thomas point shoal lighthouse

our next stop was the thomas point shoal lighthouse. you might remember last september that we visited this beauty and were able to actually climb aboard and spend a few hours.

 

 so we pulled up and stopped here and captain mike comes to the front and started unwinding a large spool of anchor line. he said "excuse me, folks, we've got an emergency onboard. we're taking on water and we need to drop anchor."

i was like "say what?"

 he busily work, work, worked while we snapped pictures and joked with the other passengers.

ya'll it was only 12 feet of water that we were in and there were lots of other boats on the bay.

 but boats are not supposed to take on water and sink.

that is freaky and i don't like it. cars and boats just should not sink. ever. i talk a big talk, and i am adventurous, but i'm also a bit of a fraidy cat and i'm not ashamed to admit that i was just a tad nervous. i repeat - boats are not supposed to take on water and sink.

 captain mike made a call and said "this is sharps island requesting assistance. we are taking on water at thomas point shoal lighthouse." then he worked some more and 5 minutes later made another call like this "this is sharps island requesting immediate assistance. we are taking on water and need a pump. we have 12 passengers and 2 crew on board." 

then they passed out the life jackets.

 we were still having fun!

 

oh my!

laura just kept saying "i just need a baggie for my phone. then i'm ready!"

never ever a dull moment!!!

 within 5 minutes of the immediate assistance call the state police showed up. then a couple recreational boat came just to make sure we were all ok. we were the most popular kids on the bay!

 

 less than 5 minutes after that the big dogs showed up. first this smaller coast guard boat.

then this larger, faster one.

by this point our pump was working and all was well. captain mike had been in 3 feet of water up to his knees in the engine compartment. a 3/4 brass plug had somehow wiggled loose and allowed the water. thankfully all of the emergency alarms worked and captain mike was calm and collected as he worked to resolve the problem. he said in his 14 years of owning this boat this had never happened. yay for us!

 

laura is everyone's friend, and captain mike was no exception. high fiving his awesome captain'ness in resolving the situation and letting us know we would continue our cruise.

the coast guard cleared us to leave, but then circled back around and said on second thought we needed to sail on into their coast guard base to inspect the boat to ensure it's (and our) continued safety. we took off our life jackets and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon.

we hung out at thomas point lighthouse for over an hour, and then had to wait for the coast guard inspector to arrive from baltimore, which also took an hour+.

we were able to eat our lunch and relax under a shady tree. we talked theology, motherhood, and our divine role as women. i love these ladies and our conversations that (almost) always uplift me.

our inspector finally showed up and assured us that we were safe and in good hands with cap'n mike. we never had any doubt!

after a several hour derailment we were finally back on our way!