I spent most of today going through containers of medals, trophies, papers, and report cards from our girls birth to college. I came across a speech that Claire wrote that reminded me of a vacation mishap we had on a trip the summer of 1994. I can't think about that day without laughing uncontrollably. Claire was 11 years old and captured the details perfectly. She got an "A" on her paper.
"My whole family was up before dawn to motor from Peter Island to Tortola. We had been sailing in the British Virgin Islands for 10 days on a 43 ft. yacht. I helped my Dad pull up the anchor and we were off.
An hour later we arrived at the harbor and turned into the marina to get gas. We pulled up to the dock and the service attendant told us to go to another dock. My Mom turned the boat around and headed to the other dock. There were two boats already tied up in front of the gas pump at the other dock.
My Dad was at the front of the boat with ropes. My Mom was trying to steer the boat close enough to tie up to the other boats, but it was really hard so she asked my Dad for help.
He went back to steer. He got really close to one of the boats and my Mom jumped onto the boat with her bathrobe on. She pulled on the rope so she would have enough slack to cleat it off. But we were just too far away, so my Dad got into the dinghy with another rope to pull us toward it. The rope my Mom was holding started to slip and she let it go!
My sisters and I were on our boat all by ourselves and it was drifting backwards toward a dock full of other big boats. My Dad told my sister to steer the boat and he quickly came back in the dinghy. My Dad said, "somebody get in the dinghy!" I ran and got into the dinghy. I was the lucky one!
I saw my poor Mom on that other boat by herself, so I went over to get her. As I did, a rope in the dinghy fell into the water.
I got my Mom and my Dad was screaming. The propeller on our boat had gotten tangled up by that rope in the dinghy. Our boat wouldn't steer and it was then drifting backwards toward more big boats. My Dad quickly threw out an anchor in the middle of the harbor to stop our boat.
I looked around and noticed that we were providing the morning entertainment for all the people in the harbor. Everyone was out on their boats and docks watching us. We almost crashed into a boat, but the lady on that boat pushed us away from her boat. Three men in dinghies came out to rescue us. They tied ropes onto our boat and pulled us away from the docked boats. My Dad got a big knife and his mask and swam under our boat. He tried to cut the rope off the propeller, but he couldn't. He did cut someone else's anchor rope though.
The three men in dinghies finally pulled us to the dock with the gas pump. My Mom went to find someone to cut the rope off our propeller. She came back with a man named Johan. He cut the rope. We paid him $25 and gave him a bottle of champagne. It was only 8 a.m. What a morning!"
Written by Claire
This is a true story! We have not bare boated since 1994, and I am still laughing!
