Since we changed
plans mid stream, we had to create a Starboard Running Light while
underway. (switching from day sails to
Shark River – to overnight) Our ‘work
around’ was to attach two LED lights to a milk crate and bungy chord it on
deck. It worked like a champ as we saw
zero boats all night. (and I assume that
zero saw us?)
