( Photo ) This is the sailboat that was rescued in this article.
.
OK, the wind blew last night and one of the sailboats wandered unattended over to the north shallows, just past the end of the public boardwalk.
She was rocked over at low tide this morning early.

Early this year a sailboat had done almost the same dance, and at low tide the owner was rowing out his bow anchor. And next a stern anchor, just to keep the hull parallel with the muddy beach. Tide came up and all went well.

He had driven into Poulsbo that morning, just sat down for breakfast, and looked out the restaurant window. Ouch!

For today's grounding, the owner's dinghy was at the dock with last night's rain pooled inside. He usually stays on the boat and rows to the dock very regular in the AM. Today, for whatever reason, he is not around. I don't know him at all but he has been around out here all year long.

For me it's a gut wrenching feeling. Like the time I rowed out past a lady friend's slip and found her boat gone. It was a few moments before I noticed an almost invisible mast sticking out of the water in the middle of the slip. Yikes!

So I stepped thru the side door of the dock masters office with my dog in tow and talked with the main man. He told me he had seen the sailboat "Rocked a tad over" at the low tide. "Port has given us strict orders not to get involved in these types of things unless it's an emergency or life threatening." I asked "Could you have one of the guys run me out there with my anchor and I can stabilize the boat so it has a chance?" "Nope, can't even do that" Hmm "Liability issues?" "Yep, exactly."
We talked about whom, out on the visitor's dock, might give a hand... that still had their dingy in the water. I found one sailor, but he had a noon drop dead commitment and couldn't get with me until after that. Ok.

I rowed back out to Wind Rose, scrambled into raingear, tossed my stern anchor and 200' of rode into the dinghy with Ruby dog and off we go. Now the rising tide had allowed the wayward boat to leave the shore line. That's good. She's moving back out into the open bay on her own now.
The trouble is, I'm rowing down there as the wind is sending her along to the West end of the bay. I finally get in range to drop anchor and row over to a cleat on the stern.
You know how it goes. Two and two don't add up and the sailboat out paces my rode peeling out of the dinghy. We come to a halt at the bitter end and the sailboat is being blown just out of reach. Forget the anchor. I let it loose with a buoy and madly row to the stern of the sailboat and climb aboard. Ruby has seen me in these dire situations before and settles down for a nap in the dinghy.

Crap!! No tiller. I'm checking everything out quickly, haha Roller jib... I can steer with that jib in this wind. Jib fills and the boat turns to starboard away from the shore. Now I have a chance to really look around. My brain was locked on that missing tiller...this thing has a big steering wheel, what was I doing??. Hard over. No response. We have a little hull speed, and it should help move us up into the wind so I can tack the jib. Nope. The boat comes back around and we are aimed for the land. This is so very disappointing.
Now a lady at shore nearby shouts out if I need help. She was calling the port for help. "They'll come." Hee hee. A man comes now and offers some ideas that kind of worked. Decided to row out a small spare anchor I found aboard. Now I was able to actually pull the bow out to deeper water, let out the jib to leeward and off we go.
Up goes the main as the boat gains some nice headway. Ahhh! I round up and tack. but the boat is not really moving out. The wind is strong and the boat does not want to point up into the wind and head back for home. The best is a broad reach and slow. We have actually made it right back to where the nice local lady is standing. With all this sail, and the rudder will do nothing. Down comes the main. Jib furled. Now we are at the shore gently held by the mud bottom.
I felt defeated. The sailboat had a massive marine growth on the keel and would not sail. She says to bring my dinghy ashore and she will help me pull it up and then she can drive me back to the marina. Very nice lady. "Sounds like a plan" I say. First I want to set this anchor out before we go.

" Someone's Coming in a motor boat !" she shouts. All right !!... that felt good to me.
With some trial and error we finally got underway at a very slow pace back up the bay in a headwind. I had time to take a jib sheet off and extend the anchor rode. The motor boat was a rubber dinghy. The operator said he had seen the sailboat earlier trying to sail and could see I needed help. Thank goodness for regular people that can jump into action.

I don't think I could just sit by and watch someone's boat, that was easy enough to secure, just drift around until it really got thrashed. I couldn't let it drift and tell myself it's not my problem, and I don't want to be liable. I don't want anybody to blame or sue because I caused injury to their boat. So a lawyer would tell me to let the insurance take care of that drifting boat. That's what's so technical about these decisions. Before there were lawyers and insurance there was a freedom to help others. I would feel disappointed in myself if I had to wait for that guy to come back and panic. Have to go through DEQ, the State and the proper channels to, or even if he could, get that boat out of trouble.
Why?? It would have been so simple to just get me out to that boat quickly in the first place. No can do. Period. Wow.

-Bruce