June 28, 2012.

A guy called us yesterday and asked if we could take a 30 foot Sea Ray off a trailer and put it in the water for him. I figured it would be a quickie and since the travel lift didn't have a whole lot on its schedule, no problem. And then the boat showed up.....

The upper superstructure had been removed for trailering and was lashed to the foredeck. From the ground the boat looked pretty run down but whatever. We just have to launch it and it leaves for a slip at a marina down the river. After we had the boat hanging in the air the captain explained to me that he has to return the trailer to Baltimore but he'll be right back.

Fine. We'll launch the boat and put it in the only space I have available until he gets back. As the boat was lowered into the water the true condition of the boat became apparent.

The upper helm station was hanging down into the cockpit by its electrical harness and steering cables and there were boat bits strewn everywhere.

Once the boat was in the water but still in the slings its standard procedure to check the bilge for leaks. Abner, the lift operator raised the cockpit floor and almost shit himself. We picked the boat back up a few feet. We normally adjust a leaking stuffing box when we launch a boat but this was something much more involved.

Both engine seacocks were open but both sea strainers were missing their lids.

There’s zero battery power so the bilge pump doesn't work and there’s already substantial water in the bilge. So our guys grabbed a portable pump and dropped it into the bilge and pumped her dry.

We closed the seacocks and lowered her to try it again. Both stuffing boxes were leaking like sieves and one of the seacocks was loose in the hull and gushing water. So we snatched her back out again while a call was placed to the owner. It turns out hes not the owner but a marine mechanic and this gem is his clients newest purchase. He promised to be back in an hour and asked us “to please, please not block her up on land”. He'd stem the leakage and get her outta here. Fine.

An hour to Baltimore and back is impossible but after an hour and a half I was having nightmares about just having inherited a yard queen. Two hours later he was back. Three hours later the leaks were sealed and a towboat arrived to haul her away.

Just a few random shots so you can appreciate my dilemma....That clump of fur in the sunbeam at the base of the companionway stairs was the remains of some unfortunate critter that decided this was a good place to die.