The tow line was caught tight in the propellor

Tuesday August 23, 2022, Waupoos

Geezus I thought the boat was in perfect condition, but I seem to have spent the day screwing it  up all by myself.  I did non of the 3 things I meant to do today that I listed yesterday. 

Pierre and I motored from Kingston Yacht Club in a very heavy rainstorm that had no thunder or lightening.  It was wet in every crack of the boat and every crack of the two of us.   But it was exhilarating, even so.  The weather lightened up at 1pm and we arrived at Waupoos Winery at about 3:30.  

My contact at the winery said to anchor about 50 feet off the dock.  I saw a big white building and thought it was Waupoos Winery.   It wasn’t.  It was about a half km east of the winery but we hadn’t figured that out. 

The chart said 12 feet, and I draw 6 so of course I ran aground in the sand.  My first grounding, albeit a soft one. The depth meter said 5.9 feet and we were going very slowly so there was only a slight change in velocity.   No problem.  I’ll just back up.  

So I did.

I had forgotten that the dinghy was being towed behind me.  I ran it over.  It ended up wrapped around the bow.   The dinghy brand spanking new tow line caught the brand spanking new propellor and the engine died.  I ran forward and dropped the anchor.  It worked wonderfully.

The tow line was caught tight in the propellor, even though it has a cutter, and was attached fast so I couldn’t pull it out.  

Oh well.  We have to clear the dinghy and put the motor on anyway to go visit the winery. 

There is a design flaw on the block and tackle mechanism that raises and lowers the dinghy motor from its perch to the back of the dinghy.    A cleat is up top that is practically unusable.  We had to take the cleat out of the equation and lower the motor onto the dinghy.  I’ll move the cleat down someday but until then it really can’t be used easily.  

By the time we had dinghy and motor in place it was too late to dive on the propellor and cut the line away.  So I’ll do that tomorrow morning.  The flaw in that thinking is that if I end up on a lee shore in a blow tonight, I’ll be up the creek with no motor.   All I can do is sleep lightly and well and do the dive early. Stay tuned.  This was poor foresight on my part.

We got to the winery, got a tour, and a tasting, bought a couple bottles of wine…yadda yadda  Actually Waupoos Winery has a whole farm to table program with cattle, pig, sheep, and other food animal farms.  They feed the leftover grapes, apples, peanuts, hazelnuts, and other leftovers from their processes to the animals, which you can dine on at the restaurant.  It is one of the most complex and well thought out farm to table programs and it is clear that they are very proud of the program.   I hope that it is sustainable.

Tomorrow it is:

• Dive on the propellor
• Breakfast
• Motor to Deseronto and decide whether to try for Belleville or not.
• Do one of the three things I didn’t do today. 

Long day.

Oh yea.  As I open the coach hatches the pain in my shoulders reminds me of the goddam dinghy motor that wouldn’t start.  It’s only been run one time before and I am not fucking impressed.  It should have started on the first pull, not after many that gives me bruises and strained muscles.  I wanna scream at the salesman because that’s all I know.  It’s a..  aw sheet, I forget.