And The Excitement Continues....

Sunday, August 24 & Monday, August 25 2014

We left Little Current shortly after noon and headed west.  We weren’t sure of our destination but had several ideas and were going to do some anchorage shopping.  We were listening to some VHF chatter from a boat that sounded like he might be having some trouble.  The coast guard issued a bulletin on his behalf:  power boat on the rocks just south/west of Crocker Island.  Hey! That’s where we were and sure enough, to our starboard, there he was -- banging around, hard up on a rock shelf. 

Jeff called in to the coast guard saying we had a visual on him and we made contact with the captain. Luckily, he wasn’t taking on water and everyone on board was fine.  There really wasn’t much we could do other than come in with a dingy to pick up passengers etc.  He was trying to contact a tug to come out and pull him off and tow him in.  We offered to stand-by. We'd never, of course, leave a fellow boater stranded there alone, bouncing around on the rocks.

He was having trouble getting a tow boat as the local guy was on vacation.  The afternoon was wearing on.  Eventually two guys in a dinghy (we later found out were from the vessel Current Sea) came out of the nearby anchorage and dingied up to the boat.  After a bit of assessment and dialogue we decided to attempt to pull him off.  We circled around to where there was some deep water behind him, attached a line from our bow to his stern, threw it into reverse and tried our best with our little 165 Perkins diesel engine.  We were getting very close to the rocks ourselves and Jeff had the guys in the dinghy push our back end off the rocks while we were on the throttle in reverse.  The wind was not helping, pushing us closer and closer to the rocks.  We began to make some progress and he started moving off the shelf only to become hooked again.  Harumph.

We finally went back to the drawing board and changed our pull direction.  After more assessment and discussion, we attached a line from our bow to the port corner of his stern, which allowed us to stay in deeper water and a little farther from those nasty rocks.  This angle was better and his boat shifted around clockwise with a groan and began to move.  A bit more throttle he was off!

We pulled him into deeper water, switched our lines around and towed him into safe anchorage.  Once he was safely anchored, we rafted off and enjoy a few drinks.  Ironically, once we got talking we found out that onboard were four students who had attended Nipissing University.  It turns out that some of them knew Jeff’s daughter (who is a recent graduate of Nipissing).  Another one of the students grew up beside Jeff’s brother’s house and knew Jeff’s brother’s kids.  Small world.

The tug from Gore Bay did eventually show up, taking a leave from their vacation to assist.  We can’t remember the name of the tow tug, but it began with a “B”  If anyone reading this knows the name if the tug, please comment and remind us.  We’d like to give a shout out to them.  They remind us of our friends the Cox’s from the tug Canadian Effort (705-527-2164 or VHF 16).  They work the Southern Georgian Bay area and are always there to assist and keep us all safe on the water. 

We anchored in a bay of Crocker Island and enjoyed a peaceful night (I finally won at cards!!) and a restful day of swimming, hiking, sunning, playing with ducks, socializing with other boaters and relaxing.  Jeff even saw bears on shore (but they disappeared before I saw them).

Tomorrow we’ll point our bow to the west and see where we end up.

First attempt at pulling the boat off the rocks.

The newly retired teacher will try to form a class anywhere she can!

The people you meet makes the trip.  Richie, Leo and Coco, from Alabama. 
 They were sailing on a 22 Catalina and got to shore all piled into this kayak.  
Good stories/good times.