A beautiful sunrise with the pink light on the mountains...
It was a pretty typical day... until late afternoon when the wind began to kick up. I got back from my 3:30 just in time to give some pre-boarding instructions to the guests who would be going out with us for the dinner cruise. The manager told me that there was some potential precip on radar, but it didn't look bad.
We ran through some very light rain on our way around the far side of the island, but nothing when we were ready to dock on the island. The wind had really kicked up... not great for walking on the dock there, but helpful in keeping the mosquitoes at bay. Dinner was progressing normally when one of the guests came up to me (I was working behind the grill) and asked, "Is the boat supposed to be parked like that?"
I had to walk out into a clearing to get a view of the boat - it was completely loose from the dock and taking a pounding from the waves on the rocky shoreline! Both crews made a made dash for the boat. I grabbed the bow line that was within reach and started pulling. Two more crew helped on that line and we began to get the bow close enough that I could climb on. The island wrangler jumped on the supply boat to use it to tow the stern off the rocks - my first mate jumped on that boat to help with lines. I got back to the stern and passed a line off to the supply boat... they made some "modifications" to the prop and skeg on that boat as the cruise boat began to move. Once into enough water to clear the props, I fired up both engines; between the tow and full-reverse on the port engine, we rotated the boat back to the dock. Everyone on the crew worked together to make this work - great teamwork. I checked the bilge for any sign of damage/leaks and tested the rudder movement and shafts. It appears that we were fortunate.
With a storm moving in from the southwest, I left two crew on the dock to watch all three boats and went to dining site to let guests know that we needed to board up the boats and head for the marina. It was a bit of a whitewater ride back, with quartering waves from the stern.
Back to the marina, all guests and crew safe and sound. Tomorrow, I'll do a more extensive check of the hull, rudders, props, and shafts. Pretty sure we'll do some remedial cleat tying training, too.
No, I have no photos of the boat rescue - we were all kinda busy! I did see guests taking photos while we were in the middle of it all... wish I could get a copy of those.
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