MV Skinwalker is safe!

The boat, our boat, our home is off the sand bar and safe with no apparent damage.  We have tested the running gear, trannies & props no problems.  No new vibrations or overheating.

In this type of grounding according to TowBoatUS there was a 50/50 chance of loosing the boat.  It was technically a salvage operation, but this boat us owner did not treat it as salvage but as a challenge.  It took two two boats with great effort to save our home.  These guys were terrific, sympathic, friendly and so very, very professional.  TowBoat US insurance took care of the hours and effort of the first boat and two men and we paid for the second boat and driver.  I am so proud of Lynn so handled everything with her normal aplomb--until we finished and reached the dock.

We have spent the last few hours cleaning up what fell to the other side of the boat and several gallons of water intrusion through a leaking porthole, as we laid on our side, we think.  The bilges are dry again and the pumps not coming on and off.  We believe all is well.

When we finish cleaning up we are going to find a burger, several beers and a very long nap.

Thank you all for caring.  We have not read your emails yet, but will after we put our shatter egos and nerves back together.  

We are both still shaken, but now relieved.

We will be leaving in the morning back to our northbound efforts and anticipate no significant loss of time.

Bones & Capt'n Lynnie

 

MV Skinwalker in peril

Skinwalker Log, Monday, April 05, 2010, 0700 hrs

Calabash Creek Anchorage Near Little River Inlet on the AICW

My whole body is quivering with tension.  Lynn is in shock.  I am in shock.  I did something stupid and dangerous.  Our vessel is in some peril.  But, now, we are not, only the boat remains in jeopardy. Jeopardy, we have learned is not just a game show.  We sit safely in a marina.  Brian of BoatUS brought us here to his marina in Little River.  Skinwalker is lying on her side hard aground.  Six years, 25,000 miles and it has come to this, taking our chances on a rising tide.

Yesterday afternoon we anchored close to shore giving two sailboats who were already anchored there plenty of room.  It is always shallow here, but we were in closer to shore then usual at low tide. Occasionally the boat would bump into the mud bank then back off by itself.  The tide started coming in and I felt more comfortable as Skinwalker floated out in the current a little way from shore.  I monitored the tide closely aware of our proximity to the shore for a while then went to bed marking in my head that high tide would be at 0130 hours and that I should check our swing at the turn of tide to make sure we swung away from shore not into shore.  I awoke at 0330 to find the boat listing to port.  During the rising tide it had turned and stretched out its anchor chain to the flow, but it had not swung out and around on the change to an outgoing tide.  Skinwalker instead had caught and settled onto a sand bar near high tide. 

I started the engines an attempted to wiggle off with no success as the boat continued to list.  I called Sea Tow and during the course of them launching a captain and boat we all discovered our coverage had lapsed in January and Lynn had only renewed with a check by mail less then a week ago. 

Lynn called the national number for BoatUS our other towing service and we got the runaround very much like people feel when they call the coast guard with the subsequence asking of many questions, while germane, are not reassuring that anything is being done expediously.  The boat heeled more.  In frustration I called out on the VHF radio for BoatUS who answered promptly in a calm reassuring voice. They dispatched a boat immediately—the boat listed further.  It was 20 minutes the beautiful red boatUS vessel showed up and calmed us with a soothing voice on the radio even as the boat heeled more onto its beam.  Then the captained probed here and there with bright flood lights, examining looking for damage and generally evaluating the situation. 

We could walk a few feet to shore if we needed to, but we were not positive the boat would survive sitting on its side as it now was.  Adrenaline kicked our minds into warp drive and that brought fear that we contained to nervousness as we struggled to master that fear with a veneer of calm.  We couldn’t walk around the boat.  A bench was now lying on the recliners, the refrigerator was straining, bulging out of its cabinet trying to wrest free of its restraints.  Everything took five times longer to do because we were walking on the corner of the rooms where the floor meets the walls, the floors not allowing us purchase and the walls a little to steep to walk on.  Our home had turned into the a scary fun house where up seem sideways and down the other sideways.  It was disorienting.  Finally Skinwalker stopped its sideways fall at 45 degrees. 

However, water was seeping in a seal porthole and the master was taking on water so Lynn tightened the hatches further still.  Lynn & I were both disoriented.  We closed seacocks, hatches, loaded up clothes, money and one computer.  We made a rope fast to horns on the aft cleat and used that to pull or lower us up and down the back deck then used it to climb over the starboard rail and with great effort lower us down past the end of the swim platform and down further into the towboat.  One at a time we both made our way down into the towboat.  I turned around and there in front of me was Skinwalkers starboard rudder and prop high in the air.  The keel reflected light off its bright green bottom paint.  “Look how clean the bottom is” was my first thought, while my second thought marveled in disgust at the innocence of the first.  The boat was mammoth tipped on its side.  The severity of the situation soon became clear.  Stupid, stupid, stupid, how incredible stupid can I be for allowing this situation to occur.

The towboat captain has brought us to his marina as I have said.  We sit here now waiting for the tide to float the boat, perhaps, later today.  High tide is going to be lower then it was night.  Chances are we will get off, but that is uncertain at this time and in the darkness of my mind strange and horrible things are happening just now.  I am still shockly.  Who would think such a small thing would have such a great effect both physically and mentally.  Our home is not our home at least for a few hours,  Then, ever hopefully, it will be again.

I can’t throw up again.  I can’t go to the bathroom one more time.  Now it is sit, worry, wait worry and worry hope two towboats can get us off a few hours from now.  I am frightened, yet strong, yet not as strong as I should be.  Lynn is holding it together.

There wasn’t much chance of dying, unless dying of fright is really possible.  We will return at high tide and see if our home, our precious home is still there and able to re-float.  It is likely all will be well, but even the small thought of it not being well is more chilling then I would have ever thought.  We are helpless, but alive.

More to come this afternoon after we workout what needs and can be done to save our home.  Bones & Capt’n Lynnie