Quicksilver Sail Tales: Rescued At Sea

Well not exactly at sea... More like in the intercostal near St.Lucie River. We had left Velcro (Vero) Beach by 7:30 am and we didn't feel like we were making very good time. We thought we just had the current against us. Unfortunately, we heard a loud clunk..and we had no more forward motion, I took the wheel and Jon went below to confirm that we had no transmission. (Funny thing was a couple of days prior we were listening to a story of a couple traveling in the Bahamas and their transmission went and the part, damper plate, was given to them by another sailor that happened to have a spare. Jon went home and promptly looked at our transmission and damper plate and realized it wouldn't be to hard to change.). So after putting the anchor down and calling Tow Boat US (another weird coincidence is that a week earlier I called Boat US about our insurance and payments. The agent let me know that our unlimited Towing insurance had lapsed December 31....would we want to renew that as well. Ofcourse we did. Wow. Lucky or what! When the Tow Boat guy came he said since we are gold members he would have to tow us where we wanted. The only place that had room, had enough depth (remember we draw 5 1/2 feet) and would let Jon work on our own boat was this resort, Loggerhead Club and Marina. With some recommendations from our friend Jon Libby we were able to get the damper plate sent to us. Jon and I rigged a pulley system with our man-overboard kit and two boat hooks. We make a good team.

Rescued by our brave Boat US Tow Boat

At least nice day and not to rough also being towed at about 7 knots we might get the bottom of our boat cleaned. Also funny..not too funny.. The guy lost one of his engines right as he delivered us to the dock.