“Expect an Uneventful Trip”…

Hauled up the anchor, and headed out of the anchorage. Beautiful day, sunny, but cool, and the wind was coming up nicely. Rounded the island and got on course, and once in open water, made to raise sail. This involves one of us driving the boat directly upwind, while dodging lobster pot buoys (they are EVERYWHERE!), while the other goes to the mast and works the halyard. This is how it went:

Sail is halfway up, when BAM, engine stalls, and the party driving the boat hollers “OH SHIT, WE HIT A LOBSTER BUOY! THE ENGINE IS DEAD AND I’VE LOST STEERING!” The party working the halyard watches in horror as the boat slews around off the wind, the sails spill out all over the deck, and the boat lurches sideways out of control.

<we pause for a few moments while general mayhem ensues, until both parties stop freaking out, get the sails down, and start trying to deal with a 12 ton boat being blown sideways by a 15 knot wind.> Attempts were made to grab the lobster pot line with both boat hooks, defeated by said heavy boat/heavy wind, resulting in both boat hooks (one of them lovingly handmade by Lee) being yanked out of their hands into Blue Hill Bay. The one good thing in this situation being that this lobster pot was heavy as shit, and acted as an anchor. We were stationary in the water.

The following is a transcript of VHF radio traffic on Blue Hill Bay today:

“Towboats US, Towboats US, this is yacht Gabrielle, come in please.” (repeated three times at one minute intervals, no answer)

“Coast Guard, Coast Guard, Coast Guard, this is yacht Gabrielle, come in please”

“Yacht Gabrielle, this is U S Coast Guard, over.”

“Yes, Oh hey, Hi Coast Guard. How are you today?… uh, over.”

“Yacht Gabrielle, what is your situation, over”

“Coast Guard, we have wrapped our prop with a lobster buoy, and cannot start our engine, and have lost steering. We are trying to raise Towboats US for assistance and cannot get them on the radio. Can you contact them for us please? Over”

“Yacht Gabrielle, how many people aboard, do you have adequate Personal Flotation Devices, and are you wearing them? Over.”

“Coast Guard, there are two adults aboard, and of course we are wearing our PFD’s” After keying the mic off, “Kate, quick hand me my PFD, we gotta get these on right now!”

there follows a long series of questions about our situation, our vessel, our medical history, and the current quality of our marital relationship, after which:

“Yacht Gabrielle, this is U S Coast Guard. Be advised that Towboats U S does not have a towboat working this area at this time. Per your narrative, based on the facts that you are not in any danger of loss of life or property, and the nature of your distress, the U S Coast Guard does not deem your situation an emergency requiring rescue. We will not dispatch a vessel to aid you, you must arrange for aid on your own. However, we will broadcast a general request for aid, please monitor channel 16 for responses.”

“Roger that Coast Guard- appreciate the response. Standing by on channel 16, out:” <Off mic>, ” Jeezus, this is gonna be expensive.”

“Yacht Gabrielle, Yacht Gabrielle, this is yacht Grace, come in, over.”

“Grace, this is Gabrielle, over.”

There follows a conversation with Capt. Dan, a local sailor, who tells us who to call, on which channel, and what to say. Within ten minutes, we have a diver dispatched to come out and clear our prop, from a harbor less than half a mile away. I’ll say one thing about fellow sailors, they are a helpful bunch of sunuvaguns.

Oh yeah, radio traffic with diver:

me: “Dude, I’m from Texas, and I DON’T want to get in that water.”

diver: “Dude, I’m a local Mainer, and *I* don’t want to get in that water. It’s fekkin’ COLD! But it’s what I do for a living, so I’ll see you in ten minutes.”

Long story short, he got here and had us unwrapped in less than five minutes. When I asked him how much I owed him, he acted ashamed to ask $100. Jeez, I’m thinking, what a deal! Meanwhile, Capt. Dan, a super nice guy, was hanging around, chatting with us, giving us tourist info (“You GOTTA go into Somes Sound, best sailing anywhere!”) He was good friends with the diver, and THEY had a chat together. It was a jolly time all around.

We’d had enough for the day, and chose to go back to last nights anchorage. We posted a SERIOUS lobster pot watch on the way back. I mean really, they are EVERYWHERE, sometimes boating here is like running a slalom course. We’ll get to Bar Harbor tomorrow, with a good early start, because the Common Good popover breakfast place is closed on Monday.

And just one more thing. I’ve never really thought that much of lobster, I always thought its reputation to be overblown, at best, and at this point, I absolutely loathe the creatures. I dislike everything to do with them now, especially the hauling them up off the bottom of the ocean. I see folks in the restaurants up here wearing their silly plastic bibs when they order the damned things, and I don’t think much of them either.

But homemade Maine Blueberry Jam. Dude!