Work, work, work, sweat, sweat, sweat... The humidity is killer today. Lazy Jacks up, main sail, stay sail, yankee up; dingy put together and inflated; laundry done; boat 1/2 de-algaed; Greene County Sheriff's boat rescued; pizza ordered, shower, one more load of laundry; Did I mention we saved a sheriff's boat from sinking? While scrubbing down the side of the boat to remove the grime from the Erie Canal, we were checking out two powerful looking motor boats with dual 225 outboards. The sheriff's props were barely above the water. Wayne said, does that boat look like it's sinking? Nah, it's just lower in the water... duh! So he went to tell Mike the proprietor of the marina.From the boat, I could hear a huge belly laugh, then bam... 3 guys came running over (Mike & 2 of his employees) and sirens started wailing, and 3 police cars showed up. Mike tried getting the pump going before the police cars showed up. Plug it in, run to the boat but the extension cord's to short and unplugs. So when they plug in, the pump it didn't work. Run back, plug it in again, but in doing so, unplugs the pump because the cord is still to short. Live cord goes into the water. Kid goes to fish it out. Mike yells "don't do that" but kid came out okay - circuit breaker tripped. They go for a longer cord, plug in, but the pump doesn't work. Boat is getting lower in the water. Mike yells to us "it's about to sink" laughs, you guys wrecked my day, laughs again. The pump starts to work, but very slowly. Police officer asks should we call the fire dept? Yes, they have a faster pump. Okay, but tell them only one pump. Sirens wailing again. Two firemen show up, the police and sheriff are called away because a house is filling up with gas. Mike and crew, have everything under control. Sheriff and police show back up, as boat is finally being emptied and rising. While they're cogitating this, a young man walks up with camera, and pad and pen (local paper) and asks, "whats' going on here?" Mike, after making a big fuss about the boat about to sink, turns and says, "nothing - A boat just filled up with rain water, no big deal. False alarm." I was dumbfounded. "Mike - this was your big chance Headline: Riverview Marina saves sheriff's boat from sinking" He say's "no - they'd crucify me..." All I could think was you can't buy good publicity like this. All he could think was - that the locals would crucify him for saving the sheriffs boat... Interesting how we have different perspectives.

Anyhow the police talk it over with each other, and with others on the phone (saying it was 2 minutes from going under). One officer was saying they need to find a different spot to tie up the boat. This is the 3rd one that's wanted to sink in this spot. Hmmmm. They found that the batteries on the boat were dead, so the bildge pump ran and ran until it drained the batteries and couldn't pump anymore. They did manage to get the boat started finally and the water pumped out. It appears there was a faulty gasket where the swim ladder attaches to the boat. So they got the boat out of the water to search for some marine grade silicon sealant. Hmmm... aren't we at a marina, with a very fine ships store? Hmmm... The remaining officer thanked us. I ordered pizza. Entertainment over for the afternoon, and only one side of our boat got de-algaed... Waiting for pizza from the Rip Van Winkle Bridge (Tory G's Delivers Ha ha ha -No cooking for me tonight.) Eats then shower, then laundry, then bed...

The picture is of the sheriffs boat as they were about to take it out of the creek for repairs. I didn't think fast enough to get a picture of it sinking... (just as well)