You meet people in the cruising community. Most of the time they are retired or middle aged boat owners that figured out how to walk away from the rat race. Every once in a while you meet a young family chasing the dream; This is especially been true as remote internet connectivity becomes more affordable; allowing those that can work remote, to work remote..
We recently met a college grad looking for a fun adventure before going to law school. He had bought a 27 foot boat and just headed “South” for a few months. Sounds good. But this new grad had little sailing experience, little anchoring experience, little navigation experience… Preston.
He’s a nice kid, young man really. He is eager to learn and receptive to any new knowledge. But because he is alone, single handling Jennifer decided he needed a foster Mother, as did Voyager’s resident mother, Erin. It seems that fate keeps putting us together with people. Some help us learn, some help us find motivation and others need some help from us.
And good thing, because… He flipped his dinghy, almost drowned and would have lost it if not for some fisherman coming across the flipped boat.
It’s a strange unfolding of events. For me it started when I saw Preston running down the docks. Jennifer told me his dinghy had flipped over but he had some how righted it and needed help with bailing it out and checking the engine. Well that wasn’t entirely accurate, as we would find out.
Old Bahama Bay Resort and Marina is a well protected bowl; once inside. Its a long leisurely walk from where most of the boats tie up and the marina office. I sauntered around the perimeter, running into people as I went, greeting them as I normally would. About halfway around, in front of the coffee shop, the Conch Man; a local proprietor of Conch Salad stopped me to give me pressing information. I took a seat next to him on the park bench. He let me know that Preston had stupidly flipped his dinghy, was lucky to get it back and had not thanked the fishermen that had brought it back. This was said with a typical Bahamian lilt and a touch of patois that made it almost impossible to understand. As he finished sipping his 830AM Kalik, I thanked him for the information and continued my journey to Preston.
I stepped off the boardwalk onto the street, which never has cars, for the final hundred yards to the marina office. Three shacks, one operated by the Conch Man, to the left and multi million dollar Catamarans on the right. As I came closer to Customs and Immigration the customs officer that welcomed me yesterday shouted a greeting and asked why I had not moved on with the other boats. I replied that I wasn’t sure why not today, but that certainly tomorrow we would. I didn’t stop this time…
As I approached the office, Preston stood in his porta boat bailing with a bucket; it was swamped to the rails. In the water next to the boat, a 6 foot bull shark, excited by the commotion of splashing, water circled excitedly. Preston let me in on what happened.
He was coming around the jetty riding out a brisk current and heading into wind and waves. Usually, a bad combination. He was hit by a set of waves that turtled his small boat. The current swept the boat away, prop up engine still running for few seconds more at least. (This is good time to point out that the engine comes with a kill switch lanyard for this very reason, tie it to your body). This was likely the first miracle. He could have easily been slashed by the prop and this story could have ended much more tragically.
He said the dinghy disappeared and he couldn’t find it. He then had to swim against current to make it to shore. By his estimates it took 20 minutes to get to shore. Its not that far to go but the current is tremendous. To be honest, I would have drowned or just been swept to sea. Preston played water polo for a D1 university; so his swimming abilities are a bit better than most. However, this counts as the second Miracle.
The fishermen were coming back in and saw this upside down boat floating by. Then they saw Preston. They asked if he was ok; he said he was but had the presence of mind to ask them to retrieve his mini submarine. They grabbed it and brought it to the office. I spoke to them for a while about what had happened to Preston. They too thought he was lucky to be alive and said themselves, “it was a miracle we saw the boat, prop sticking out of the water and that he didn’t get swept out to sea”. They were happy to help and glad he made it.
Preston still had to deal with some things. First and foremost was the outboard engine. There is a process to dealing with an engine swamped by salt water. A fresh water rinse is not enough. He had to dump his fuel and as it was a 4 stroke engine he dumped the oil. We cleaned all fuel lines and the carb. We scoured crews that had just arrived for WD-40 to help the process. Remove the spark plug and generously spray WD 40 into the cylinder. Then turn the engine over by pulling the starter cord. Do it again. Then do it another time. With all the saltwater out the engine, we put fresh oil and fuel in. Ran it for 20 minutes. After that warm up period the oil is a nice chocolate milk color and consistency. So change it again, and again. After the fourth time and borrowing oil from multiple crews, it seemed clean. It should be fine, the salt is rinsed off and engine parts lubed with WD-40, CorrosionX and several other special sauces.
Preston took it well. He was in shock. It could have been bad. But he was placed with good people.
Most crews are happy to help. As an unwritten law of ocean going professionals and amateurs alike. We all know the Sea takes as much as she gives and probably more. This time she let us keep a new member of our community, but gave him some lessons that will keep him alive and make him useful to the next newbie. Oh and to the parents and loved ones of Preston, we are keeping an eye on him… and maybe he will show up on our YouTube Channel