Crazy start to Block Island vacation

diggin2day1

We left our marina at 6am on Sunday morning for a 105 mile ride to Block Island.  Since it was so nice out we decided to go out Moriches Inlet and take the ocean(instead of staying inside through the bays). It was a pretty good ride and we made it to just south of Montauk Point when my wife became ill. She started vomiting over the side of the boat, her heart was racing and she lost feeling in her extremities. What I originally thought was sea-sickness was not the issue. I abandoned the 16 mile open ocean crossing to Block and hauled a$$ to the north side of Montauk and entered Lake Montauk Harbor looking for help. I came up to Montauk Marine Basins dock and yelled for the dockhand to grab the line I tossed to him. The Dockmaster came down and saw my wife in a fetal position on the floor of the boat and immediately called an ambulance. I grabbed my wallet, handed the dockmaster the keys to my boat and jumped into the ambulance with my wife for a 38 mile ride to the nearest hospital. Everything happened so fast that I had to ask the ambulance driver the name of the place that I left my boat. So after a 45 minute ride to the hospital and a 5hr stay... severe dehydration and a few other minor issues created the “perfect storm”.... after getting out of the hospital we had to take a Uber back to the marina. Upon arrival I find my boat tied up nicely in a slip, electric plugged in, the AC turned on for us and the dinghy removed w/engine installed and tied up at dinghy dock. We stayed the night and woke up this morning feeling good and refreshed for our trip across to Block Island. We’re here anchored at Breezy Point now... what a crazy way to start our vacation!!

skennelly

Wow...that's nerve wrecking.  Glad everything is okay.  I've seen that type of thing with dehydration...your hands start to cramp up along with the rest of your body.  That's a great Marina you landed on with some really caring people running it.

Important take away while in the heat is drink lots of water and stay hydrated.

PickleRick

Awesome on the part of the marina.  Glad she's ok.

aero3113

WoW! Glad your wife is ok!! Enjoy the rest of your trip. Post some pics when you can.

GMSLITHO

Glad she is ok that must have been one scary ride to the marina 

diggin2day1

It was a very scary ride to that marina... had no idea where I was going, unsure if I could dock with my dinghy attached to the back. 

Stodge

Kudos to the marina staff.  Glad to hear your wife is OK.

reneechris14

Glad to hear everything worked out ok. Stay at block till sat I will bring you water and a 342.lol

rasbury

Whew! What a story! I guess it can get lonely pretty quick out on the water ..not much more your could have done ....

Dream_Inn

Oh, I'm glad everything worked out ok!  You did the smart thing and got to shore!  Kudos to the marina that did all of that for you!  Please put the marina name on here, they deserve credit for their help!

I sure hope the rest of your trip goes well!

The admiral is a nurse, and every now and then throughout the day she'll bring a bottle of water over to me and say "finish this before you finish your drink".  I guess this makes a point of why I should continue listening to her.

diggin2day1

Follow up... we wake up in the morning feeling great and refreshed and she was determined to make it to Block Island and start our vacation. We took some nice showers at the marina, packed up and headed out at about 9:30am. The ride was a little bumpy as we were headed directly into the wind(with the occasional big wave). I decided that we were just going to slow down and plow our way across the 16 mile stretch of ocean so we didn’t get beat up. Well about 8 miles across my engine starts to sputter.... we’re horrified!!! I stop the boat(engine stays idling),clear off the engine hatch(giant cooler, dink motor) and have my wife push button to lift it up.
    Side note- I MADE IT 6 YEARS WITHOUT BREAKING THAT TRANSOM DOOR LATCH!!!!!! Lol. 
     There’s a ton of water in my bilge!!! Yell to wife “HIT BOTH BILGE PUMPS!!”... stood there and watched as the water emptied out quickly. I immediately close the hatch, move the giant cooler into the cabin and turn boat around to head back to Montauk... at this point I’m extremely nervous and moving fast to close the 8 mile distance to land. After about 3 minutes I stopped to check bilge.... BONE DRY!! so I climbed in and had a good look, no water coming in from anywhere.... then I use my brain a bit...  
   - we were plowing, aft buried and bow high. 
   - heavy cooler and dink motor in aft(before hospital incident cooler was in cabin and not was balanced out). 
   - THE BIGGEST CULPRIT: My dinghy is dragged behind me(had custom davits made to attach it with bow of dink on my swim platform)... I have the low platform FV270 and while “plowing” the wake of my boat was bouncing off the dinghy and pouring into the engine bay through the drain holes for engine bay lip. Another perfect storm!!! Seems that when I am up on plane there’s no “backsplash” from the nose of the dink. The backsplash must’ve been enough to flood over the lip and splash right onto the distributor cap causing the engine to sputter. Soooooo after calming down a bit and learning from our experience, we turned back around, got up on plane and made it over to Block Island without further incidents. 
    Right now we’re cooking some potatoes, sausages, ham and eggs and hoping the fog lifts so we can get to shore and have some fun. 
    An absolute CRAZY (2) days but we learned a lot... and we made it here!!  

aero3113

Crazy!! Glad all is ok!!

