AS IF LIFE HASN'T BEEN HECTIC ENOUGH!

Oh my goodness, this Month has tested us. We left marina and headed to a new anchorage between 3 islands in Long Island Sound called the Copps Island anchorage. We were the only boat anchored. What a great day it started out as! Not only was it absolutely beautiful, but we spent the day hanging in our bathing suits and did some filming. Finally, I was able to relax a little. I went to go put dinner on the stove when the craziness happened. Some of you might have seen a little of this on our instagram stories but let me dive into some details.

We saw a smaller 23ft boat come in close to us very obnoxiously. They were blasting music, not paying too much attention and they just kept getting closer and closer to us. As it got closer, Jeremiah saw the vessel drifting backwards through the anchorage approximately 100 yards in front of Calypso. Nobody was in control of the vessel, the woman was in the water and the man was just sitting there. They might have thought they were anchored, but their anchor was literally just floating in the water. When the smaller boat was about 70 yards from our starboard bow, the woman got back in the boat and tried to drive it but was now getting even closer to us.

Jeremiah immediately went to our bow and told the woman to put it in forward (which she ignored). She seemed pretty confused. Then the man came out to try to take over but first ended up falling on his back. When he did take control he didn’t give the boat enough gas and they ended up hitting our port bow. NOW the guy started giving it max gas when his engine became hooked on our anchor line. Jeremiah kept telling him to stop gassing it but he wouldn’t listen for a while. When he finally did stop, he then ignored us as we asked for help to remove his vessel from ours. By not helping, they were causing their boat to repeatedly bounce into our bow.  THEN the guy stopped what he was doing and took time to look me up and down-- was he serious?!?

We finally got them off by pulling their lines, and they then drove their boat down the port side of ours, scraping Calypso all the way down the side. They finally figured out how to drive the boat again and just left-- never to come back. As boaters, you don’t leave. If we had been sinking and needed help, they would've left us for dead as we were the only 2 boats in the area.
We contacted the coast guard and gave all of the boat information so hopefully they find these people very soon.

After taking some time to reflect on all of this, we were pissed off, heartbroken and very shaken up. Our minds were blown that these people were allowed to operate a boat-- did they have a license?? They had no idea the damage they were doing and didn’t seem to have any remorse whatsoever. 

We have been put through the ringer recently, between the hurricane, my grandfather passing, and the radar breaking, this was the icing on the cake. We did get news that our radar was fixed and on it’s way back to us, but now we can’t head north until we assess the damage from this hit and run.

Now we don’t know if we will make it to Maine because repairs take time. We don’t yet know the extent of the damage or how long it will take. We are feeling a little defeated right now and hope that we can get back to cruising again soon. We want to be out cruising or anchored, but now we have to go back to a marina yet again. This is our house, our jobs, our LIFE and we just can't believe that some people have such a disregard for others. These people will go back, likely not fix their boat, and go back to their life on land. We don't have that option.

While this was terrible and unfortunate, we know that it could have been way worse. We are all okay, no one was hurt and Calypso can always be fixed. There is another cruising family that just lost their 14 year old son while he was snorkeling by getting hit by a power boat. We can’t even imagine this happening and our hearts go out to all families that deal with similar situations. Comparatively, this is just a minor inconvenience. Yes, this will make us change our plans, but we are all safe, healthy and together. Our route might change and we won’t get as much cruising as we were hoping out of this season, but we still think that we are living the best life! 

Stay positive, friends!