I always wondered what would happen if we snagged a lobster buoy. In three seasons, we've skillfully dodged and weaved around the 3 million lobster buoys in Maine which bob up and down in the waves in sunshine, cloud, fog, wind, whitecaps and rain. I've written about these pesky little bits of styrofoam many times as they are gorgeous but insidious little devils. We've weaved around lobster buoys that suddenly fly away (seagulls) and lobster buoys that have grown whiskers and suddenly dive (seals). We dodge the black and white lobster buoys that have bright red legs (guillemots) while trying to motor down the German Road, the French Road, the Fairy Floss Pink Buoy road or whatever colour road the lobstermen have painted their buoys. We talk about them nonstop on every passage as I am sure everyone else does too. Vanish has a 21 foot beam so we are always trying not to end up in a dead end down one of these 'lobster roads' especially when the lobstermen have carpet bombed a particular area. They will normally drop 5 to 8 buoys of a similar colour in a line (which we call a road) but the problem is that 20 lobstermen have their own crisscrossed roads as well. Then there is the added problem that some of the lobster buoys are tied too short to the lobster traps and lurk just beneath the surface and then there is the ever present toggles which are joined to the buoys with another line. We've dodged them all. It's the one that we didn't see at all which grabbed us.

We were looking for the perfect place to anchor at the time in a small bay. We felt a shudder on the port side prop and realized we must have hooked a buoy. We immediately put the port side engine into neutral and when Maynard walked onto the swim platform, he saw a long length of rope trailing from underneath the boat.

We were already close to where we wanted to anchor so we dropped the anchor in a buoy free area. We couldn't dig the anchor in as that would mean going in reverse and the line could easily have fouled our starboard prop. We didn't want to make matters worse. We let the wind pull Vanish back on the anchor. Oh dear. What do we do now? The surface water temperature is 13.8 deg c but below the surface, it is probably 10 deg c. Although Maynard has years of surfing and windsurfing in his background, I wasn't comfortable with him getting in such frigid water so I busied myself finding phone numbers on the internet for various dive services in the area. Meanwhile he had donned his wetsuit so I put down my ePad and grabbed various knives and the boat hook. There's nothing creepier than getting into freezing water with low visibility and going under an 82 foot boat! If you read my last blog, Eleanor Roosevelt's words were ringing loud and clear, "You must do the things you think you cannot do." Was she talking to school children at the time or the elderly like us? The visibility was 3 feet so Maynard had to virtually put his face next to the prop to see the length of rope. The rope was securely around the prop. So what's the plan man?

He went back in the water and as I guided the boat hook from above, he hooked the rope and we dragged it onto the boat and tied it to a forward stanchion to keep it away from the starboard prop. The line was wrapped around the forward spindle on the prop. It could not be pulled free. At least we could now motor over to Buck's Harbor or South West Harbor to get a diver to help us now. But no, let's be independent and see if we can fix this ourselves. I turned on the port engine and at Maynard's instruction, gave a quick jab in reverse to see what would happen. The line tightened considerably. Now jab it into forward. Ready. Set. Go. My jaw dropped as Maynard reeled in the 40ft piece of line with a chopped up lobster buoy attached on a 3" metal ring. Oh my goodness. We were free. What a relief. I guess we were lucky this was our first time getting a line around our prop as I am sure there are many stories of similar instances. No matter what we encounter, the trick is not to make the situation cascade into more serious problems. Luckily this one was done and dusted in less than an hour. Now it's time to warm up with a double slug of rum. Doctor's orders.