Late Entry | Three Sheets Northwest

It never ends

by Scott Wilson on 27/11/09 at 3:30 pm

I suppose it’s safe to assume that most other nautically-minded folks are also occupied today catching the “Deadliest Catch” marathon on Discovery Channel today.  Since we happen to have access to a TV we are soaking it in while we have the chance.  It’s a beautiful day out on Port Townsend and the wind has finally calmed down and we’re envious of all the sails we see sprouting out on the water, gleaming in the sunshine.  But the boat is still at Shilshole right now, and we’re here, so watching a bunch of guys hauling crab in crappy weather and a bunch of holiday-goers out sailing around in nice weather is as close as we are getting.

One of the reasons we enjoy watching the show is seeing how the crab boat crews deal with the various nautical and mechanical problems that crop up.  We can relate; boats are subject to problems regardless of their location, purpose, or design, and if we don’t have quite the same scale to deal with, we see an echo of our own troubles in many of their episodes.

This particularly struck me earlier today, when an episode came on showcasing first an engine failure aboard one of the boats in high winds, close to shore (a nightmare problem many of us face on occasion; variations on this theme have hit us a number of times) and then a variety of mechanical and hydraulic problems aboard another boat keeping them pinned in port at the height of the season.  In the middle of the repairs on this second boat, we get a scene of the captain smacking his head on the receipt of yet another dram of bad news and saying, “There’s got to be an end to this somewhere!”

The bad news is, no, there really isn’t!  That’s just boating, as far as I can tell, and it never ends.  This week, Marty and Deborah got their first opportunity to take their new Island Packet 38 out in a dream trip on the Sea of Cortez.  The first night out, they ran into bilge pump and holding tank problems that forced them to abort and head back in for repairs.

Mandy and I could certainly commiserate.  Our first “big” trip (to the San Juans, a distance that seems laughably short now) aboard Insegrevious ended about 400 yards from our slip when our transmission cable snapped.  We had to delay the trip for a month; it was a little crushing, considering all the planning and preparation we had put into that week of vacation time.

Since then, we’ve had other vacations cut short, plans aborted, and hopes dashed, and every time it seems to get a little easier.  I like to think we’re getting used to the reality of boating, which is, as Marty and Deborah have encountered in the most literal way, shit happens.  It doesn’t ever end, it’s just part of the deal.  But it’s all that crappy stuff that makes the better moments stand out as much as they do, and ultimately keeps us going out sailing.

And maybe that’s another reason to be watching “Dangerous Catch” today… whatever happens to us, it all seems like fun compared to the blizzards and forty foot seas those guys are working in.