Steve to the Rescue

As we've found, sailors and sailboats get stuck - a lot! They run aground (no, we are not the only ones who do that), they bang into things, and they have trouble anchoring. Part of the 'code' is if you can help you do, because someday you might be in the same situation and need the help yourself. (There's probably a code for life in there somewhere.)

So in the past two days, we've (actually Steve) has been able to help out some boaters in difficulty. In the mooring field in Key West, the mooring balls are virtually impossible to get your mooring line through while you are on the boat - which makes it a wee bit difficult when one of you must be driving the boat and the other must be at the bow directing and tying on the line - you don't have anyone in the water / dingy to put the line through the teeny-tiny loop on the mooring ball. Steve pulled some muscles when we came in reaching over the side and grabbing the mooring ball with his long arms. So yesterday when we saw some folks from Marathon struggling to pick up the mooring ball to put their line through (impossible), Steve hopped into the dingy, went over and helped them tie up.

Then when we got to Newfound Harbor tonight there was a sailboat with its anchor up, a dingy filled with water and tied to the boom pulling the mast sideways. We knew they were aground. We did sit there for a bit and hope they would get themselves off because we had our dingy up on the davits and the motor up on the mast (it is a fair bit of assembly to get the dingy and motor together in the water, taking both of us, several lines and a winch to do), but no luck they were really stuck. So we reassembled the dingy from travel mode to in water usage mode and Steve headed off to offer assistance to the folks on Jocks Lodge. Actually, they were so stuck, they didn't need it - no way that they were getting off until the tide changed. After all that and we couldn't help! Oh, well, the offer is what's important - and adhering to the code.