Captain's Log: August 1, 2007

Disaster at "sea".

You may not know this, but Sharon and I have purchased a 21' Bayliner Buccaneer on the cheap. We keep it moored at Anderson Mill Marina. It's a type of boat known as a sloop; basically a cabin cruiser. Unfortunately, we are going to sell the hobie to pay for new boat. Actually we'll profit on the deal since the hobie will fetch a better price.

We took our first sail with the former owner to get to know the boat better.

However, I will tell you about our initial solo sail as it proved much more interesting.

8:30 PM
My first mate, Sharon, and I decided to go on a little sunset cruise in our newly acquired bayliner. The trip started out ordinarily enough with us moving out under power until we got to the main channel. It turns out there simply wasn't enough wind to get anywhere. We allowed ourselves to drift peacefully in the main channel while we watchd the sun disappear behind the hills.

It wasn't until we decided to go in that things go a little hairy....

10:30 PM
If you don't know this, a lake at night is a very black place. Houses and docks and trees easily disappear in the outlines of hills around you and even the buoys can be difficult to spot. This is why it's a very good idea to make sure you have GPS with you when sailing a lake with as many coves and dead ends as Lake Travis has. Unfortunately we didn't have ours with us because going out was a last minute decision when coming home from a softball game.

We thought we would be able to get away with not having this vital piece of equipment because the entrance to our cave is marked with a flashing red buoy that we supposed would be easy to spot in the black pitch that coats the lake at night. We were wrong. During our relaxing drift, we had moved much further than we supposed. In fact we drifted into the mouth of another cove which also came equipped with a flashing red buoy. Oops.

We did have plenty of fuel however and happily motored on for nearly two miles before realizing this can't be the cove of choice. We met some other midnight skippers who apprised us of our location and after consulting our map, we set course for home.

And here .... here it gets really lousy.

11:00 PM
The motor stalled on our way out of the cove. When I reached down to start it up again it literally flipped up side down, remaining attached to the motor mount by a miracle (which probably actually was tension from the fuel line helping to support it). It had shutoff so I reached down to grab the motor and wrapped my arms around it just before it's second clamp came loose. Sharon held my waist as I heaved our hapless motor aboard.

11:30 AM
I wasn't sure what had happened and realized that another piece of equipment I would invest in would be a million candlelight 12v spotlight. Our cabin lights just weren't cutting it. Unwilling to risk dropping the motor 60 feet down into the depths of the lake in some vain attempt to reattach it to the mount I had little choice but to call my brother Charles.

While we're waiting for Charles, let me tell you a little something about drifting through total darkness. It's kind of peaceful for one thing but at the same time there is a deep sense of irony. I set sail ill-prepared to solve problems in low light conditions. Yet all around were the lights from various shops and houses along the shores. So everything you need is within sight of you; you're not lost, you just can't reach it. And in fact, if we hadn't had a cell phone, we wouldn't have reached it for a very, very long time. Now it is a lake, which means you're still relatively safe and have a high chance of drifting to the shore. Unfortunately, not all the shores are useful since you can't always get out anyway. Also, my boat has a fixed keel, meaning that drifting ashore may be interpreted as running aground. That's not a good thing.

1:00 AM
Charles is a typical man. By which I mean men have an inner desire to be heroic and be the "one to call" in times of trouble. So despite the late hour, he was in pretty high spirits. He knew the cove we were in and was able to spot our cabin light. After the obligatory, "Did somebody order a pizza?", he towed us to the safe waters of Anderson Mill Marina.

2:30 AM
We finally moored and secured the ship.

Cap'n Ross