This morning we moved from the marina back to our anchorage for a third night at Marathon. A group of Bahamas-bound cruisers was meeting to plan their crossing, so Wayne took the dinghy in to the City Marina to join them.
We have these great little gadgets on our life jackets - a LifeTag system - that set off alarms on the boat if we get a certain distance away. That's so we'll be alerted in case one of us falls off without the other knowing it. It's a horrible, shrieking alarm, and guess what? Wayne forgot to take his LifeTag off before he left in the dinghy. I frantically tried to figure out how to turn off the alarm, but to no avail. I tried to call Wayne on his cell, but it was in a waterproof bag in the backpack and there was no way he could hear it over the sound of the outboard. I left a message ("The LifeTag works really well, but you can turn it off now," with appropriate sound effects in case he needed proof). Finally I retreated to the bedroom where Emma was already hiding out, closed the door and - hey! - I have ear plugs! I finally reached Wayne half an hour later and he told me how to turn the darn thing off - push the same button I had been pushing, but hold it down for five seconds. If you were on one of the many boats anchored around us today, we send our most embarrassed apologies.
Well, that's a lesson we all need to keep in mind - everyone on the boat should know how the gear aboard works. In reality, that never happens.
ReplyDeleteHope you get your weather window soon.
Yes, Duane - good point. I'm happy it was just a false alarm.
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