That's Knot Right!

Mary inspecting the lines.

We took a ride on Fathers Day to see how the Blue Fin Boat was running.  It was last August when we had last boated on the Mississippi and much has changed since then that needs verification and the number of days to our departure date are dwindling. Mary was anxious to learn how to drive too, so our outing doubled as chance to give her some practice while I took time to check the equipment. Everything went well and I'm happy to report that she successfully navigated us through the shallow rocky waters just upstream of downtown Minneapolis and the Blue Fin made it back home with no problems.  To add to our adventure we purposely ran the Blue Fin out of gas and this put us adrift in the 3 mph current. Part of our intended exercise was to drop anchor in the swift flowing water as if we had to guard ourselves from danger while we corrected the gas problem. 

Let me backup and explain that the Blue Fin has a built in 19 gallon gas tank for primary use and as a backup we plan to keep a portable 5 gallon plastic marine container with a separate gas line on board. With this dual tank setup, the business of running out of gas is something we might do on purpose when we're trying to stretch our travel range to the max. What happens when the main tank runs out is I sprint to dig an extra gas line out of storage and use it to connect the spare tank to the engine. The gas line that had served as the connection to the primary tank, being built into the boat, is not capable of serving as the line to the portable tank so a second line is needed. If all goes well I should be able to switch the tank over in 2-3 minutes. But anyone who has operated a small boat knows that switching a gas tank doesn't always go as hoped and what should be a few minute procedure can turn into a 15 minute guessing, swearing, and sweating activity. A pinched line, collapsed line, loose couplings, low battery, and improper tank venting make up a list of some of the potential problems.  

In our exercise the gas tank changeover went smoothly as did the deployment of the anchor. We were in about 12 feet of water and it took a short distance for the anchor to engage the river bottom that seemed to be mostly gravel judging from the sensation in my hands while feeding out the line.  We sat anchored for awhile to get a feel for how the boat settled into the current and it was quite stable. 

Tying off the Blue Fin
Mary taking instructions from her very patient instructor.

We made a brief stop at Boom Island Park which has a nice ramp and docks where we took the opportunity to tie off the Blu Fin and setup the bumpers used to protect the hull and paint from damage. Again, Mary jumped into action to tie us off and gladly took a lesson from Matt on selecting the best choice of knot. 

This is the Knot she wanted. Not sure what she got?