bigtyme805
Member III
The motor seems to be handling great and the boat has survived so far and the owner is under the dodger with me telling me about his bad luck the past few years and I am starting to wonder if he really does have bad luck as the waves crash over the beam.
At the 5 mile marker of our destination the winds completely die and the swell starts up and I give the helm to the owner and go below to relax, finally.
It becomes a gorgeous site cruising under the moon next to Route 1 seeing the Santa Monica Pier and lit up amusement park. I know we are close and I start to reflect on the trip. But before I can reflect the engine dies out of the blue. It will not start and we are close to a jetty 2 miles from Marina Del Rey. The beach is 1000 feet away and we need to act fast. I immediately call the Coast Guard and ask for a tow, they dispatch Baywatch and I give the order owner to throw the anchor, the stern anchor has no line attached to the chain so he goes to throw the bow anchor and finds that the chain has been tied down with some type of rope to stop it from shaking. All I hear is swearing about something. I have no idea where that came from but he gets it deployed. Baywatch pulls up and tells him to pull the anchor up, he starts laughing because he just got it down. What next? Oh, in all of this the swell is 4-6 ft every 7 seconds so he has to deal with that while pulling up the anchor. With everything happening I have the tiller trying to keep us pointed into the swell.
Baywatch gets us under tow at 7-8 knots and we finally get into Marina Del Rey at 815pm. Then it was immediately off to LAX for the trip home. After getting to the dock I asked the owner what was with the anchor and he says, “I don’t think the people that sold me the boat ever took the boat out.” I laugh and say what gives you that idea.
What a trip. The good news is the motor died because of a fuel filter that looked like mud and the owner was happy to be in port at his new home safe and sound.
Moral of the story no matter how far you go make sure all systems are a go, be prepared for any event. Don’t assume anything including the weather forecast.
The End!
At the 5 mile marker of our destination the winds completely die and the swell starts up and I give the helm to the owner and go below to relax, finally.
It becomes a gorgeous site cruising under the moon next to Route 1 seeing the Santa Monica Pier and lit up amusement park. I know we are close and I start to reflect on the trip. But before I can reflect the engine dies out of the blue. It will not start and we are close to a jetty 2 miles from Marina Del Rey. The beach is 1000 feet away and we need to act fast. I immediately call the Coast Guard and ask for a tow, they dispatch Baywatch and I give the order owner to throw the anchor, the stern anchor has no line attached to the chain so he goes to throw the bow anchor and finds that the chain has been tied down with some type of rope to stop it from shaking. All I hear is swearing about something. I have no idea where that came from but he gets it deployed. Baywatch pulls up and tells him to pull the anchor up, he starts laughing because he just got it down. What next? Oh, in all of this the swell is 4-6 ft every 7 seconds so he has to deal with that while pulling up the anchor. With everything happening I have the tiller trying to keep us pointed into the swell.
Baywatch gets us under tow at 7-8 knots and we finally get into Marina Del Rey at 815pm. Then it was immediately off to LAX for the trip home. After getting to the dock I asked the owner what was with the anchor and he says, “I don’t think the people that sold me the boat ever took the boat out.” I laugh and say what gives you that idea.
What a trip. The good news is the motor died because of a fuel filter that looked like mud and the owner was happy to be in port at his new home safe and sound.
Moral of the story no matter how far you go make sure all systems are a go, be prepared for any event. Don’t assume anything including the weather forecast.
The End!