Shoo-Fly Crew Rescue Sloop
 Wayne, Charley, and I got away from the dock around 1045 on Monday, heading over to the Florida Bay entrance to Snake Creek. Snake is one of the cuts that runs through the Keys from the Bay to the Atlantic Ocean.
[Click on any pic to enlarge]
As we approached the entrance to the Creek, we saw a sailboat, not moving, appearing at first to be at anchor. However, as we got nearer to the boat, a 35-foot sloop, it became apparent that it was not in the Creek channel, but off to the north of the channel, with its keel stuck in the bottom mud.
We hollered to the four sailors on board, two women, two men…one of the men was in the boat’s dingy…asking what depth of water they were in and what was their keel depth. The answer came back the same for both questions: “4 feet.” As my old Latin teacher used to say: “Ergo conclusio est….”
In talking with the intrepid mariners it became apparent that they had no idea why they had grounded as they said they’d kept the red marker on the right as they entered the Creek.
Waterways are basically delineated by two sets of colored markers: Red ones and green ones. The rule for keeping in the middle of the waterway is “Red Right Returning.” So, for example, it you’re in Long Island Sound and you enter the mouth of the Housatonic River in Stratford, CT, you’re “Returning” to land…you keep the red markers on your right…green ones on the left… and you’re cool. Problem with the Snake Creek markers was that “Returning” was not when you went from Florida Bay toward the Atlantic Ocean, the way this sloop was heading, but the other way around. So when they kept the red markers on their right, they were out of the channel and into the mud.
We told the plucky sailors to ready a line at their bow and, as they had a fin keel--rather than a full keel running the length of their hull--we’d pull on the other end in hope of spinning the boat on the tip of the keel and pulling the sloop off the mud.
Apparently they had no long lines available, so they knotted two shorter lines together and passed one end to their man in the dingy to bring over to us. Wayne had to explain to them to run their end of the line under the bow pulpit [guardrail] so the metal tubing wouldn’t be destroyed when the line tightened.
Charley took on the task of tying our end of the line to the lifting eye on the stern of Shoo-Fly [not an easy task as they’d given us the thicker of the two adjoined lines which was more hawser than line…while they kept the thinner end on their boat]. At any rate, we were now attached.
Putting Shoo-Fly in gear, I slowly tightened the umbilical and when the slack was out, increased the rpms on Shoo-Fly’s 150-hp motor. They cranked up the revs on the sailboat’s motor. The sloop began to move.
Then the knot they’d tied to the bow of the sloop came loose and the whole mess fell in the water.
We had to start all over again.
Charley pulled the entire line into our boat and tied a bowline [knot that makes a no-slip loop] in their end…gave it to the guy in the dingy…instructed the folk on the boat to attach the loop to the capstan [the device onto which one secures the anchor line]. Instead they put it on a cleat. Probably didn’t know what a capstan was.
We said, “what the heck,” and I tightened the line again, slowly, until it came taught…then added revs…they revved their motor.
Nothing.
No, wait a minute…she’s moving.
Sure enough she grudgingly turned in behind us and came free of the bottom; a few more seconds and we had the sloop out of the mud and back into the channel.
I slowed Shoo-Fly down so Charley could disconnect us...only to realize that the sloop, motor still going full tilt, was coming straight for us. We were waiving our arms [someone said like in Caddyshack II] and yelling at them to TURN-OFF. Didn't look like she was going to turn...so I bumped Shoo-Fly back in gear and scooted us out of the sloop's path..all the time with Charley hanging off the stern untying the darned towline.
Then we had to yell at the guy at the helm that he was about to go right through the channel and into the mud bank on the other side.
Charley said, “Imagine…they’re going out onto the Atlantic Ocean!”
We figured that the four sailboaters had probably chartered the sloop with the idea of having an easy, relaxing cruise. In any case, they were not at all well-prepared for what they were facing.
It was quite possible that they’d not be able even to navigate out the other end of Snake Creek as the exit channel to the Atlantic is so serpentine and badly marked as to boggle the senses of those not familiar with the area.
Of course, if they didn’t make it to the Ocean, that may actually be for the best…for them…and for anyone else out on the water.
Hopefully, common sense prevailed and they found a nice, sheltered spot behind a key somewhere [with more than 4 feet of water], anchored up, and opened some cold ones.
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