Bad Day on the C-Dory

J

Jack in Alaska

New member
Yesterday......wife & I went out fishing after several days of big wind in the Inlet. Also anxious as the launch closes for the year on Mon.
Headed to 1st "hole" in shallow water. Set the anchor in 5 knot tide current. Not one bite in and hour. Pulled the anchor and headed 6 miles to deeper 80' water. Lots of big floating kelp mats, logs and trash in the water. Set the anchor, fished for an hour w/o any bites. Pulled anchor and headed 5 miles out to our "sure thing" halibut chicken hole. Dodged trash and logs except for one. Did not see it, wacked it pretty hard, stopped the engine to assess. No log out the back???? Found it wedged against the motor crossways. Lifted the engine and the log floated away with prop marks in it. Thanks God for SS props. Motor started and headed out. No vibration, no water in the bilge and all is well. Got to 3rd. spot, set anchor in 140' with 250' of line out. Fished for an hour before finally catching a small haibut. Wife caught a dogfish(shark). Suddenly the bow of the boat started to go down slowly. A very large mat of kelp/logs/crap had come up on my anchor line and surrounded the boat way past the engines. We tried to pike pole it off. NG. Got out my filet knife and started cutting kelp on the starboard side. Usually it gets unbalanced and will fall off the line. Not his time. Started the engine and reversed to the stbd. pulling the anchor loose which allowed the big mat to drift away. Glad for a short line which allowed it to pull free. Wife said "lets go home". Had only one fish. Set the anchor, started fishing again and caught 3 more small halibut. Now we had to go home. Eb tide so no current. Pulled the anchor, had a sandwich and headed 14 miles to the launch. More logs, kelp matts. Both of us watched carefully for logs at 12 mph. Missed one again. Wham, boat bounced etc. Actually pretty scary when that far from shore. Prop ok, no bilge water. Head to the launch again. Tractor had trailer in the surf. Motored up to and onto the trailer but at the last second a wave pushed the bow sideways and the boat was "catty-whompuss" on the trailer. Not a good photo op. Reversed off and back on straight this time. Pulled the boat to the house. Cleaned it up, cleaned fish, assessed any damage, none, and proceeded to have a large glass of nectar of old Scotland.
I have run my boats in the Cook Inlet since 1966 and have never hit a log. Today I hit two.
The only positive is the logs knocked off more of that ugly Fla. bottom paint which I want off anyway.
That may have been our last run this year as the wind is up again and the launch closes on Mon. I hate that.
Thanks for reading. Watch out for logs.
 
Jack -

Whew! What a day! Sometimes the day deals out a hand that is terrible. Best to do what you did -- play it the best you can, then fold, and leave the table.
Too bad it's probably the last day of the season for you, but hopefully many good memories of better hands dealt -- and anticipation of many aces in the future.

Cheers - E&B
 
El & Bill,

Thanks for the kind words.
Are you missing the boating full timer life??? I followed your adventures and was envious.

I forgot to say how nice it is to have that walk around cabin in times like that. This 73 yr. old guy is not up to dancing along the gunnel to the deck and cutting off kelp and then pulling anchor besides my 1st mate would not let me.
 
Geez! :shock: I wanted to rush to the end of the paragraph so there wouldn't be any more logs or "kelp attacks." What a day. Glad you are home and dry, but sorry your season is ending. Do you do any boating further south in the "off" season?
 
Jack -
Yes, we do miss the joys of a full-time cruising live-aboard lifestyle. The freedom of choice, proximity to the natural world, distance from the troubling aspects of world news ... BUT ... we have made many major transitions from one lifestyle to another in our lives. We look back with cherished memories of cruising the waterways of North America, now but savor the changes and new experiences with this transition. This is not the place to reminisce fondly over those many transitions we have made (both in career, geography, and lifestyles) -- each lifestyle choice has left us with fond memories. Now we cruise ashore -- through the Rockies and beyond. And, we have time to be "just plain useful" to our family -- one G'Kid to Celtic Dance practice and now a regional champ -- on to North America competition. Another is an accomplished rock climber and we get her to competitions and climbing walls. Three are in college, and we are advisors to them after our years of college teaching, Several are in High School, and one of our careers was as a Dean of a New England prep school, so we have good ears for our family at that age.
Thanks for asking -- we loved our years of live-aboard cruising but now the page has turned -- by our choice -- and we certainly enjoy our current lifestyle. Cheers -
 
Never thought about being in danger from kelp on the anchor line! Could it pull the boat down enough to be dangerous?

Glad you made it back without any major damage.

Steve
 
Steve,
This kelp mat was approx. 60' in diameter and a foot thick and hit my bow square on. It comes up the anchor line up to the anchor chock and then starts to push the bow down. The bow had enough, actually way more than enough flotation to keep it safe.
Some of the kelp was as big as my arm. I was laying over the bow, my wife pulling up the kelp with a pike pole and I was cutting each one. If you do that on one side it usually will go around the boat and down the other side. For some reason it would not do that this time.
I am glad that I put out a short anchor line as when I backed down the anchor came loose and I was able to turn away from that mass. It then went on up the inlet.
If all the line is out you can just let it go , the mass will pass over it and then you pick it back up. In this case I had 250' out and 350' still on board.
 
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