New rudder for Eye Spy?

[glenn]

More when I'm not so tired...
Oh... This happened during the Die-Hard race.

[glenn]

We started the Die-Hard race at the back of the fleet (almost back by the rotary, it seems) and waddled down the arm, managing to get into third-from-last place due to another boat rounding up. As we neared Pleasant Shoal buoy (or was it Hens and Chickens?), we returned the favour.
We seemed to creep up a bit on them on the way to Dartmouth Cove, and maybe a bit more on the way back toward the arm, but when John said something to the effect of "Uh-oh. I don't seem to have any steerage.", things didn't seem to be going our way any more.
The last boat passed us as we were trying to fish the rudder out of the drink. Algae and anti-fouling paint do not make smooth surfaces easy to grip... especially when wet.
We motored into the lee of George's Island using only prop-walk for steering and set about figuring what to do.

[glenn]

As I was at the bow making sure that the anchors were attached to rode were attached to some sort of cleats, the other guys were working out a plan. I don't think Darlene will want to use her cutting board in the galley any more.
Jerry somehow got the dubious honour of doing the lashing.
First, the cutting board was lashed to the boathook, but it proved to be too flimsy. Then it was decided that the spinnaker pole would work much better. Jerry unlashed and relashed the cutting board and off we went.
Nearing MacDonald Bridge, the wet lines started to slacken up too much so the whole thing was lifted and redone.
About this time, The Harbour Ferry captain decided to place a call to Halifax Traffic to inform them about a bunch of idiots who seemed to be having some problems making their way up the harbour. John got on the radio identifying himself as the skipper of the boatload of idiots and would inform them if he required any help.

[glenn]

Bob got the first and longest shift at the tiller. I think it nearly killed him, but he never complained.

When we left the narrows and entered the basin, things got... interesting.
I think there were at least three 360's before we got even with Wright's Cove.
Heading downwind into the cove proved to be futile, so we let the boat drift broadside to the wind because that's the way it wanted to go.
As soon as the bow cleared the breakwater, John threw the boat into gear and gave it some throttle. You'd swear we meant to bring her in that way.
As we were about to round D dock, a power boat that hadn't been off the dock all season decided to plow his way out for a cruise. After watching him bounce off of several other boats, we decided to get out of his way. That's why we were tied up at the end of D dock.



After John snapped a couple of pics here, he decided that it was time to put his girl to bed, so off we went again. I won't say it was pretty, but we only had to push off of one dock and one boat (said boat was tied to said dock).



That night, John and I celebrated(?) with beer and pizza and cribbage until he kicked me off the boat. ;-)

[robertd]

Very interesting story and am glad it had a happy ending.

[brianpickton]

Great story Glen, and congratulations to all concerned for the self rescue. Looking at the pics, do you think the steerage problems were caused by the small surface area of the cutting board or the cavitation caused by the spinnaker pole? ;-)

[glenn]

1) The cutting board kept on insisting that it was a plane, not a rudder, and it's angle had to be adjusted constantly.
2) Mechanical advantage was not on our side as most of the spinnaker pole was out past the transom.

Oh, and I don't think we had enough speed up for cavitation to be a big concern. ;-)