Walker Bay to Tsa Cove, George Inlet

 

May 29    Walker Bay to Tsa Cove, George Inlet

 

It’s still raining.   Misty Fjords earns its name well.  The bears were not out this morning.  Pots were pulled and harvests cleaned for later processing.   We got about 18 Prawn and 3 nice sized crab.  The boats were readied for departure, and peeled off the raft one by one.  Sea Life the last to go was just pulling up their anchor, and Glen had untied the stern line from shore when the excitement happened.  I was in the galley.  Glen was raising our dinghy to put her on top of Magic, at the top and just starting the spin to put her on top.  There was a loud noise, I glanced up to see the dinghy fly by the salon window.   I ran to the stern looking out the windows all the way looking for Glen.  I did not see him until I was outside and looked up the side of the boat.  He was fine, but our dinghy was now upside down in the water.   Knowing that we would need help to I went for the radio.  Willard called us just as I reached it and said he’d be right over.  Apparently Diane saw the incident and screamed.   I called out to the other boats to let them know that we had a problem and that we might need some help.  Willard was there in a flash.

 

For about the next ½ hour they worked to rig lines to flip her back over.  Glen tied the line ‘Amsteel’ from the boom to the front eye of the dinghy and Willard had a stern line tied to his dinghy.  Glen raised the dinghy to a vertical position still partly underwater and Willard pulled backwards, and turned as Glen lowered her back into the water top side up.   She was then pulled around and tied the stern of Magic, where Glen inspected the damage and picked up things that now needed to be brought aboard Magic.  He also turned on the bilge pump which still worked.  Nothing more to do now, so Willard headed back to Sea Life and we called to the others to say all was okay now.   Sea Jay had come back to assist with their large boom, and Nelsea had come back to assist if it was the bridle that had broken as they have a matching dinghy and their bridle would have worked for us.   So rigged for close towing we pulled anchor and headed out.   After a bit we stopped to turn off the bilge pump and re-rig the dinghy for towing on a longer tow line. 

 

The line ‘Amsteel’ had not snapped mid cable as was originally thought, it had snapped in the splice area where it attaches to the weight/hook at the bottom of cable, where it hooks to the bridle for lifting the dinghy.    

 

We were very lucky, the dinghy actually hit the side of Magic on the way down.  Thankfully Glen never stands under or anywhere close to under the dinghy when raising or lowering it.     We lost a yacht club friend to a tragic accident which happened while lowering his dinghy last summer, when his cable snapped.      

 

Never stand near, or under a dinghy, and never lean out over a dinghy when it is being raised or lowered; accidents do happen.    

 

 

 

Everyone back underway things seemed somewhat normal.  Discussions continued about what to do next, where to go for the day/night etc…  The plan had been for about a 7 hr. run but we lost an hour and the water appears to be lumpier than some would like.   Gary out ahead of the pack reported 1-3 foot seas, but then came back a short time later with a report that the waves were now lessening a bit.   Time will tell where we end up tonight.

 

Let’s see --- two dinghy incidents this trip, one toasting the smaller Sony digital camera, and now todays toasting the Sony digital video camera.   We are now down to one camera the Sony digital SLR.    I did manage to pull the chip from the two toasted cameras and recover the photos.