Adventures of pulling the boat

[5th Tuition]

Sandy will come ashore in the Delmarva area, Sandy will hit near New York, Sandy will "escape" to the east between the high pressure and the low pressure and go out to sea.

With the forecast all over the place, I decided to play it safe with the new boat. I had pulled it once before at Sandy Point to make sure the trailer was "set up" properly from Dave's Trailers. Dave had assured me they had set them up for several 27 Chesapeakes before. Well; the Guides needed to be moved, the front part of the bunks needed to be moved in, and the wench needed to be lowered.

I made the adjustments and today she sat nicely on the new trailer. But getting there was a little more of a challenge than I had hoped. My marina has a nice concrete ramp, but it doesn't have much of a slope until the very bottom. It can be a challenge when the tide is not right.

Because of this, I checked the tides and saw that "high" was around 5pm. I had somebody coming at 12:30 pm to measure for my new rocket launchers, and when I arrived at the boat I noticed the tide was kind of high for that time of the day.

Got all the measurements for the rod holders done and headed to the truck to back the trailer to the ramp. I knew the truck wheels would be in the water because I need to float the boat on the new bunk trailer. Somebody from my marina volunteered to help me "load" my boat. I had him drop the trailer back while I drove the boat up on the trailer. All went well, and I ended about 10 inches from the winch. I hopped out of the boat, kicked off my shoes and waded in to crank it the final 10 inches. Wow, the water was high!!! It was just below my cutoff shorts, and I noticed the hitch receiver and the light connector UNDER WATER.

I better do this quick. I cranked the final couple of inches and stood back to tell the driver to pull forward. As I stepped back to give him room, I felt the edge of the ramp underfoot. Instinct told my toes to grip what remained of the concrete. As I dug my toes in, I could feel the skin underneath peeling away. Even though I have lost 35 pounds this summer, my toes couldn't hold my weight. I slipped off the ramp into about 4 ft of water.

I quickly scrambled back onto the ramp and my wallet, keys, and anything else in my pockets stayed fairly dry. I moved so quickly, I don't think my buddy even noticed. Note to self, it's time to start bringing the knee boots for loading the boat.

My buddy pulled the boat across the parking lot, and I had to walk on stone with cut feet to reach the boat. If you ever saw someone try to walk on hot coals, I did a good imitation.

I put on the new tiedown strap and brought her home. She is sitting out front of my home. I'm sure the eye of the storm will pass north of us since I pulled the boat.

Best of luck to everyone, stay safe, I hope the power stays on.

5th (Marty)