Well, it was a photo of shame that made the front page of my local paper today (sorry no pic).
I went sailing yesterday on my HC16. The winds were pretty decent, so I decided to sail about 8 mi. up river to the downtown waterfront. About halfway there, I was struck with a queezy feeling and a big question- did I put the drain plugs in before launching? The wind was too strong to stop, jump off and look, so, since the sterns appeared to be riding high, I pressed on. I made it to the downtown waterfront docks were the wind had subsided significantly, but I noticed I was riding much, much lower in the water. Oh, s_ _ t!?!?!?!
I sailed by the waterfront and tried to make a turn before getting too close to the low highway bridge. As I slid aft on the tramp to switch the tiller over, the Hobie rolled slightly left, then went down by the stern as all the water flowed aft in the hulls. The bows were pointing skyward and my mast was floating.
No way was I going to be able to right this thing myself. Luckily some kids in power boat helped out, first by pulling the boat clear of a low bridge- wind, and tide were driving me under it. Someone must have seen the goings on and alerted the local rescue- on the bridge and blocking traffic so others could gawk, was a fire truck, rescue truck, and police car all with flashers going. Someone was yelling to me, but was no help because it was in a voice I couldn't understand (I haven't learned southern speak yet!), besides there was wind, water, and boat noise.
Well to make a long story short, we got it up, I sailed a bit farther, but dumped it again trying to change direction to avoid an anchored boat. I got another tow (from a clueless, rookie, boater- a story in itself) to a low dock where I was able to drag the boat out, let it drain, and leave it for the night.
Someone took a picture of the fiasco- my boat half submerged with bows pointing skyward, me in the water, and the bridge in the background filled with (dry land) rescue vehicles and crews. The pic was taken from a boat, which was obviously not helping me or coming to my aid! Anyway, the pic showed up on the front page of today's local paper- thankfully my name was not included. This morning I went down to the now de-watered boat, rigged it, PUT THE PLUGS IN, and slinked away down river. I guess yesterday was one of those days when I just should have stay in bed.
On a positive note- my mast doesn't leak
and the boat received only minor scratches.
What do you suppose they were going to do with the fire truck???
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