Another weird incident at the lake

[tjspiel]

Last year at about this time, someone (high on something) was convinced someone was after him, swam out to one the boats, unhooked it from its mooring, threw a bunch of stuff over the side and was jabbing a whisker pole in random directions trying to fend off the imaginary attacker.

Another boat owner saw what was going on and managed to calm the guy down and tow the boat back to the dock. Hey kept the guy there until the authorities showed up.

This past weekend I was just finishing up putting my boat away when another boat owner a few buoys away (and closer to shore) yelled to me: "Hey Tom, you didn't see my boat anywhere on the lake did you?" and held up the end of his painter with no boat attached.

I hadn't seen anything and had to leave to get ready for Mother's Day dinner but this boat did turn up resting against the shore on the North end of the lake. It's an MC Scow and the owner has a cockpit cover on it. Turns out somebody (apparently) decided to have a snooze on the boat. There was a pillow, a backpack, mens socks and underwear, a pair of binoculars, two rosaries, a scissors, and an adjustable wrench left on the boat. No damage or anything missing.

Glad my boat is not close to shore, but it might be a little too close to the dock this year.

Being a small lake is not such a great thing most of the time, but in this case, there's only so far a boat can go and the bottom is soft basically everywhere so a loose boat isn't too likely to get damaged. The only exception would be if the wind blew it up against the bridge.

[Riggerdood]

Crazy! Did they find out who it was?

[tjspiel]

Crazy! Did they find out who it was?

I don't think so. Not sure if the squatter intended to come back to the boat since they left their stuff in it or not. Have to assume that they weren't of sound mind and body.

[Quantico Frank]

And Brian thought RACOONS were a problem!

[gary-s]

A few years ago we had a couple "snoozers" spend the night in our runabout moored at the end of the dock.  It was the weekend of our small town celebration called "Paddle Fish Days". 
We assumed they had celebrated a bit too much at the street dance that night and were looking for a comfortable place to sleep it off.
Fortunately no harm to the participants?? and no damage to the boat!
In hind sight I'm glad I didn't learn about it until after they were gone the next morning.

[Riggerdood]

Have to assume that they weren't of sound mind and body.

Do ya think? 

What I don't get is why they cut it off the mooring just to let it drift into shore? There had to be swimming involved on both ends right?

[tjspiel]

Have to assume that they weren't of sound mind and body.

Do ya think? 

What I don't get is why they cut it off the mooring just to let it drift into shore? There had to be swimming involved on both ends right?

They just unhooked/untied it. The mooring lines where intact. Good chance there was a paddle on the boat or for that matter they could have sailed it if they knew how. Something I've considered more than once is that while the cabin on my boat is locked, there's nothing stoping anyone from raising/unfurling the sails and taking my boat for a little spin.

[Brian N.]

Very strange, indeed. A few years back a friend caught some teens on his boat while it was in the driveway! They had built up a pile of paper, twigs and brush and apparently he caught them just in time before they could set fire to the boat. Tom, the incident you describe does not sound like the person had something devious in mind, or vandalism. I'm never totally surprised by the weird things going on. As an unnamed philosopher once said "Crazy comes in all flavors".

[Riggerdood]

They just unhooked/untied it. The mooring lines where intact. Good chance there was a paddle on the boat or for that matter they could have sailed it if they knew how. Something I've considered more than once is that while the cabin on my boat is locked, there's nothing stoping anyone from raising/unfurling the sails and taking my boat for a little spin.

Sheesh, pretty soon you guys will have to start padlocking your boats to the moorings!

[Riggerdood]

"Crazy comes in all flavors".

It sure does Brian! Lord knows we have enough of it out here in the crazy capital of the universe ...