As I mentioned, our family had a lot of fun on the river. Dad has always enjoyed having a boat with which to work and play. I don’t remember all the boats Dad has had over the years but at my best count, there were at least seven or eight of them. He had all kinds, from canoes to cruisers. All of them seemed to have one thing in common. They all leaked.
I’m not knocking Dad’s ability to care for a boat. But most of the boats were used when he got them and he inherited the leaks. I’m sure that one or two may have come without leaks, but if you spend much time with boats, you know that whether you have a leak or just get in and out of the boat, you have to bail it out sometime to keep it afloat.
We had all levels of problems with the leaks in these boats. I can remember one night late when the marina called to tell Dad that our boat had SUNK! I imagined the worst with only the top light sticking out of the water, but I’m sure now, it meant that the hull was mostly full of water. Dad and my older brother went out, with pump in hand, to rescue the boat.
Other times, rain or wet boys swimming in the river would get a lot of water in the boat. Dad taught us several ways to bail out a boat. There was the old standby method of a can or milk carton and a lot of elbow work. This is probably what you think of when you think about bailing out a boat. Just get a scoop full or water and throw it over the side. That works well as long as there is more going out than is coming in.
Another method that I found fascinating was to literally pull the plug on the boat and then head out full speed. This allowed all the water to flow to the back of the boat and out the plug hole, assisted by the flow of water that was going under the boat. When the boat was empty, simply re-plug the hole and you could stop again.
Then there was the pump method. Some of the boats we had were complete with bilge pumps. Most larger boats have them. It seems that in the boating industry, leaks are a “given.” You cannot completely prevent them. The best you can do is plan for them and be prepared. Built-in pumps do just that. As a regular part of your maintenance, you turn on the bilge pump before you make every trip in the boat. There is usually some water to be pumped out.
We’re not really all that different from boats, are we? Our lives are full of leaky spots. We fix some of them, others we never know are there. We often find ourselves in need of having our bilge pumped out. Sometimes, we may see others who are in need of the same service. What should we do? Walk away and let them sink? Or should we do the obvious and get to work helping to drain the flood of problems that are drowning that person?
In this case, I really don’t know if Dad was trying to teach me to care for others, or just for boats. Maybe I read more into things than I should. It does seem to me that it makes sense though. A boat cannot be moved through the water efficiently when it needs to be bailed out. It must be bailed out in order to do its job. If left to leak, it will sink and possibly cause deaths in the process for its passengers.
So Dad showed us that if you have a leak in your boat… bail it out! It’s the only way the boat can be functional again. People, too, need the kind attention we would give a boat. So next time you notice a leak, start bailing or turn on the bilge pump! Someone’s life may depend on it.
