Adventure on Kitty's Cat

[Lance Jones]

We had just finished moving everything out of the house and into either storage, Good Will, the dump, or the boat. We needed to go get the holding tank pumped out. So, I readied the boat for sail. I disconnected the DTV, started the motor, disconnected shore power. Having a wee bit of time before Kitty arrived from dropping off her last load, I figured I'd have a cold beer awaiting her arrival so she wouldn't feel rushed.

When she was ready, I moved forward to let loose the last of the lines holding us to our slip. At our old slip (Much smaller) the stern lines were relatively short. However, we now have a big slip and the stern lines are a lot longer. Kitty let loose the stern and put the shift lever in reverse. Looking back to the stern to gauge her progress, I noticed the stern we was moving rapidly to one side and then the motor died. I immediately knew what had happened. The stern line had fouled the prop thus causing the stern to swing in that direction and causing the motor to quit.

Having had this happen once before, I had Kitty put it in forward and then start it. Well, that almost worked; but, then the line went tight and the motor died.

I was faced with two options. One, I could go in the water with my mask, fins and snorkel; or, I could hire someone to do that for me. Being cost conscious as I am (or stupid), I had Kitty get me stuff. I figured if I took time to think about it, I'd back out. So, I lowered the swim ladder, tied a floating cushion to a line (So Kitty could drag my lifeless form to the beach), tried to spit into me mask to clean it and prevent fogging (Funny thing was, I couldn't really spit), and then I climbed in!!!! Shrinkage!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first sensation was loosing control of my breathing in the 59 degree water. Once in, I figured I could do it fairly quickly without too much trouble. The hard part was getting a good breath of air and then putting my head under very cold water. Once under, I swam rapidly to the prop and could see that it was a simple problem. I turned the prop about 10 revolutions and saw that one blade had actually snagged the loop. That's why it didn't let go when I started it in forward.

Once that was done, I rocketed to the surface and nearly flew out of the water. Once I was back in the cockpit, Kitty wanted me to change out of the cold, wet clothes and warm up in the cabin. Me being the macho man that I am, I instead opted for the Jack Daniel's method of returning warmth from the inside out! While, medically speaking, Kitty's solution was smarter and the right thing to do, I had more fun with my way.

With that out of the way, a few checks to make sure nothing was damaged, we were off on a wonderful evening cruise. I noted that after two or three Jacks, I had a pronounced Southern accent!

Life is good.,