basic seamanship??

S

starcrafttom

Active member
Ok I spent the week in the San Juans for the fourth of July holiday. I had a great time but was always looking at people that were not having a good time but could only come to the conclusion that it was their own dam fault. All of them must be suffering from a lack of basic seamanship and I want point this out as a learning moment ( for you old timers that translate "screw ups").

IMAG0260.sized.jpg This guy got stuck at the entranc...s the boating season here really gets going.
 
Depending on the type of boat--a 62 foot sailboat would have somewhere between 7 foot and 9 foot draft. There are some specific shoal draft boats, for example one 57 footer I crewed on had a 3'6" draft board up and 11 foot draft dagger board down...Then there was the time that one of the crew members dropped the board out of the bottom of the trunk! It had safety chains, but fortunately that crew member was an excellent swimmer and got a line on it, and released the chains, so it could be brought on deck. Cost first place in the race....

These folks come out in the summer. It is hard to know what they are thinking--and sometimes it seems as if chart plotters make it worse rather than better!

Thanks for sharing Tom--at least no deaths or serious injuries...which there have been in other parts of the US this last weekend!
 
Sitting on the 15th floor of the Coeur d'Alene Resort overlooking the marina and the lake. Let's see -- high speed, high powered, high alcohol content boats, fast PWCs skippered by A-holes, standup paddle boards paddling through the obvious motor boat channels, and para sailing thrill seekers mixed in with two sight seeing float planes taking off and landing make for interesting disaster opportunity watching!

Bill Uffelman
Ocean View DE & Las Vegas NV
 
Bill Uffelman":silsregi said:
Sitting on the 15th floor of the Coeur d'Alene Resort overlooking the marina and the lake. Let's see -- high speed, high powered, high alcohol content boats, fast PWCs skippered by A-holes, standup paddle boards paddling through the obvious motor boat channels, and para sailing thrill seekers mixed in with two sight seeing float planes taking off and landing make for interesting disaster opportunity watching!

Bill Uffelman
Ocean View DE & Las Vegas NV
Click to expand...

Darwin Award Material...
 
Tom,

We also heard the story of the 62ft sailboat. We were going from Anacortes to Holmes harbor and decided not to go down the Swinomish because of the low tide and the preponderance of "irriots" that have come out with the sunshine.

The inital call to the CG mentioned 2 or 3 boats aground.
We opted to go around and back in Deception pass without giving much thought to the fact that our time of passage coincided with max flood which was 6.99 Kts.
Made for very good fuel economy but there were a few very fast moving whirlpools that had us slammed sideways a couple of times and had the dogs pupils fully dilated.

A bit later as we passed the S entrance of the Swinomish we could see the sailboat about 1/4 mile in from the outer mark. Apparently sideways.

Some hopeful person called the CG and asked if the channel was completely blocked and they replied that they had no information. 2 Seconds later a dry voice on #16 said there was plenty of room to pass on either side.

A couple of years ago we saw a 50 (approx) powerboat also grounded near there just outside a pair of red/green buoys. Now I don't care if you confused the rules but when there are only two bouys in a channel like that you go between them, no!!

'Tis the season...

M
 
[This guy got stuck at the entrance of fishermans bay on Lopez. This happens all the time here for no good reason. Its not a good reason not to check when low tide is. He tried to leave right at the bottom of a minus 2 tide. Not a hour before or after but right at the low??]

OK, I know I am heading for trouble but I have to ask. Just say the devil made me do it. :twisted:

If he ran aground at the bottom of a minus 2, why did the water keep dropping out from under him? I would have thought he would just have caught the tide that would be rising very shortly after his error became apparent.

Not trying to be a smart-A. Honest! :|
 
He did go out on the raising tide, two hours later. Takes a little time for all that water to turn around and come back. he most likely got caught as the water was still falling. I was told by another boater that he hit and then turned into the beach??? the sail boat is pointed in the wrong direction to be leaving and I thought "oh he must have beed coming in" but no he said he was leaving when he hit, about 30 mintues before I saw him.

funny thing is that this happens at this stop every july 4th. last year there were 4 sail boats all stuck in that area. two right next to one another. They party on the 4th after the fireworks and then wake up late. They jump up and try to beat the tide out and end up stuck.

By the way I am not without sin. I once hit a rock in a lake, twice on the same day. now I did not have a chart for that lake, there were none at that time. Nor a chart plotter, had not been invented yet. I once ALMOST got stuck on a sand bar but I got out in time and pushed the 22 off and then walked/ pulled the boat 100yards to deeper water. Thats when I started reading about tides and currents. Remeber that around here tide slack and current slack are diffenet things and can happen hours apart. The tide may not be raising but the current cant still be running for a long time.
 
This is a very well timed thread, Tom. Yesterday M and I ran up just past Langley, dropped a few pots on an outgoing tide and anchored up for some sun, lunch and a beer or three. I checked the tides as we anchored in about 10'. I told her "were gonna have to move soon or we'll end up dry". Sure enough, about 1.5 hrs later the shallow water alarm went off; we now had 3' under us. Time to move. She said she would've never thought of checking. It was a good lesson for her and she's learning more each time she goes out. I love my wife. :wink: By the time we left the area at about 1630, where we were anchored was nothing but green "sand".
 
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