Shakedowns on the Water

This boating season feels choppy – back and forth to the boat, family fun, with a few medical things tossed in to make planning a challenge.

In mid-May we had a shakedown overnight to West Harbor on Fishers Island. Everything functioned as it should and we enjoyed that first time out on the water.

It was windy and choppy on the way back the next day. The current and wind gave the water a split personality.

Just outside of the entrance to Pine Island Bay and Shennecossett, we dodged a lobster pot buoy, or so we thought. The water was so choppy it was hard to see the buoys. As we backed into the slip, Al thought he saw a line but it disappeared. Our dock neighbor texted us during the week to say he saw a line floating near our boat, fished it out and found it attached to a lobster pot near the piling, but not to our boat. Hmmmmm…… did we DRAG this pot all the way back to the slip? We hadn’t felt anything, but you had to wonder. And wonder we did. To be certain, the next time we went to the boat Al brought the endoscope camera that had been on the boat. He attached the camera to the boat hook to see what might be on the prop.

The camera is just a tiny thing on the end of the yellow cord. It sends pictures to the phone. Al maneuvered the boat hook with the camera on the end under the boat while I watched the phone and took screen shots. Yup, there was a pile of line wrapped on our prop.

We sure weren’t going anywhere at that moment. A call to BoatUs informed us that they do not send out divers anymore. So much for that “gold” member status. We called a diver who was able to come that afternoon, a Sunday!

WOW! Lines and chopped buoys. The blue line was a little melted to the shaft. Fortunately it all came off and caused no damage. Thank goodness we checked before heading out again. Our theory of the event – We did catch a buoy and dragged it with us for that short distance. The line must have wrapped as I backed into the slip on our return, and the cutter on the prop did slice through it, but still allowed the line to wrap. Fortunately, it was very, very slow and a short time which prevented serious damage.

Memorial Day was a good time to take our unsinkable Molly B out again, the first real pleasure cruise for her. We trailered the whaler to Milford to take Ryan, Kerri, Caleb and Ceci out for the day. Don and Cindy proposed a crazy idea. They were across Long Island Sound preparing for our summer cruising. Why not come across on Limerick for a visit? They made the 5-hour trip and met us at Charles Island. Having Limerick there gave us a “mother ship” to secure Molly B to for some rest and socializing.

Before Limerick arrived the six of us rode around giving *Molly B* a good workout.

A bit of a chill in the air? Ceci is under the yellow towel, Caleb covered up except for his feet.

The chill was soon forgotten as they got to ride around with Papa.

This blog post would not be complete without videos of the kids trying out their boating skills, with supervision.

Caleb at the helm.

Ceci’s turn to drive.

Don joins in the fun!

Molly B was so much fun that she will be coming along for the 2nd annual “Grandkids Boat Camp” in July.

Now that Kindred Spirit was ready for another run we made an overnight trip to Napatree. The channel into the anchorage and Watch Hill was getting shallower last year and we had concerns about more shoaling this year. Internet searches found no information on any dredging. After checking the tides at Watch Hill Point, we opted to arrive at Sandy Point 2 hours before high tide. If the boat should happen to ground, the tide would be rising.

We slowly and carefully rounded Sandy Point. Al watched the water and I recorded depths on a notepad. The red arrow points to where he maneuvered the boat more towards shore to check the depths. After successfully making our way through the passage, we made a new route on the chart plotter based on our track. The green can between points 8 and 9 on our route is on the “wrong” side of the boat (“Red Right Returning”). That can has been moved but the chart still shows it in the old position.

The first weekend in June is a lovely time to be on the water. We were pretty much alone in the anchorage.

There seemed to be more large driftwood pieces along the beach.

Ellen Seltzer

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