Drifter - 2010

August 2010

Spindrift Sailing Club does not necessarily agree, endorse or encourage some of the behavior and wackiness of the article written below.  ;)  

 

 

As the sun was going down in the west, I had finally gotten the commodore and her hubby to take us on a boat ride. After all, we all know the commodore is a 'boat ho', (yes, she'll ride with anyone just to go sailing) and I felt that all the past favors (boat rides) had come due. As George set the anchor, I laid down the gauntlet with an initial three shots of rum. Of course Sue followed shortly after with Sue size sips, Sandy took a courtesy swig and my good buddy George, watching him from the water, shaking his head like a dog who had been sprayed with water, loudly exclaimed "alright that's two!" as he then took his third shot of rum. I can always count on my good buddy George to attempt to keep up with me as I drink myself into the Lake Oologah happy place, every once in a while.   

 

You'll want to keep reading, this isn't just a drunk story...
 

As we were all floating in the water, Sue said "maybe this is all there is coming to the raft up" with a big happy smile, 'Thats OK, I bet there will be more', I said. Well into dark I can clearly remember looking from behind at all the boats and attempting to count them. I finally counted to nine. I seemed to be by myself in the water and thought, while listening to all the laughter, from guests from Thunderbird Lake, brand new members to the club and a lot of good old friends, that this was by far the best night raft up we had ever had. What a great party!
 

I decided to get out of the water. The boat I climbed up on was John Martins, 'Off Duty'. Why did I climb out on this boat? Well, it was there and as good as any. I was reminded the next day and even remembered John asking me to say my ABC's starting with the letter M. I can remember he and Sandy laughing at me wildly as I attempted to do so. You can take the man from the cop but you can’t take the cop out of the man. John was having a blast with me as I'm sure he has done with many of his 'Prisoners' and I was, well, just being the usual Jeff at the dock. All was wonderful!
 

Yes, it's still coming.... It's after midnight now...for a moment the air got very calm and THEN

I don't remember the wind shifting. I don't remember the boat's turning. I start to remember, just slightly, looking to the front of George and Sue's boat 'Wild Oats' and watching George look down and saying something about the rope being around John's Keel. I held on tight because I knew I had too with the waves and severe inebriation. I went forward to take a look and sure enough, a rope as tight as I have ever seen, going from 'Wild Oats' bow, directly backwards towards 'Off Duty's' keel. George was shouting directions, what he was doing, hell, I don't even really know exactly. I just knew I could not do **** (anything?) to help him.
 
At around that same time noise picked up everywhere with problems all over. I could hear people trying to untie and get out of there. I could hear that one boat had lost all power and yet another's plugs had fouled. I could also see that Ted and Ilona's, ''Edelweise'' was starting to really pound against 'Off duty'. Now there was something I could do. Go use my drunken superman strength to hold off their boat. I sounded like weightlifting practice during football season of old. I can report gladly that I am as sore as the first day of weightlifting practice in football season three days later and feel like I was somewhat helpful in keeping at least a little damage from occurring to either boat. I kept this up while John, Sandy, Ted and Ilona attempted to free the boat as the wind and waves were directly broadside of ''Edelwiese''  and trapped due to the way the rode was wrapped around the keel with wind and waves working against us.
 
Everything was happening very fast. It seemed as George was cutting loose the anchor and towing, Michael and Shantel's, 'No Way in May' that was without power. We were pushing away ''Edelweise'' just to the aft. We heard Ted yelling almost immediately. His prop was fouled and I would say he was about 125 yards from Goat Island. If you asked me in a hundred years I would never be able to tell you why. All I can say is that John started preparing rope and I was at the helm. You read that right. The guy who, moments ago that was unable to even come close to saying the ABC's, was the helmsman. What's even funnier to me now is that the ex-cop who was ******* (messing?) with me like days of old, let me at the helm. I headed right for "'Edelweise'' while John was getting the rope ready. I made my first pass as a circle coming up from his aft port side at about 50 yards from shore. John told me he wasn't ready and I passed the front of Ted and Ilona's summer home. I made another turn to port as John secured the rope to his aft cleat. When I say I was completely sober at his point, I mean it. I had somehow become more aware of everything, even more so than a normal sober moment. As I made the second pass from stern to bow on the port side, John threw the rope to Ted. I will approximate the boats were about 10 to 12 yards apart and about 30 yards from shore. The winds were over 20 and the waves coming up against the island were 3 to 4 feet. It was very loud. About all you could hear were the waves crashing loudly against the rocks and yelling. The rope was missed and my heart sank. John had STERNLY been telling me that we were too close and we were! I knew at that point that I was putting his Yacht at sever risk of hitting shore, an under water rock or even fouling his prop in the anchor that 'Edelweise' had deployed and was dragging in the same direction that we’re passing on. At this point I knew that if we were lucky we would only have one more try. While making the turn to port to make the final pass, I knew if it didn't work, Ted and Ilona and their Yacht would be on the rocks in seconds. I remember saying that this would be our last shot. John again was STERNLY telling me that we were to close to the rocks, the shore and to ''Edelweise''? Yes we were and as we passed, approximately 10 yards from 'Edelweise' and 20 yards from shore, John made the perfect, successful throw to Ted who was standing at the bow. I slowed for no more than 5 seconds and gently put the boat in gear to pull the rope tight as gently as possible. Ted had tied the figure 8 faster than a calf rope and as I looked back it seemed like there boat was mere feet from the shore as the bow swung around and we gently pulled them away. I knew then that the two people who travel more than anyone else, all the way from Texas, every weekend, to come hang out with their friends, were safe and their lake home too.
 
Pulling them into the dock reminded me of Talladega Nights and the 'Slingshot engaged' that my good buddy Mike had taught me on so many other rescues and boat retrievals. It was the easy part. I can remember hugging and high fiving everyone. I felt more alive than I have felt in years and the feeling you can only get from incidences such as this. Heart pounding is what I like to call them.
 
And then the rush was over. Yup, I kid you not, I was drunk again.  The chemicals my body had flooded with in the 'fight or flight' scenario were gone and I had to go to bed immediately. I woke up the next morning slightly hung-over. It lasted all day. At one point I asked Brad where exactly he wanted me to throw up, while the whole group of us watched the 'Will Rogers Fly In' on his boat. Seemed like everyone didn't want to go out separately and raft up the next day. Anyway, it was a great day, spent with friends and the thoughts of the 'best raft up ever' just the night before.
 
In closing, there will be a lot learned from what happened that night. I hope that the most important thing learned is that this is a great club with great people and we should raft up even more! We continue to have such great times and I look forward to sharing many more times with all my friends in the Spindrift Sail Club. After all... All's well that ends well.
 
Waffle Man