Our first day on the water by ourselves.....what could possibly go wrong???

Okay, so our sailing course is done, the instructor just left and we are at the Nanaimo Harbour Marina. We don't really like staying at marinas and our goal is to be able to live on the hook (on our anchor) throughout the year as much as possible.Show more

Decision made, we are going to hop across the harbour and anchor in Mark Bay. The weather is calm and beautiful, no strong currents and it is literally a 10 min boat ride. Based on all these decisions I decide that I am not even going to put my foulies on (bad weather sailing gear comprised of 3 layers - shorts and t-shirt, sweat pants and hoodie, rain jacket and pants with thick socks and boots). I am just going in my short little sun dress and PFD (personal flotation device - it inflates by itself when you hit the water). Matt is wearing his sweats and PFD. Here we go.

Our first time. It is is super exciting and a little scary but it is only a 10 min ride, in nice weather.....what could possibly go wrong?????

We stick our nose out of the marina, all good. Halfway through the harbour the winds starts picking up. Oh my word, the boat starts rocking. At first just a little swaying and then some serious back and forth swaying. I am steering while Matt is getting the bow line (a rope tied to the front of your boat to tie it onto the dock or to a mooring buoy) to get it through a mooring buoy because we noticed that there are no appropriate anchoring spots. Suddenly the wind is just howling, I am holding on to the steering wheel with all my might trying to keep going in the direction where I want to go, but the current and wind is so strong that it keeps drifting the boat.

Next thing I know my dress starts blowing up over my head exposing my tooshie for all the other boats to see, but I can't do anything about it right now because I'm steering the boat. So,I am trying to control my dress while keeping my tooshie out of the sight of curious onlookers and steer the boat suddenly, the damn throttle lever breaks off in my hand. WTF???? How does a throttle lever break off? In what bizarro world does this even happen?

My dress is still blowing over my head, my butt is getting cold, I'm standing there with a broken throttle lever in my hand and now I can't slow the boat. Matt is still up at the bow of the boat lying on flat on his belly on the deck waiting for me to get us close to a mooring buoy so that he can get the bow line through the mooring ball.

Next thing I hear are a bunch of vulgarities coming from the front of the boat. He would have done any sailor proud. Matt is lying on the deck reaching between the guardrails, his PFD inflated all around him. LOL. As he is trying to get out from between the guard rails, he looks like the Michelin Man and his face is almost completely drowning in the puffed up, yellow inflatable sections of the PFD.

Needless to say.....we had to stop the whole process for a few minutes, get ourselves sorted out.......put my dress down, deflate Matt, get a vice grip to use as a throttle lever and then we were able to finally get the boat on a mooring ball.

Who knew all this could happen on a short, insignificant boat ride in nice weather