Grapevine Lake Boat Rescue

[ratbert]

I was eating my lunch at Grapevine Lake today and happened to see a firetruck on the dam. A sail boat had capsized and the wind apparently blew it against the dam. I snapped a few shots and tried to get closer. By the time I could get in back position to shoot, the FM fire/police boat had uprighted the sail boat and was towing it to a marina. These were taken with my 20D and 70-200 with the 1.4 extender. It was very windy and hard to hand hold so they are not as sharp as they could be.

[Hogleg 44]

Nice series Rick. The lake was still pretty low last time I was there. So it's full again...for the moment at least!

[ratbert]

Thanks Paul. It looks to be around 3-4 feet high now. The rain even washed out part of the road going to Little Pete's and Twin Coves Marina. They had it closed yestrday.

[jerrykr]

the sailors need to learn how to turn that cat back upright. It's going to be happening more than just once. Kind of hard to do in a high wind, but 2 or 3 can usually manage it.

Back when we used to go to the lake every Sunday, we had sailboards, our neighbors did too, one had a G-Cat, and I had a power boat. It wasn't anything too unusual to run out in my boat and help a cat get back on it's hulls. One time, they had it completely turtled, with the mast straight down in the water. took a bit of pullin' to get it turned back over.

Ahh the days, if wind, we sailed, if calm, we water ski'd.

[Dokk]

Um...didn't it ever occur to anyone at any time here to bring the sail down? It's way easier to bring a bare mast up out of the water than trying to drag a wet sheet through the water. BTW, been there, done it.

[NathanJK]

Yeah my first thought upon seeing a cat sailor needing a tow thanks to tipping over was "idiot". That was a solvable problem! I once got the mast of a 420 stuck in the mud (turtled) in the middle of winter, that SUCKED. I had to drop the sails underwater, then pull the fore stay, drag the boat forward a bit, then tip it back upright without breaking anything. It took about 40 minutes or so but I was working hard enough to not get tooooo cold. Of course, nobody helped me because I was sailing with a bunch of girls who had to "keep warm".