"Thanks so much," I quickly reply.
My second engine roars to life!
I throttle it forward and it causes the boat to jump forward.
We are under both engine power!
"Mike, I'm going to try and get on step. Keep a close look in the fish holds to see if we start taking on water," I shout to Mike.
The boat jumps out of the water just like normal and we are on plane!
"Looks good back here," Mike yells above the noise of the outboards, especially the one without the cover.
"Juneau Coast Guard, Samantha," I say into the radio.
"Go ahead Samantha."
"We are now running on both motors and are on plane. We can see no water coming on board, so we will attempt to run back to Sitka."
"Roger that Samantha."
I call the crabber and let him know we are leaving the area and thank him again for his willingness to help out.
"Good luck," he says.
Another boat has now pulled along side of us and informs us he is running back to town right now and will follow us all the way to make sure we make it alright. Coast Guard Juneau affirms that they also heard the offer.
"Slow down a bit and let the bow come up," he asks over the radio, "I"ll make a circle around you and have one of my guys look the bottom of your boat over with binoculars."
I slow so the bow of the boat is lifted high. The Samaritan boat cruises in a slow circle around us. I can see a couple of his guys looking us over with binoculars.
"Looks good, Samantha," he says. "Lots of gouges, scrapes, and scratches, but we see no holes."
About an hour and a half later Mike and I wave goodbye to our escort boat and idle into our home harbor.
We tie the boat to the dock. I call the Coast guard and inform them that we have made it back and are in good shape.
I race to the truck, race through town, hook up my trailer and then back to the harbor. I breath a huge sigh of relief when the boat slides onto the trailer. We have officially made it.
We haul the boat out and examine the bottom. It is roughed up quite a bit. There are some deep gouges in some areas but I am very impressed with the fact that no rock penetrated through the hull. I whisper a prayer of thanks to the boat manufacture for building a very sturdy boat.
To stop that many tons of boat, traveling 20 plus knots on a pile of rocks, have it thrash around in waves and wind for quite some time, and not puncture the hull is incredible.
Mike and I also are amazed that the engines were both able to run. At the dock I could not get one of the engines to shift once it stopped. It would not restart or shift again.
We are so thankful for all those involved in helping us. Even just voices over the radio. All helped us in more ways than they will ever know.
Now we have to pick up the pieces and see about a rebuild. Not in the plans this winter, but something that will have to be handled.
The above was written the day after the crash. It is now April. After a long winter of rebuilding, the boat is once again in top shape. The local fiberglass repair man did an incredible job.
The fuel tank had to be removed and the bottom of the boat cut out. He had to replace stringers as well as just bottom repair.
Right now the boat is sitting in the outboard motor shop getting a brand new pair of Yamaha motors.
It has been a long stressful winter, but spring is here and the fishing season upon me.
We will survive, we are thankful for the fact that no one was injured in the crash. There was just enough water to bring the boat to a sliding (Ok, maybe a crunching, bumping, grinding stop) but just an hour more of tide and we would have cleared the rock completely.
It has been an eye opener for me as I share my story around town, to learn how many people have also crashed boats into rocks. The resounding words I hear is, "If you run a boat long enough up here... You WILL hit a rock!"
I hope and pray that I have gotten all of my misadventures out of my system. I'm ready to just work hard, earn money, and buy beans for the rest of my working life!
Hey, this is Wild Alaska so you just don't know...
I'll keep you posted.
repairing the bottom of the boat
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