An Unfortunate Encounter

Posted: September 23, 8:52 am | (permalink) | (3 comments)

We took advantage of the glorious weather last weekend to do one of our favorite things, that’s become a yearly tradition – taking the boat around to Annapolis harbor and seeing our town from a different perspective. We anchored off the Naval Academy seawall and spent a lovely, moonlit night. Next morning after breakfast we took the dinghy into town. We window-shopped and people-watched our way up Main Street, and picked up some interesting bargain books in the bookstore. We bought ice cream (butter pecan for Dan and cinnamon for me) and licked our cones like kids as we continued strolling through town. We walked the wrong way on all the one-way streets we usually drive down and saw the familiar buildings made strange by the new vantage. Back in the dinghy, we motored all the way to the head of Spa Creek, looking at boats and houses on the shoreline.

Coming back to our boat in the afternoon, we saw another powerboat anchored too close to us. Came closer – uh oh! They weren’t close to us, they were next to us. Their anchor had dragged and they were bashing along our port side, breaking off a large piece of the teak caprail that we had just spent several weeks refinishing. A good Samaritan in the harbor had gone aboard and put the five fenders we had on the foredeck between the two boats. But what to do next? If we let them go, they’d smash on the rocks of the seawall (or drag us with them); if we kept them, we’d risk further damage.

We spent about a half-hour fending them off with the dinghy, while the harbormaster hovered nearby, offering some suggestions but legally not allowed to get involved unless there was imminent danger. After about a half hour of this, the water taxi pulled up with the owners of the errant boat. We were able to extricate them pretty quickly and exchanged phone numbers. Fortunately, their integrity exceeded their anchoring skills and they acknowledged responsibility; now it’ll just be an adventure in insurance companies and ship’s carpentry. <*sigh*>