Common sense completely failed me Tuesday just gone. The beautiful twilight and new moon was the setting for a domino-like cascade of events.
I was enjoying the twilight and the sound of water passing me by as I pottered home from work in my dinghy. I decided that I would fill up our three spare 20 litre water bottles.
The main challenge with being on anchor is topping up our water supplies.
Note – we carry about 600 litres of water in our water tanks and have the three 20 litre containers for back up runs.
To top up the water tanks we have a few choices:
Take a marina berth for a night or two:
– Top up the fuel at a fuel dock and top up the water at the same time
Go to a public jetty that has:
– enough clearance for our boat keel and the ability to tie off
– potable water
It was a beautiful twilight and topping up the water containers seemed like a good idea.
The fresh water pump was starting to work hard telling me that it does not have much water left to pump.
Arriving home, I tied off in my usual manner after tying the painter line (the rope on the bow of the dinghy) on the cleat, and looped up the remaining line, hanging it off the stanchions. As usual, Zac was there to great me. We said hello to each other as I grabbed the water containers, the hose and the rubbish bag, jumped in the dinghy and headed off for the jetty.
I slowly approached the shore side of the jetty giving the eager fishermen a chance to pull their nets in.
I tied off, jumped out of the dinghy and asked a few of the fisherman how they were going as I headed up the ramp to dispose of the rubbish in the nearby bin.
On my way back down the ramp, I stopped and spoke to the couple who were fishing near the potable water tap. I informed them that I needed to fill some water containers. No worries, he said with his lovely accent and a grin.
I jumped back in the dinghy and headed around to the other side, taking a wide berth to avoid nets and lines. I pulled up. Eager hands tied me off and I was asked to pass up the hose. This I did, and was then asked for the male fitting.
Damn, common sense failed me. I did not check the hose when I grabbed it and I had left the tap fitting on the boat.
With the hose, we could fill the containers with out lifting them in and out of the dinghy.
No worries, my new friend said and he asked me to pass up the water containers.
This I did and he started to fill them for me. The first one he filled to its full 20 litres. I jumped out of the dinghy and asked him to fill only to 15 litres as 20 litres is too heavy for me. He said, ‘I fill, you tip out if it is too much’. I tipped out about 5 litres from the first container. The other two he filled to about 18 litres.
He lowered them to me in the dinghy and with lots of thank you smiles and waves, I headed back to Saboteur. I tied off in my usual way.
Now I don’t know what happened to my common sense. In what universe was I in that I thought that I could lift an 18 litre container of water to shoulder height is beyond me.
And transfer it on the deck, in a moving boat where any transfer of weight moves the location of the dinghy.
What could possibly go wrong? You are about to find out.
For whatever reason I gave it a try. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps I should tie the container off. It remained a thought. I got the container on the edge of the toe rail and the dinghy started to move backwards. The more I pushed forward, the more the dinghy moved backwards.
The inevitable happened: commons sense hit home with a dramatic splash as the water container feel into the river. I watched, waiting to see it sink. It bopped along. It appeared to have enough air in it to keep it on the water surface. Awesome.
I untied the paynter line and went in pursuit of the water container. Only, once again common sense failed me and I forgot to grab….
…. the loops of line hanging off the stanchion.
This, I discovered, made the dingy jerk backwards, still constrained. I turned the tiller, well I had no choice, and said line was now pushing hard on the post holding my safety navigation light up.
And with a snap it broke off and a flashing light began drifting away just under the water surface.
I got back to the boat and removed the looped painter line and turned to look for my water container. It was a new moon and by now quite dark. Fortunately, the flashing light was showing me the direction of the current. And beyond the flashing light, I saw my water container.
Relief… I personally would have hated to run into it, or to be responsible for any damage to someone else’s boat if I did not retrieve it.
I caught up to my bopping navigation light. I slowed my outboard and put my left arm elbow deep in the water to grab the light. Light recovered. I was pleased. My next task was to grab the water container. I caught up to it and tied it off. Finally, common sense prevailed. I turned back to Saboteur, with the water bottle still in the water, on a short line.
This time I tied off at the swim board, which is about 30 cms above the water line.
I got out of the dinghy and grabbed a line to tie off the first water container. I lifted it easily to the swim board. And again, up to the deck. I poured it straight into the water tank and put the water container away repeating the process with each water container.
I moved the dinghy back to the side of the boat and tied her up once more. The evening adventure was over. I know Marty (Martin Lloyd) is going to laugh. He always ties off the containers and uses the halyard to haul the containers up from the dinghy.
I sat down and took off my life jacket to give Zac the cuddle he was insisting on. I smiled at myself. This was the first time I had done the water containers on my own.
Another lesson learnt.
The irony is that I had purchased a small ‘kickarse pump in a box’ (yes, that is what it is called!) so that I never have to lift a full water container again. I got the 12 volt fitting installed in the cockpit a couple of weeks ago. I am just waiting for the Anderson switch to the 12 volt connector.
Life is an adventure.
Originally posted on Facebook on July 7, ’22
