July 11, 2003

Saving the 'Nauti Nan-Sea'

have always referred to myself as a River Rat here on the Missouri River. That term has now taken on a whole new meaning to both my husband and me. A totally unexpected and potentially disastrous event that happened to us this past Wednesday night was suddenly turned into a reason to celebrate by people I affectionately refer to as fellow River Rats.

At approximately 9:30pm on Wednesday, July 9th, we received a call that any boater who keeps their boat in a marina never wants to hear - "You need to hurry & get up here, your boat is sinking". Your first reaction is one of disbelief, you think you must be having a terrible nightmare - "excuse me but what did you say?" Once you pinch yourself to make sure this really isn't a nightmare, you jump immediately into rescue mode and start trying to understand the situation.

Our children are all grown and we have no pets to take care of so our 28ft. Carver Mariner has somehow become part of our family. It's my retreat when I need to get away from the stress we all experience just living our day to day lives. It's our place to entertain family & friends during the summer. It has become my incentive for producing this website but most of all, it represents the common thread we share with many other River Rats.

This story is not about what actually caused our boat to sink in the first place (that will come in a later article) but about the people on the river who sacrificed their time, energies, expertise and equipment to help save the Nauti Nan-Sea.

Upon receiving that dreadful call on Wednesday night, Regis immediately began gathering whatever tools he thought he may need to fix the problem while I made phone calls to see if I could gather more information. What I found out later was that several people who live near the Cottonwood Marina in Blair, NE were trying desperately to bail water out of our engine compartments in order to prevent the inevitable. Apparently the water was coming into the boat faster than they could dispose of it so within a very short period of time, the Nauti Nan-Sea succumbed to the pressure and settled herself on the river bottom.

During this time period, Regis picked up a fellow River Rat friend of ours to help him and they headed for the marina. To their horror and the frustration of all the people who tried so desperately to save our boat, they found upon their arrival that there was nothing they could do. The rescue mission had now turned into a recovery effort that would have to wait until morning.

I must admit that I was not of much help. I had myself convinced that our beloved Nauti Nan-Sea was a total loss. I thought there was no way anyone would be able to raise that boat and bring her out of the water quickly enough to save her.

What I found out was never under-estimate a River Rat (or I should say - a whole lot of River Rats). I couldn't bare to see her in this situation so the events that took place in order to save the Nauti Nan-Sea were relayed throughout the day to me by other River Rat friends on the scene.

Regis, being a scuba diver, packed his dive gear and headed for the marina the next day. He knew he would have to get into the boat and unload whatever he could to make the boat as light as possible in order to bring her out of her dark, murky resting place and back to the light of day. He spent much of the day doing just that with the help of many other individuals who held his man-made air hose out of the water while he dived deep into the cabin area to retrieve whatever he could. Many more people were on-hand to assist him in the process of unloading the boat and preparing it for the next step - raising it off the bottom far enough so that submergible pumps could be used to dispose of the remaining water. We would particularly like to thank one individual who without hesitation, jumped into the now oil-covered water and worked hand-in-hand with Regis to secure a sort of sling around the boat so that it could be raised. His name is Paul Katzenberger.

Another very close River Rat friend of ours, Denny Olofson of Olofosn & Son's Brick Restoration, brought his Boom Crane lift truck to assist in the operation. Cargill crane operators and riggers did the harnessing and boom maneuvers (Really an ART to HOW one uses a "short" boom, outriggers, boom length, boom height and sling positioning).

Regis and Paul  positioned huge tractor inner-tubes throughout the forward berth and cabin amidships in order to make the boat more buoyant. After inflating the boat bow was afloat. 

Tom Weidner of T&R Construction donated two large submersible pumps which were dropped into the stern engine compartment bilge. Another pump was lowered into the bow compartment. 

With the bow inner-tubes inflated and bow afloat, Regis and Paul dove under the boat amidships and positioned a sling under the aft quarter and SLOWLY raised the boat over a period of 3 hours. This required many sling and crane adjustments by the Cargill riggers who were helping. Rags were stuffed into the scupper thru-hulls and blower vents. Finally she floated on her own and was towed  to a trailer and pulled out. 

The Nauti Nan-Sea is now in the capable hands of Randy Nielsen and Greg Linkenhoker with Mirror Image Marine. They are working to repair any mechanical damage that may have occurred during her under-water adventure. We have a lot of cleaning up to do but once again, many of our River Rat friends have already volunteered to help out with this task.

From this time on, every time I hear the phrase from CCR's song Proud Mary - 'People on the River are Happy to Give', I will be thinking about all those dedicated individuals who helped to save the Nauti Nan-Sea. Stay tuned for pictures taken of the recovery and the eventual re-christening of our family member.