Morning Excitement

I am an early riser and this gives me alone time to check emails and weather on my computer before all the marina workers arrive at 7:30 AM. This morning I received an email from a friend who is renting a house directly across the mouth of the harbor from us. He said it looked like a boat in our marina was sunk and on its side. I jumped up, flew out on the porch and sure enough, the managers' Bluewater 23 was on its side next to the dock. I yelled for Dave to get up and call them and we ran down to the dock.

It hasn't been determined what caused it to sink and roll, although the boat does have a very low transom where the motor is attached, so maybe a large wake reflected off the seawall and filled it up. Either that or an underwater thru hull fitting may have been faulty, but we do know that it wasn't caught under the dock. As soon as the owners and workers arrived and got their game plan together, it was a lot of fun to watch. They pulled on the dock lines getting it to roll back a little.

Then the boatyard workers all got on the high side in hopes that their weight would roll it back over enough to start bailing it out. You've heard of a Chinese fire drill? This was a Bahamian fire drill.

At first they used an electric bilge pump hooked to a battery, but it wasn't making much headway.

Then they had three guys using 5 gallon buckets which was faster, but the added weight made the boat start sinking in the stern again, so one of them had to run to the front.

This made the bow too heavy and almost sank it.

Eventually it was pumped out, towed to the forklift well, hauled out, and flushed with fresh water. Late this afternoon we actually heard the engine run. Definitely a miracle, and an exciting way to start the day!