Love Boats?

Most of the problems I have with my boats occur when I’m not aboard.

At the helm, running through big waves or rocky shoals, I’ve always managed to keep the boats afloat. Left to their own devices, however, tied to the dock or pulled out on shore, my craft often end up in peril.

During last week’s deluge my wife suggested we drive over to the lake to check on our pontoon boat. I wasn’t worried. Pontoon boats are hard to sink, and I had tied ours securely to the dock.

The pontoon was still tied to the dock when we got to the lake, but the dock had moved. It had pivoted 90 degrees, and I had to wade through waist-deep water to reach it.

I used the pontoon to push it back into place, tied it to a post on the bank, and reset the dock poles.

It wasn’t a big deal. I’d encountered worse.

Years ago Barb and I ran our 15-foot Smokercraft down the Missouri River from the Fred Robinson Bridge to Fort Peck Lake. We camped along the river that night and pulled the boat into a little side channel where it would be out of the wind.

The wind howled all night, but when I climbed out of the tent the next morning the boat was still there. The water, unfortunately, wasn’t. The river had dropped a foot and the boat was stuck in the mud. It took us a couple of hours of digging to get it back in the water.

On a trip to Florida a few years later, that same boat nearly sank at the dock. We were camped on a barrier island on the Gulf Coast, the boat tied to a dock, half a mile away.

It started raining in the middle of the night and at first light I trekked over to the dock to check on the boat. It held a fair amount of water, but I used a hand pump to drain it, then walked back to our campsite.

Then it really began to rain. An hour later a park ranger stopped by on an ATV to tell us our boat needed attention. He gave me a ride to the dock where I found the boat barely afloat. It was so full of water I didn’t dare step aboard. I bailed it out with an empty cooler until it was safe to board and use the pump.

There’s a lesson here somewhere.

But at the moment I’m too worn out from wrestling my dock back into place to figure it out.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]