I love the water…being in it, on it, under it. That’s why I took out a boating membership for two years. And, unfortunately, haven’t used much of it.
Living in Fort Lauderdale, there are canals everywhere and the intercoastal. What I didn’t know was how boring the intercostal actually is. Just houses, more houses, and more houses.
Anyway, I took two friends boating one Tuesday, I suspected it was going to be a challenging day by the way they were carping at each other in the car.
We acquired the boat, started off and it was wonderful driving up and down the intercoastal with wind in my hair and sun on my face. But then I decided to drop anchor, which I’ve done many times in the past. The depth finder told me we were in 5 ft of water, near the shore. I asked my girlfriend to get the anchor out and drop it overboard. She did. And did. And did. “Isn’t it on the bottom yet,?” I called. No answer. She doesn’t hear well. Finally she tied it off. But the boat was drifting big time. So I started the motor to back up. Then we were still drifting. So I asked her to pull up the anchor. She did. And there was only a rope; no chain, no anchor.
So again I started the motor but it wouldn’t work.
Defeated I called the base and told them the situation. We opened the wine and cheese and waited, me in a dispirited heap.
The two ladies continued to bicker with each other while I loaded cheese onto my crackers.
Finally a blonde young man arrived to assess the situation. He was grinning and waving to us.
After sizing up the situation he called for a tow. A TOW.
How humiliating.
Another young man arrived, this one blonde too, and jumped into the water. He found the anchor in shallow water, and began pulling us near his boat and hitched up for a tow.
When we got back, a gaggle of people were waiting for us on the dock. I hopped off, another lady got off, and the third one couldn’t step out of the boat. On the deck, a female mariner said, “Oh, good Lord. I’m going with you the next time out.”
We finally got the third lady off the boat and onto secure ground. We all thanked the blondes and went to the restaurant.
Now I don’t know about liability. And I’m almost certain I took out insurance when I bought the membership, but for days I was afraid to look at my email. Was there an email from Gulfstream, the boating people? What was the bill going to be?
But nothing has arrived so far and it’s been two weeks.
Now I’m afraid to book another excursion. But when I do, I will go myself.