Captain Bob Aboard The ME TOO In Canaveral Harbor
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Could we have saIvage rights, after all it was in international water. We had a grand idea, let's tow the boat in clean it up and selI it With the motor cleaned up and running, it might get two to three thousand dollars. There were a couple of flaws in our plan, however, we first had to get the craft to Port Canaveral . This meant towing it in its inverted position.
With an improvised bridal attached to both of my stern cleats and a single line to the capsized boats bow I started to move the boat. Now came the big surprise, you just can't tow a boat that is upside-down! With the deck being much wider than the hull, it acted like a dive plane, trying to go farther down into the water as we moved forward. It did fine at two or three knots, but we were twenty miles out! Each time we increased our forward speed the bow of the overturned vessel dug deeper into the water. There was some air trapped inside the hull. If that air were to somehow be displaced by sea water the capsized boat would probably sink like a rock! Reality displaced our dreams of prosperity! We would have to call the U.S. Coast Guard. Frank and I both felt a responsibility not to abandon the vessel. Hopefully the Coast Guard could get the boat out of the water and possibly return it to its owner, that is if the owner survived! After several tries on the VHF radio I contacted the Coast Guard Station at Port Canaveral, Florida. I expIained the situation and gave them our Loran coordinate, indicating we would stand by until they arrived. Our wait would have been uneventful if a school of small dolphin had not moved in to take refuge under the overturned boat. With light spinning rods and yellow jigs we managed to catch a few. At least we would not go home fish-less. |
An hour passed, the school of dolphin that had been so cooperative, moved on. We were anxious to get under way ourselves, but were obligated to wait for the Coast Guard to arrive. Time went by so slowly, however, it was a beautiful day, which made our wait more bearable. Our drift was very slow to the south and the overturned craft was drifting at the same rate of speed. Another half hour passed when a boat appeared on the southwest horizon. I opened channel 16 on the VHF radio and confirmed the vessel to be the Coast Guard vessel from Port Canaveral, they were making good speed. Rather than new Loran coordinates, I gave them a D. R. bearing (this is a dead reckoning compass bearing.) In another ten minutes the forty foot Coast Guard cutter was beside the overturned craft. It's amazing how an insurmountable task seems so simple in the hands of pros. I fully expected them to lift the inverted boat onto their vessel with some sort of davit. A crewman from the Coast Guard vessel entered the water carrying two lines or cables from the cutter. One of these he secured to the bow of the overturned boat, the other was passed over the upturned hull. The diver then went under water on the other side of the boat and fastened the line or cable to a point that appeared to be where the deck joined the transom, probably a cleat. The crewman than moved away from the smaller boat, as the Coast Guard boat moved forward, towing the inverted boat at a forty degree angle. Apparently the cable attached to the transom ran to a windless. When the windless was engaged it snapped the overturned craft upright with the ease that we would turn a cork over in the water! The whole operation took less than ten minutes. Frank remarked, jokingly, that these guys had probably done this a few times before. |
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