Publish Date: Friday, April 17, 2009
Location: South of New Smyrna Beach, Florida
We were cruising north on the ICW today, transiting from Cocoa to Daytona Beach on our way to St. Augustine. The wind was blowing hard out in the ocean, producing uncomfortable conditions, so we stayed inside on the ICW. This wasn’t our first choice, but you can’t argue with Mother Nature.
Shortly before reaching New Smyrna Beach we came upon a sailboat aground on the west side of the ICW channel. The captain hailed us on the radio and asked if we would be willing to try to pull them off the bar and back into the channel. We thought about it for a minute, assessing how we could help them, while still keeping our ship safe and off the same bar. I had assisted with a similar rescue when we were in the Bahamas (at Warderick Wells), so I was aware of the dynamics that can come into play when you hitch two boats together in a towing situation. The tide was near high, but still rising, which meant two things: (1.) there was a 1.5-2 knot current running through the ICW at that location, which would make the towing challenging, and (2.) if this sailboat had any chance to get off the bar before high tide, now was the time. We decided to try to help.
Kathryn and Ayla manned the tow line, which we chose to attach to our center cleat on the transom. This would give me the most control of the boat, and it would also allow us to pull with the most force. I instructed Kathryn that it was important to tie the line on our boat such that we could release it quickly if necessary — I didn’t want to be attached to the other boat if we found ourselves getting into shallow water. Kathryn tied the working end of a long dockline to our cleat, and then threw a looped end to the captain of the sailboat. He quickly hitched the loop to a cleat on the stern of his vessel, and I gently pulled the line taut. Once taut, I gradually applied power to the engine. I had to keep the boat pointed upstream so we didn’t get pulled sideways into the shallow water. It took about 4-5 minutes of pulling, but eventually they lumbered free, and were floating normally in the channel. I put some slack into the line, and the captain unhitched us from his cleat.
The captain and his partner were very grateful for the assistance. Their dingy got caught in the tow wash and was swamped during the procedure, but they didn’t care — they were just happy to be off the bar before high tide. They were so grateful for the assistance that they invited us to their home port in Maine and offered to buy us dinner when we got there. It looks like we have yet another reason to try to get to Maine this summer.