Why we live here

Well, my boat problems continue.  Bob and I hunted our spot yesterday in decent weather.  It must have been in the high 40’s in the middle of the day.  I saw a deer and either saw another soon after, or the first one twice.  I jumped the deer in the brush and never saw the head nor had a chance for a shot.  We could manage to call nothing in to the call, but know others did get deer in the area. When we came back to the beach, it was getting on dark.  We came out about 1/4 mile down the beach from the boat, so we treked to where we’d anchored.  About half way there I saw 2 other boats leaving the cove.  When we got near where I thought the boat was anchored, I saw something unnerving.  There was a boat upside down near the beach.  I hoped that wasn’t our boat. When I got to our anchorage, I saw that it was our boat.  We’d anchored the boat in about 20 feet of water when we got there at 8 am.  The tide was going out and wouldn’t be high again until 545 pm.  Waters were calm all day.  I’m still baffled at what caused my skiff to overturn. I first called the Coast Guard to give them our situation.  It was getting on dark, a major weather front was moving in, and they never asked us if we needed a ride back.  They asked if we had survival gear and were okay and said they’d put out a call to mariners to see if anyone near could help.  Bob saw a commercial fishing boat heading to Juneau and I hung up with the Coast Guard and tried to hail the boat on my VHF. On the second call, he replied.  He said he’d be over to get us.  He had to back track around some islands and was over to us in 30 minutes.  I’d luckily thrown in the punt at the last minute, so we had a way to get out to him.  It was dark when he got there.  I sent Bob out first with a line tied to him.  When he got to the boat, I pulled the boat back to me,  put the life jacket on that Bob had worn, and paddled out.  We were both wet and getting cold. Then the skipper said he had a friend who was rounding the point and would be on site shortly.  His friend was on his way to town from a job in a big landing craft.  The skipper had his crew member put on some coffee for us and waited for his friend. The landing craft arrived, and with it’s crane, pulled our boat out of the water and onto his deck.  We were then on our way home warm and with our boat.  We couldn’t believe our luck.  The landing craft skipper said he’d put the boat on my boat trailer in the morning. Kurt came out and got us at Auke Bay.  He dropped me off at the house and I got out of my wet clothes, took a hot shower, and headed to Bob’s, where Laura had a hot meal waiting for us. Bob shook up martini’s and we recounted the story to Laura. Bob picked me up this morning and we went to get my boat and trailer where we left it at North Douglas, and headed out to retrieve the boat.  The landing craft captain neatly set it on my trailer.  Neither he nor the commercial boat skipper would take a cent for helping us.  Their only question was – did we get a deer. We dropped the boat off at the outboard shop to get an estimate of outboard repair for the insurance.  Not sure what I will do with the boat and motor. Kindness like this from strangers in our little city remind us why we love living here. 

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