PickleRick

Your boat heard your wife needed to stay hydrated, it was just trying to help!

raybo3

@diggin2day1 glad to hear your wife is OK. That's the most important part. Why didn't the float switches go off and empty the bilge? Now go and have a great time and enjoy your trip. 

zaverin1

One thing to add.
always get on vhf and contact coast guard or nearest harbor. Every second counts and it’s nice to have ems ready or on the way 

diggin2day1

raybo3 said:

@diggin2day1 glad to hear your wife is OK. That's the most important part. Why didn't the float switches go off and empty the bilge? Now go and have a great time and enjoy your trip. 

That’s one of the things I was talking about when I said “we learned a lot”.... we learned that my float switch doesn’t work!!! Lol. 

diggin2day1

The name of the marina is Montauk Marine Basin... I wrote a nice review on Active Captain for them. The dockmaster Dan is an ex-police officer and couldn’t have been more helpful. I’m just a “weekend warrior” pulling into his marina full of salty fisherman and he accommodated me like I was family. 

luvinlife

Diggin glad it all worked out for you. Are you on moorings? And what do you use for cooking?  I admire your sense of adventure and would love to run similar trips on our 270. We’ve had a couple hopefully minor setbacks recently with our 270. Towed in twice in 2 weeks. First time it turned out to be a simple fuel pump fuse that the yard mechanic found easily. They are looking at my boat today for the Sunday breakdown. We have fuel and at least some spark.  Wish me luck! 

Dream_Inn

Ahh, a good breakfast will help today go much better!   Really, things like the whole water coming in, is the way we all learn.  Makes you a better captain the next time around.  I have actually spotting two different times the little light in my rocker switch for the bilge go on once on plane and once just coming off plane, and it helped me track down water issues (hose coming off seawater pump).  I now always have that in my sight while driving.

Looks beautiful out there!  You deserve to have a great vacation!  Enjoy!

Willhound

Happy to hear all are OK and you can carry on with your trip. Enjoy! 

diggin2day1

luvinlife said:

Diggin glad it all worked out for you. Are you on moorings? And what do you use for cooking?  I admire your sense of adventure and would love to run similar trips on our 270. We’ve had a couple hopefully minor setbacks recently with our 270. Towed in twice in 2 weeks. First time it turned out to be a simple fuel pump fuse that the yard mechanic found easily. They are looking at my boat today for the Sunday breakdown. We have fuel and at least some spark.  Wish me luck! 

We stay on the hook... set the anchor good and sleep like babies for a week. We use a bbq and a small butane cooktop(think it was $25) and works perfectly.  Good luck with your 270!! 
  
@Dream_Inn - you’re 100 percent correct... makes you a much better captain!!

skennelly

I find all these experiences make us better captains and crew.  Just reading this makes me more aware.

Have fun @diggin2day1

rasbury

What else can I add? Nice shots, enjoy your vacation and it is a live and learn experience, especially for us weekend warriors as I did not grow up with boating and now have this beast I plow down the river in....and learn something every trip out.

Ian

@skennelly - well said, great pointers for all. WhIch reminds me - I usually run the hose into the bilge at dock once a season just to see the floats trip and bilge out. Time to do it this season after I get back from an OS trip.

Liberty44140

Glad the Admiral ended up ok and the vacation could continue. Looks like a great place to hang out on the hook, enjoy!

diggin2day1

reneechris14 said:

Glad to hear everything worked out ok. Stay at block till sat I will bring you water and a 342.lol

Looks like we’re leaving Saturday morning or possibly even Friday morning... All dependent upon weather and the amount of aggravation my kids have given their grandmother!

McGarnicle

Glad to hear the wife is okay and you made it to your destination! Beautiful pics! 

I'm curious, what's with the line tied to your anchor? Never seen someone do that before.

GMSLITHO

Now Im thinking I might add a separate float switch to my mid bilge pump, if I remember its only set up to pump manual 

diggin2day1

McGarnicle said:

Glad to hear the wife is okay and you made it to your destination! Beautiful pics! 

I'm curious, what's with the line tied to your anchor? Never seen someone do that before.

Last time I was on the hook at Block Island my anchor pulpit started making a noise from all the swaying back and forth... now I use a bridle to my bow cleats with “klemheist knot” to reduce the tension on the pulpit(and it actually reduces some of the sway as well). 

Dream_Inn

Well, I looked up klemheist knot vs the prusik knot (which is what I use as a bridle on my rode).  The klemheist knot may be a bit easier to use.  I may have to give it a shot and see how it holds.  Either way, I use it almost all the time and yes it does help with the swaying and also pulls near the water line (instead of at pulpit), allowing a better ratio.

reneechris14

Looks like the weather should be on your side Friday or Saturday safe travels.