The Boat Chapter 4

The Boat…Section 4

Well, the pain didn't go away, but neither did the other problem that was floating, barely, in front of me.  I decided that I could sit there on the side of the lake crying from the bashed toes and cuss at the whole situation or get the boat back on it's feet (or keel, in this case) and do the crying when I got home.  I put the pain on the back burner and started charting out my next course of action.

It appeared that if I could somehow manage to pull the rear of the boat around to the left; with the extra rope I "rescued", tie it to another tree, which, I saw jutting out of the side of the bank, then I would just need to pull the rope at the front, tie it off, and do the same in the rear.  HAW!  Needless to say, that didn't work.  It took what seemed like an hour just manuvering the boat around so I could get the rear of the boat in a position that even made it possible to tie it off to the tree.  When I finally did it, all I could do was lean back against the dirt, shale, and sharp little rocks and try to catch my breath.  After about three or four minutes of resting, I started tugging on the rope. 

Pulling a boat full of water up a steep embankment with a rope wrapped around a tree is just about as stupid as it sounds.  However, I was on a mission and I could not be thwarted.

I pulled and strained and tugged and lifted.  I wrapped the rope around my hand then around my waist trying to find that leverage I needed to make it move.  Just an inch and I would have felt victory.  Nothing, not even a whisker.  I let up and stared at the boat.  I had managed to tip it to its side a little, but not nearly enough to accomplish anything except to give birth to an idea.

I don't really need to get the entire boat out of the water I thought, just enough that I can pull the plug in the rear of the boat and let the water drain out.

It sounded like a good idea, but the boat was facing in the wrong direction.  While the plug is at the aft, its at one side and it just so happened that in this case, the manufacturer of this boat, who ever the hell he was, put the drain hole on the other side.  So, my only alternative was to turn the boat around.  Sounds easy...NOT!

I had to scale the side of the embankment and untie the rope holding the rear of the boat in place.  That done, I let the rope go.  When I did this, there must have been a quick jerk on the rope in the front, because I immediately heard a snap.  I twirled around just in time to see the broken rope sliding down the side of the rocks and watched the boat drifting away from the shore.

NOT AGAIN!  I yelled, then dove into the water.  I quickly found the length of the broken rope and with it securely wrapped around my wrist I moved it back toward the shore.  This time however, I turned it around with the aft and the stern facing in the opposite directions.  I needed to address the problem of the broken rope, because I still needed to tie up both ends, and I needed two ropes to do this.  After a quick examination of the boats mooring rope, I could see that it was frayed and lacked any kind of stability, especially if I was going to use the rope with any amount of pressure.  Now what?

At almost that same moment, my eyes caught sight of the anchor.  I had this heavy anchor sitting in the boat that was tied to the side of the boat with a nice yellow nylon rope.  Perfect, I thought, that rope is just what I needed.

Now, before we go any further, let me explain this anchor.  You most likely thought as you read the part about an anchor sitting in the boat secured with a nylon rope, that I could have used this anchor and/or rope to my advantage several times already.  OR, you may be wondering why I didn't remove the "heavy" anchor from the boat when I was trying to lug it up the side of a hill.  My answer to you is simply this...where were you when I really needed this input!

I finally got the anchor untied and placed on the side of the lake between the rocks and was amazed at how much lighter the boat felt.  Dah!

I fastened the extra rope to the front of the boat and quickly made my way around to the other end holding the boat in place with my hands as I went.  I tied off the rear of the boat in some brushes that were barely even visible in all the tangled vines and undergrowth next to the shore.  I started around the front of the boat swimming and bobbing as I went.  I was reminded that my wallet was still neatly stuck in my back pocket and my cell phone was still securely attached to my belt.  Oh well, I wanted a different phone, anyway.

With the rope that was tied to the front of the boat wrapped around my waist, I started the climb up to the tree that moments earlier tethered the other end of the boat.  This seemed much harder to do than what I thought it should have been, but after a few little mishaps, I finally got the boat tied to the tree.  While I was there, I decided to try and lift as much of the front of the boat up the embankment as possible.  I kept reminding myself that I didn't need to pull the boat completely out of the water, just enough so the drain plug could be utilized.

With a couple of rocks stratigically jutting out in the right spots, I was somehow able to move the boat a few inches in the right direction.  I felt bouyed up.  I love it when a plan comes together.

I slid down the embankment to the rocks and started toward the rear of the boat which was still barely floating in the reeds and undergrowth.  I was almost there when all of a sudden the slippery rocks got the best of me again.  Down I went!  Everything went black.