Last night we decided to go check out one of our favorate destinations
around here. It's a bridge around 15 miles away that has a huge
population of bats living under it, and at sundown its great to watch
them take off and start eating bugs.

Bats are cool.


Do you tow everyone you see in need? Even if it's going to ruin your
trip?

Define "in need." I would not hesitate to rescue anybody who needed it,
even at some risk to my boat. If it's a matter of their comfort or
convenience, shucks no.


felton wrote
The last time I towed anyone it was a disabled PWC on a busy three day
holiday weekend. All they needed was a tow over to the beach where
their friends were frolicking, blissfully unaware of the problem. No
problem, says I and I toss them a line and off we go. When I get as
close to the beach as my draft will allow, I tell them to untie and
I'll retrieve the line.

Did they understand you couldn't get closer? I've had this issue pop up
a few times when I was rescuing people.

... They had quite a problem getting the line
untied on their end and they drifted around to the point that the line
was jammed between the top of my rudder and my hull, disabling my
rudder.

You should have tended the line by hand, holding it up and keeping it
from getting fouled. What if it had got in the prop? Could have been
worse. Whenever I'm towing something, and begin to slow for maneuvering,
I always pull the tow line up as short as possible, if there's crew
available I get them to tend it by hand.

... I then had to anchor and go swimming to free the line, which
was firmly jammed. Finally I was free and able to move on, swearing I
would think twice before helping another damn PWC.

Oh, did I mention that the PWC's passengers were two hot young babes
in very skimpy bikinis?

No you didn't mention that part. Get any pictures?

... Would I have stopped to help two dirt ball
guys, who are usually riding those things? Maybe, but probably not
Will I do it again? Depends

Do yourself a favor, don't let the hot young bikini clad babes know you
wear Depends. Puts them off, Dad says

I've had guys drive up on PWCs offering to help me when we were doing
capsize drills, including one guy who drove up onto our mainsail and
another who accidentally rammed us... although he was very apologetic
and offered to sand & buff the hull... they're not *all* stupid jerks.

I've rescued a number of people, usually early or late in the season
when hypothermia is an issue. Sometimes we've banged up the boat a
little bit doing it. One time, when practicing with a Lightning crew on
a blustery spring day, we rescued a young couple with a small daysailer.
That was a bit difficult, made more complex by a wildlife officer in
a speedboat who kept zooming in and then getting scared and zooming off.
Lucky he didn't run over anybody.

The ones that make me think though, are the people I've met in obvious
trouble who turned down help. For example, on the Chesapeake near
Tighlman Island we saw a cigarette boat burst into flames and stop about
300 yards downwind of us. We radioed (while sailing towards him), got no
answer, sailed up close enough to talk with the sole person on board,
who said "No problem, I've called a buddy on my cell phone." I offered
him a fire extinguisher and he said "No thanks" politely. WTF???

Ah well it's all in the adventure I suppose.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King