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: A Public Defender's Life in Alaska

So, the first day of vacation started at 5 a.m. By 7 or so the boat was on fire. And taking on water. Panic ensued. Everything that could fail, did. First, the hose shown here burned. Then the boat started taking on water. The bilge pump failed. So I started my new "emergency kicker", which promptly stopped working. Turned out the fuel valve was shut off. I remember hearing someone yell "call somebody!". The response? "Who do I call?". Silence. We prepared to swim. G was eyeing his weapons, wondering if the gun case would float. Vince put on his life jacket. I was on the swim deck in ice cold water on my knees. I finally figured out the kicker had no fuel and got us into shore. We had gallons of water on board. Almost as much water in the boat as beer in our bloodstream. Wow. A few guys on board were pissed at me.
Like I wanted a fire on board. Besides the engine was under water soon anyways. And the new kicker Gomes bought, saved the boat. And G's 7 mm. Anyways, it turns out that it was really nothing. A $10.80 hose. What happened was that a hose that was responsible for the cooling water got a kink in it. I simply didn't see it as it was under another hose. So the manifold got red hot and ignited the rubber hose. Scary but no damage was done. If we had been out to sea, it might have been different but we would have had to figure out how to plug the hole. A t-shirt and duct tape. Great Alaska tools for a sinking boat. So I learned a few things. A few of the guys now call it a "death trap" just because of one little fire and a near sinking. Geez. Babies. G and I have fixed it and we are going back out. Pictures to follow of great times and happy (unburned) faces. I lived another day to see the girls. P.S. G will be taking the pics this vacation. My camera ended up in a few feet of oily water in all the excitement. It is funny how fragile electronics are. Almost as fragile as some of the babies on board today. Wahhhh! We are sinking. And on fire. Boo hoo! Where is your mama, cry baby?

Full post as published by A Public Defender's Life in Alaska on May 24, 2008 (boomark / email).