Cowboy Hatt's On FIRE !!!
Some of you have been pining for the Mark Read of yore- the Mark Read of pulling bodies out of rivers, of offering his medical assistance on airplanes, that sort of thing. Where has that Mark gone, you wonder. Maybe he's just getting older and mellower, and that's okay, I guess.
Well, today is your day! The old Mark is back!
The other day the three Reads were settled in for an afternoon siesta. Robert was not much interested in sleeping, but Mom and Dad were, and finally the littlest Read fell asleep. About 45 minutes later, one of the halyards started banging against the mast- a common annoyance on sailboats.
That meant the wind was picking up. We ignored it the first few times, but finally, Mark got up to check it out. By the time he got out to the cockpit, the rain was really coming down. Of course, all this commotion woke Robert, so he and I went to check out what was going on.
I could tell the wind was really blowing hard, so I turned on the wind gauge, which said it was blowing at 35 knots. A powerful storm was passing through.
Next, I turned on the VHF radio. For those who don't know: the VHF is used in emergencies, but it is also very much like a party line- anyone can listen to your conversation at any time. I turned it on partly to listen for any emergency information we might need, but mostly to eavesdrop. I could write a whole blog on eavesdropping on VHF conversations.
The first pertinent information we heard was a boat out in the bay radioing in to the harbor master to find out if it was wiser to come in or to stay out, and how long would the squall last. The harbor master estimated an hour or hour and a half, and he instructed the boat to stay out in the bay until things settled down. The winds were just too strong to try to come in the narrow entrance with breaking waves.
Somehow the storm was affecting the radio transmission, so the boat misunderstood and said "Yes, good advice, I'll start heading in." When it was clear something was wrong with the Harbor Master's radio, Mark cut in and relayed the message that under no condition should the boat attempt to come in with breaking waves and horizontal rain resulting in low visibility. We learned later that it had rained over 4 inches in 90 minutes.
There was a little bit of other chatter, and then another call to the harbor master. This time it was Ari, the captain of De Vrouwe Christina, (pics, and yet more pics) a traditional 80-foot Dutch river barge docked a few boats down from us. The harbor master's office asked Ari to change to channel 12, so of course we also went to channel 12.
"There's an electrical fire on Cowboy Hatt!" we heard Ari say. The Mexican woman who answered the call from the harbor master's office asked him to repeat the message. "What did he say?" Mark asked. "There's a fire on Cowboy Hatt!" I said.
Mark, soaked to the skin from dealing with the halyards, grabbed his dripping wet shorts and put them back on. He jumped out the companionway and ran down the dock. I wasn't quite sure what he thought he was going to do, but I called after him, "Do you want to bring an extinguisher?" He was already gone.
Cowboy Hatt is between us and the dock ramp. In my mind, if there is a fire, I don't want to be trapped on this side of the fire. I want to get up to land with Robert as soon as possible. A neighbor later pointed out that the thing to do if the fire spread would have been to start our boat and take it out, off the dock, so our boat would be safe, with us in it.
I put rain gear on Robert and myself to head out. Robert asked, "Is Dad going to be a fireman?"
In the meantime, Mark and Ari were fighting the fire. Ari brought an extinguisher from his boat and was trying to extinguish the flame, but he couldn't reach up under the "ledge" where the flames were. So, Mark jumped aboard and tried to help. He couldn't get it, either, so finally Mark jumped back off the boat and turned off the power at the junction box, which cut the source of the fire. By this time, the boat itself had caught fire, but with the electricity off, Ari was now able to spray the extinguisher on the flame and successfully put out the fire.
By the time Robert and I got there, the excitement was over. All that was left was the smell of burnt fiberglass and fire extinguishing chemicals in the water and all over Cowboy Hatt.
Mark had saved the day! The harbor master came to the scene after it was all over. He cursed the electrical work and thanked Mark and Ari for their quick action. A major tragedy was averted- Ari pointed out how lucky it was that it didn't happen in the middle of the night, when it could have gotten out of hand before anyone knew about it.
Robert wanted to know exactly what had happened and how. Once he got all the details from Ari and Mark, he then re-told the story over and over and over, until even Mark was tired of hearing about it.
We went to a pot luck dinner with other boaters tonight, and much of the talk in our corner was about fires and fire extinguishers and insurance. Sometimes it takes an emergency to remind everyone of the possible dangers and to think through their own emergency plans.
And, it takes an emergency for the SuperMark to emerge from the phone booth and save the day!
LOVE these stories. Please don't forget to alert me when the VHF blog goes live!
Hi there family, just read your story about the fire.
Nice to keep a log for your friends and family.
Smooth sailings, Arie and Hilja MS "de vrouwe christina"
I thought for sure Cowboy Hatt was a 'toy' (hat) of Robert's!! You guys get nonstop action out there! Lots of memories. And Aim, i guess if you ever get bored, you always have the VHF! LOVE! julie