Crazy storm last night, torrential rain and probably 40 mph winds. Jeremy and I were chilling on Sovereignty when we noticed another boat had gone adrift. Its mooring had come loose, and it was banging up against the wall, so we took off after it.
I got a rope ready and drove up along side, then I gave Jeremy the wheel and hopped aboard. I cleated off the rope to the bow of the drifting vessel, and Jeremy throttled up to pull us away from the wall. Did I mention Sovereignty was on empty?
Anyway, he pulled the boat a little bit away, but was having trouble making this turn behind another boat with me in tow. So he drove close and we switched places. Now I’m at the helm, I tried to reverse and spin us to make the turn, but ran over the line we were using to drag the other boat. /facepalm
So my engine froze up. I ran to the bow and tossed my anchor, saving Sovereignty from hitting the wall by just a few feet. Then I dove in to untangle the line. It took a few minutes. I didn’t bother putting on a mask, tore up my hands on the barnacles growing on my prop, but eventually I got the tangled rope free. This is in heavy rain and lighting by the way.
So I climbed back aboard and started the engine, motored forward and hauled up the anchor, then spun to port to throw the rope back to Jeremy, who had been fending the other boat off the wall while I was in the water.
We finally got it tied properly and start dragging the boat and mooring over to this steel barge I use as a dock sometimes. Of course, as we motor over there the wind and rain die down, so tying her off to the barge was relatively easy. I had to line it up far away since I had this boat in tow. Drove past the barge and released the tow line, then went back to my mooring while Jeremy tied her up. We gave the guy a call (Jeremy had his number), and he drove over to see if everything was alright and thanked us for the help.
Today we helped Carlos reset his mooring ball, which was actually pretty tough. Took a few tries to get his anchors to dig into the deep, rocky bottom of San Antonio Channel. But eventually we got it, and he rewarded us with beer and a little money. Not bad for a night’s work!