AN UNINVITED GUEST

You never know what is going to happen while you are boating.  That is part of the fun.  Now I know one more thing that can happen, but I never would have put on any list of boating possibilities before one particular outing.

We are friends with a couple who had just acquired a boat with few engine hours and in very good shape.  It was a well-equipped cruiser that had virtually every practical option.

They asked that I accompany them on a trip as they familiarized themselves with their new vessel and how it handled.  Of course, I said “yes” and we were off and running about mid-morning.

The first thing we did was go to a new public boat ramp with lots of water around it and very little traffic.  It was the perfect place to safely and comfortably learn the handling characteristics of a boat with which the skipper was not yet familiar.  We had wind, current, and just a little bit of boat traffic with which to contend while we practiced.

So we docked, undocked, backed into the ramp, backed out of the ramp, up-wind, down-wind, and cross-current.  Everybody was beginning to get a feel for the boat at the dock, so it was time to move into a more open portion of the bay to continue practicing.

We found a fairly lonely channel maker in 15 feet of water with about three-quarters of a mile of 10-foot-deep water in all directions.  It was a good place to practice more open-water maneuvers.

We started with turning the boat using back and fill maneuvers and moved quickly to splitting the throttles to turn the bow 360 degrees, noting the difference in performance and how the boat reacted to throttle adjustments and the wind.  Then we decided to back the boat towards the channel marker using no helm, just the throttles to steer.  That did not go too well.  But I figured that we had already been on the water a number of hours and, after all, it was the first time the new skipper spent any appreciable time underway on his new pride and joy.  Since we had already had a lot of stress-ridden fun and everyone was getting a little tired, we decided it was time to head to the marina for our initial slip docking.

But one more lesson was available to us and we decided to navigate the boat to the marina using just the throttles to steer, albeit going forward this time.  We only had about a mile of relatively open water to traverse, but there was some boat traffic and a very large fixed bridge between us and our destination.

Off we went at a slow, manageable speed. That did not go well either.  It did not matter how the throttles were adjusted, the boat kept the same bearing which was not the one we wanted.  So, the skipper turned the wheel and tried to steer the old-fashioned way.  The boat’s response to helm adjustments was puzzling, frustrating and annoying all at the same time.  Certainly not what anyone expected.  And, it was getting dangerous.  Although we were not going very fast, we were heading for a shoal with about two feet of water covering it.

We stopped the boat, turned the engines off and then on, put it in gear and headed directly for the shoal once again.  AAAHHH!!!  It was like someone or something was steering the boat, but it was not any of us.  Nothing we did seemed to have any effect.

Time to stop the boat and call the previous owner, fully expecting to hear diabolical laughter on the other end of the line from someone who had just sold a possessed vessel.

Fortunately, there was none of that.  Just a calm explanation that, if you brush one of the main screens in the wrong way THE AUTOPILOT IS AUTOMATICALLY ENGAGED.  Oh.  So the skipper hit the “disengage button” (down on the lower left-hand side of the screen if you ever need to know) and all was right with the world again.

The silver lining to this is that it was straightforward docking the boat for the first time once the helm was returned to one of the humans on board.  We did not want to have to wish the boat into the slip, although I know boaters that who do that all the time.