REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Friday the 13th is a bitch

Representing the Blue Heaven well on the beach

Patrick plugging the hole with his foot

Heading out on an adventure

The dock this morning is very quiet. The sun is barely peaking over the rock jetty and there is not a cloud in the sky. Tomorrow morning will be a bit different as the Casa De Campo Blue Marlin Tournament kicks off. All the boats will be departing and heading off shore to compete for prize money and bragging rights. I am looking forward to it. Rick Alvarez puts on a great event.

My son was here last week for his spring break and had a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed having him here and spending time with him. The winds last week blew at a steady 25 knots everyday so we could not get out to take Patrick fishing. On his last day here (Friday the 13th) we decided to give it a shot though. We left the dock at 7 am. As we departed the marina I pushed the throttles forward. about a minute later the high water alarm for the bilge in the back of the boat started screaming. I backed off the throttles and told Matt to open the hatch on the back deck. When he did, I could see from the bridge, a plume of water shooting straight up from the bottom of the boat. I knew immediately it could only be one thing. I told matt to jump into the Blige and put his foot on the hole. An underwater light had broken free. At this point I did not know why. My only concern was to turn the boat around and get the water out and get a hold of the boat yard here to get hauled out. Jesmine Bortello was with us and I had her get on the phone to have the IBC boat yard prepare the slings. I had Matt jump out of the bilge after pumps had the water level down. When he jumped to and before Patrick could jump in to replace him, The water blasted back in with incredible force. Thankfully My son is a big man. He put his side 13 foot on the 2 1/2 inch hole where the light had been and plugged it again. Matt prepared the boat to go into the slings of the boat lift at the yard. I have to say that everyone handled it very well. Each person did exactly as I told them and it went as smoothly as it can go when you are taking on 100 gallons a minute.

After the boat was lifted out of the water I had to figure out what had failed. We have a few underwater lights pointing out of the transom of the boat straight back. We also had 2 lights pointing straight down out of the bottom. One of the Ocean LED lights facing straight down out of the bottom was laying in the bilge on its side. The bronze bezel on the outside of the boat was gone. The first thing I looked at was to ensure that all the bonding wires were connected so that the lights are all grounded. Each and every light was still bonded including the one that had failed. I removed the bonding wire and plug from the light that failed and got a better look at it. After looking at it, it was clear what had happened. The fixture had corroded apart. The insides of the fixture were badly corroded and fried. We had been out of the water only one month earlier and all the lights were inspected and all had been fine. The water in the marina here is a bit dirty and one could not see if the lights facing down were on at night. It appears that the lens failed on the light and water intruded into the compromised light. The breaker did not trip. So we were dumping electricity thru the compromised light each night. This allowed electrolysis to eat the light fixture apart. The stray current also began to deteriorate two of the other lights out the back of the boat as they were bonded to the same bonding wire. One of the other two lights had moisture in it. So, After figuring out what had happened, I decided to delete the lights facing down and glass over the holes. I replaced the other two lights that showed signs of electrolysis. I am glad that my high water alarm worked. It could have been a harrowing experience. We also could have been 100 miles off shore.

While my son was here, we did a road trip over to Bayhibe ( a little town near here). We did one of the excursion days out of there. We piled onto a power boat that took us along the coast to Saona Island. The boat made 2 stops to let guests jump in the water and snorkel or take pics with starfish. When we arrived at Saona Island, We were treated to a nice meal of rice, pork chops, chicken, plantains and fruit. All your adult beverages were included and we took full advantage. The beach there was beautiful. We spent about 2 and 1/2 hours there, before boarding a big Catamaran sail boat for the trip back to Bayhibe. This to me was the best part of the trip. It started out with everyone laying around getting sun but soon the music was thumping and everyone on the boat was up and dancing. I was shocked to see my son out there dancing with nearly every lady on the boat. He can really dance and had a great time. Yes I danced as well but felt like a wallflower with my son out there showing everyone up.