When Things Go Horribly Wrong - Boat Fires

Let me start off by saying that nothing went horribly wrong with our boat in this case. (Hopefully you still want to read the post.)

Recently we were anchored in one of our typical spots - Sue Creek. We had three boats hanging on one anchor, the sun was shining, the beer was cold, the conversation was fun. The three girls were sitting on the swim platform dangling our feet in the water when we noticed that many of the people on the boats anchored behind us were staring intently at something ahead of us.

This is rarely a good sign.

I stood up, turned around, and "Oh @%$#!" This is what I saw:

While we couldn't see through the smoke, it was obvious a boat was on fire. Not only was a boat on fire, but the boat was at the fuel dock at Baltimore Yacht Club.

We all stood in awe and worry on the bows of our boats knowing there was nothing we could do but watch.

The boat was quickly pushed off from the fuel dock. The light gray smoke cleared to form a menacing dark cloud above the red flames.

 

At this point it appeared that the boat ran aground in the shallows near the entrance to the Creek. With our exit point blocked, we sat and waited for the fire boats hoping that we were far enough from trouble.

It turns out we weren't.

The boat started drifting our way. We were lucky to have only one anchor set. We quickly disbanded the raft up. At this point, the situation was certainly progressing into a more dangerous possibility and, frankly, we are lucky our friends were able to pull up anchor without incident.

Other raft ups quickly followed suit.

Unfortunately, the boat was a total loss. We did hear through the VHF radio that everyone was able to safely get off the boat. Boats can be replaced. People cannot.

We all managed to stay out of the way of the fire boats.

With the boat out of the way, the Creek entrance was opened for boats to leave. No new boats were being allowed in. We took advantage of the opportunity to get out of the way and return to Baltimore.

We will probably never know exactly what caused the fire. A random spark? A faulty wire? All I can say is that we must all be careful. Boats are fun. Boats can also be dangerous. Be safe my friends!