Wednesday, April 20, 2005

The fun continues

This is where we wanted to be...Gimli Harbour...and on this pic which I got from the internet it only shows one stinking boat at the pier..why were we rushing?....




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As I was crying my fool head off, the ship that was supposed to come to save us radioed us and told us they were on the way. they told us to keep the lights shining up and they would be there in about an hour providing the lake wasn't too rough. It was rough...and I praise the guy on the other end of the radio who kept us all sane...he gave us his position, and put his sky lights on and told us if we could see him he would be able to find us for sure. It took about an hour, radioing back and forth, when I finally saw a glimmer in the sky way to the north, I told him approximately what direction I could see him from. He said he had just spotted our lights too. Thank the lord....it took another hour before we finally met up with each other. Now the trick was to get the tow rope on board our boat for him to tow us. We couldn't get too close to each other as we were rocking and rolling all over the place, and he didn't want us smashing into his boat. He fortunaltely was a seasoned sailor...and managed to throw us the rope (two times) mind you, before we caught it and tied it up to the bow. I assure you, by this time ...we were very sober little arseholes......then the trek to the harbour began....and big time bailing all the way there.

We finally arrived at Gimli Harbour around 5:00AM in the morning...limping behind our saviour boat. Now the dilemma was how do we get into the harbour without crashing into all the other boats, because we were still behind him. So what he did was pull along side of us and lashed on to us and pulled our boat right on to his, so we could get into the harbour without incident. All went well until he had us pushed against the pier, and some wave action started to happen between the two boats and we started bashing each other...that was soooo scary...the guy kept yelling........pull the ropes tighter..tighter...and finally the boat stopped rocking...and we were SAFE.....Nestled in the pier...but of course we were still sinking because we didn't have any power to our bilge pumps... Next step....PLUG THE BITCH IN...

We plugged Sarah into the electrical power on the pier...........bilge pumps came on....and a very weary crew emerges from the bowels of this boat...and try to say hip hip hurray!....some look look like they have just been through a war....dirty, muddy, and a little out of it. They were suffering from a hangover, dizzy from smelling the ether we had to use to try to get the diesel engine going on the lake, and jest ole plain tuckered out. Finally we were all tied up the pier and no more disaster seemed to be at hand, and we took stock of the boat. The galley had a lot of water in it, but now that the bilge pumps were working it was going down..crap was strewn everywhere from the waves hitting the boat. My sister in law, who had been one of the gallant ones bailing in the engine room was feeling very sick, probably from the ether smell and all the stress, and she started to puke, and was disoriented...so the kind people on the other boat phoned the ambulance and took her to the hospital for observation...along with her husband. The rest of us were so damn tired we didn't know what to do with ourselves, so we all just crashed on the bunks, they were still dry...only the floor got all wet. I slept until about 4:00 in the afternoon, but the guys only slept a few hours and got right back into the bowels of the ship to see what the problem was, and how it could be fixed. They found the leak that caused the water to come into the fuel tanks, and managed to fix it a few hours later. It took a lot of time trying to purge all that water out of the fuel tanks...and it stunk like diesel fuel in the boat..By 6:00 PM SIL was back from the hospital, feeling much better...and we all needed something to eat...we had not eaten since the night before at Lockport. We had the barbeque in the back of the boat that was still standing, but it didn't have a lid anymore, but it still worked. We fired it up, and put on our steaks and potatoes, and had one hell of a meal.. and then crashed for the night. The bilge pumps had cleared out all the water out of the galley by then, so we could walk down there, but it was still pretty wet. Next morning, we all had a big breakfast, and started over. The guys were still tinkering with the side tank that had caused the problem, and still were not sure it was drained out enough for this not to happen again, if we were out in rough waters. So, Sunday was good, we went out the beach, sunbathed on the pier..etc..and had a great supper that night.

Now, it's Monday...time to hit the road...or the lake..

We left Gimli about 3:00 and it only takes about an hour to cross the lake to get back to the mouth of the river...to go back home. We left Gimli harbour. An hour later when we were within about 30 feet of the dock at the mouth of the river, the engine..sputtered and sputtered...and quit...and all was quite again....FUCK.. Once again we were floundering on the lake. As luck would have it there were a few motor boats at the dock and saw we were having a few problems, we got there attention and asked it they could tow us in to the dock. One very kind gentleman and his wife and kids in a huge motorboat said they would. We threw off the rope once more, and they towed us to the dock. Well, needless to say, water had once again seeped in the fuel tanks!!!!! They guys knew where the problem was, but couldn't do much about it until we got home, and actually drained those tanks and closed them off...we didn't have the tools etc. on hand to do it properly. They worked on it for about an hour, and finally we got her going again..a huge HURRAH..went up...we were back in business...We started back home, which would be another 5 hours down the windy ole Red River...we weren't to scared on the river, as there was no waves like on the lake. And if something would have happened, at least we would only be a few feet from shore. So we just puttered along.

Okay then, we were heading for the home stretch, it was around 10:00 PM when we were approaching our dock ....we made a big U turn on the river so we could dock it facing the front of the dock....and guess what...sputter...sputter..sputter..again...just the surge of the U turn caused water to get into the fuel again.....wellfortheloveofmike!!!! BIL, who was running the boat, just used the momentum and steered her in as close as he could, and the guys jumped off on to the dock and we threw them the ropes and tied her down.....THE BITCH!! We were home...and alive..and we had stories to tell...phewwww... We were tired, we didn't even bother taking our stuff off the boat...we all went up to BIL house, for a drink...we really needed one...we all sat on the deck for about an hour and recounted what had happened. Finally around 12:00 Gord and I got up and went home...dragging our tails behind us...as the next day was a work day......

When we got home, I was about to unlock the back door (that was unlocked), when I saw a piece of paper on the door held up by a bandaid from my cousin who was looking after our cats.....it said...Joan, I came over on Sunday night to find that your house had been broken into. I called the police and they have been here, but call them back tomorrow. Call me.

I just couldn't believe it....after a weekend of hell, I had to come home to this.....they stole our TV, Stereo, microwave.....etc...and there was cat shit everywhere, they must of scared it right out of my cats...poor things.......Of course calls had to be made to my cousin, police etc....and finally we went to bed........So, that was our weekend on the Sarah Cee...it was never so much the ships fault as it was the owners...they just didn't appreciate her little quirks...and she had many more...but I will post them another time...because I cannot believe I actually got back on that boat after THAT...but I did....and I'm still here to talk about it..........

We were young and stupid, stupid people......but now that we are older, I can see we are not that much wiser...we still do stupid stuff....we were meant for each other!!! yeah...rite






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