slasmith1
Lieutenant Junior Grade
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2008
- Messages
- 1,028
On the way home from Seattle Sunday morning, after we attended the opening day festivities there was a call from the coast guard for any vessel in the area of Point Defiance to check a report of a vessel adrift in the ferry lane. Knowing that I was only about 10 minutes away and it was directly along my intended route anyway I told them I would check it out.
When we arrived at the vessel we found a 30ft sail boat in very poor shape with it?s mooring lines hanging in the water adrift in the ferry lane. I gave the registration numbers to the coast guard and waited for further instructions. Thy called back in a couple of minutes and asked if I could pull it to the boat ramp at Point Defiance safely. I asked what my responsibility would be if I chose to do that and they said none so I agreed and tied it up along side as it was only a very short tow.
Here are the pics of what we tied up to:
As we approached the guest dock at the boat ramp (going only about 1.5Knts) I tapped the boat into reverse for a second and the stern cleat on the sail boat was attached to such rotten wood that it ripped right out of the deck and the sail boat spun around so we were bow to bow. I then disconnected the bow line and cut it back loose repositioned myself along side again and re-tied it using its aft rigging winch as an attachment point since there was no cleat and took it to the dock.
As we were leaving the dock I let my son drive the boat while I was on deck rolling up lines and fenders and found a three foot section of deck rail and one of the fenders from the sail boat still tangled in one of my lines so my son and I decided that since we had this piece that it made us fractional owners of a sail boat.
When we arrived at the vessel we found a 30ft sail boat in very poor shape with it?s mooring lines hanging in the water adrift in the ferry lane. I gave the registration numbers to the coast guard and waited for further instructions. Thy called back in a couple of minutes and asked if I could pull it to the boat ramp at Point Defiance safely. I asked what my responsibility would be if I chose to do that and they said none so I agreed and tied it up along side as it was only a very short tow.
Here are the pics of what we tied up to:
As we approached the guest dock at the boat ramp (going only about 1.5Knts) I tapped the boat into reverse for a second and the stern cleat on the sail boat was attached to such rotten wood that it ripped right out of the deck and the sail boat spun around so we were bow to bow. I then disconnected the bow line and cut it back loose repositioned myself along side again and re-tied it using its aft rigging winch as an attachment point since there was no cleat and took it to the dock.
As we were leaving the dock I let my son drive the boat while I was on deck rolling up lines and fenders and found a three foot section of deck rail and one of the fenders from the sail boat still tangled in one of my lines so my son and I decided that since we had this piece that it made us fractional owners of a sail boat.
