March 18, 2000
Suddenly I noticed all the sailboats raking in their sails. I realized that meant the wind was about to get worse than predicted, so I picked up speed and continued for the dock. I was almost to the dock when I noticed one of the sail boaters waving his arms in distress. Not knowing the area, but knowing it gets shallow, I wasn't sure if he was waving me off, or trying to get help. Either way, I decided the prudent thing to do would be to reverse my way back the way I came.
As I approached the sailboat I realized that they were the ones in distress. Every wave seemed to drop out from under their hull. They were grounded. I handed my dad my float coat, and he hopped up onto the bow. I kept my boat close while the sail boater tried to untangle a line. While I was waiting, I was attempting to keep my boat close, but not too close. I was fighting a 15mph wind in fresh water. At one point, when shifting into reverse, my motor died. We collided. I handed up a line, and my dad hooked it on the anchor cleat, and tossed it. The sail boater caught it, and also tossed us his line finally. My dad tied it off as well, and I reversed engine. The lines instantly came loose from the sailboat. I came around to the stern of the sailboat, and we tossed him his line. He tied it off to his rails, and I reversed engine again. This time, his knot's held, and we dragged him off the sand bar. He exclaimed his gratitude, and offered his sailing club, Island Sailing Club, to repair any damage.
By now, the winds were tossing the waves up pretty good. Fresh water is lighter than salt water, so a 15 MPH wind is more like a 20 or 25. I clumsily got us up to the public dock, and we tied off. Dave arrived, with a date, and offered my parents the use of his car to get to an appointment they were going to miss otherwise. After checking all the lines and fenders, we decided to go get dinner while waiting out the bulk of the winds. We walked up to the Lake Washington Grillhouse and Taproom. There we had a good dinner but were right next to a room where they were having some live entertainment. The entertainment wasn't that good, and ruined any chance of conversation.
Eventually we meandered back down to the boat. The winds had died down a little, and it looked like we would be good to go back to Moss Bay. Half way there, we caught up with the winds, and I got to dock in rough weather again in my brand new (to me) boat. Not easy to do with no experience. I had to make several attempts to line up with the slip and back in, but kept drifting off course. At one point we were drifting into an escape ladder so fast that I was afraid that we would hit it and those metal rails would puncture my hull. I pushed the throttle all the way up, and powered my way out of the situation, scaring the hell out of my wife. Now everyone was ready to tell me how to drive my boat. I yelled "Shut up!" And suddenly I was captain again. This time I motored into the slip in one try, and quickly tied up.
After a few apologies for my harshness in trying to regain control of my crew and reassurances from the same that there was no offence taken, we said our goodnights to Dave and his date, and bunked down for the night.