Hi,you sailors,
Took a few hours off this afternoon to go sailing my Voyager, ponds iced up, light winds, I went to the lake, on the windward shore.
Having tacked out of the harbour, some ten meters out in the lake, the servo’s go mad, run to the max position and stall, sails out, rudder at max, so no sailing at all, just slowly drifting towards the shipping lane some two hundred meters away…
As usual in winter, there’s not a rowboat or dingy in sight, so swimming seems the only option, it’s maybe 25 meters out.
Nah, drowning of hypothermia is not my thing.
No cellphone, and the town is ten minutes by car.
I raced back and went to the police, the wet division, who had just returned from their round (motor still warm), but didn’t go out anymore today, because of a meeting.
In that meeting was an member of the provincial waterways service, they had a boat ready (but on the other shore), and after the meeting, he’d drive up to it, take the boat out and search for my boat.
I’d better go back with binoculars and keep an eye on the boat, he’d be about an hour.
I raced back to the lake, just in time to see my boat on the edge of the shipping lane, with a freighter coming its way…
Nice, now I could watch my boat getting run over.
Fortunataly the wind shifted and the boat started drifting the other way, now hardly visible with the naked eye, some five hundered meters away.
After an hour on the jetty, I saw the patrol boat coming from the other side of the lake, spotting my boat, meanwhile halfway across the lake, picking it up and delivering it back to me, no cost involved!
How’s that for public service?
Regards, Jan.
(Who really should check his receiverpack before lauch…)
Boaters are nice people.