gulfcoast john
New member
A 42 foot sailboat (mast stepped) didn’t take the turn into the lock and ended up pinned on the Mississippi River Chain of Rocks near St Louis. The crew was rescued by St Louis Fire/Rescue boats. This mishap is being discussed on the AGLCA forum (open to members only). Local news helo footage:
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/boate ... -of-rocks/
This link may be moved or deleted.
I hope that detailed info regarding what happened and lessons learned (there are ALWAYS lessons to be learned) come out some day. Tow Boat US reportedly declined to pull the boat off the rocks as an unsafe option; a barge and crane will be required when the water lowers some.
Insurance companies may not cover ‘navigational’ or other skipper errors, just as they may decline to cover a boat that sinks at the dock due to a cracked through-hull as a failure to keep the boat ‘seaworthy’ (as my Progressive policy terms it).
We’ve found lots of instances where following a Garmin Autopilot Route generated by a touchscreen button push could lead to disaster.
The most obvious was a 2018 chip ‘magenta line’ Oswego canal (NY off the Erie Canal) Garmin recommended route that goes over the dam and falls rather than into the lock; this has not been corrected on my 2021 version. NEVER follow an automatic route until you’ve verified it manually. (I’m not implying this skipper did that; I have no facts re that).
We have found many examples over the years where the ‘correct’ route looks like we’re heading into some tiny slough or wrong turn rather than the lock or the correct route.
After some embarrassing and preventable errors, we recommend our current agreement that EITHER of us can offer ‘Hey, I think I’ll veto that for now’...and STOP until we’re BOTH totally satisfied re our situation. We again advise you and your crew to consider that option, if you haven’t already. We didn’t invent it; we learned it from far more experienced cruisers than us and found that it works well for us as well.
Since postings are slow this week, I’ll offer another lesson learned: When moored to a town wall with no security/cipher lock on a river, or in a current, run your dock lines from your boat, through the cleat EYE under the horn of the dockside cleat, then back to your boat to cleat off again on your boat ...rather than cleat off at the town wall. The only downside is that this requires lines twice as long as usual. One upside is that it can make pushing off in the morning easy, since that line can be freed without getting off the boat. That line can also act as a fulcrum point to get off the dock.
The kids don’t carry knives to cut lines and they don’t step aboard boats.
We learned on segment loops over the past few years that there are several areas (including some of our favorite stops) where juvenile delinquents and drunks will untie boats at the town wall cleats, allowing them to drift into the downstream current. Some very experienced Loopers have noted that some boats ended up on the bank in the mud a mile or so downstream, but none have gone over a dam or been injured or killed. However, I can imagine how that COULD happen in some areas. (Again, I am not linking the loss of the sailboat in any way with un-tying of Looper boats from town walls).
One multi-Looper chained his anchor and chain to the town cleat with a padlock with no issues. Others use a smartphone anchor drag app (many available) or drop the anchor (but many of these ancient walls have old rebar, fridges and rusted bikes to hook onto).
Last month, a member of a group of Loopers (8?) posted that they got to the Joliet, IL wall late after a long day and tied off. At 2AM, one skipper woke to shouting and found a lady busy un-tying boats, and they had a shouting match which awoke some but not all of the others. One boat drifted out into the current with only his shorepower cord securing his boat to shore; the boat behind him caught that boat with a boat hook.
Several boats were using the ‘cleat only on the boat and never to the shore’ method, and they weren’t touched.
Comments invited…
Hope these suggestions and observations are helpful to you and your crew!
John
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/boate ... -of-rocks/
This link may be moved or deleted.
I hope that detailed info regarding what happened and lessons learned (there are ALWAYS lessons to be learned) come out some day. Tow Boat US reportedly declined to pull the boat off the rocks as an unsafe option; a barge and crane will be required when the water lowers some.
Insurance companies may not cover ‘navigational’ or other skipper errors, just as they may decline to cover a boat that sinks at the dock due to a cracked through-hull as a failure to keep the boat ‘seaworthy’ (as my Progressive policy terms it).
We’ve found lots of instances where following a Garmin Autopilot Route generated by a touchscreen button push could lead to disaster.
The most obvious was a 2018 chip ‘magenta line’ Oswego canal (NY off the Erie Canal) Garmin recommended route that goes over the dam and falls rather than into the lock; this has not been corrected on my 2021 version. NEVER follow an automatic route until you’ve verified it manually. (I’m not implying this skipper did that; I have no facts re that).
We have found many examples over the years where the ‘correct’ route looks like we’re heading into some tiny slough or wrong turn rather than the lock or the correct route.
After some embarrassing and preventable errors, we recommend our current agreement that EITHER of us can offer ‘Hey, I think I’ll veto that for now’...and STOP until we’re BOTH totally satisfied re our situation. We again advise you and your crew to consider that option, if you haven’t already. We didn’t invent it; we learned it from far more experienced cruisers than us and found that it works well for us as well.
Since postings are slow this week, I’ll offer another lesson learned: When moored to a town wall with no security/cipher lock on a river, or in a current, run your dock lines from your boat, through the cleat EYE under the horn of the dockside cleat, then back to your boat to cleat off again on your boat ...rather than cleat off at the town wall. The only downside is that this requires lines twice as long as usual. One upside is that it can make pushing off in the morning easy, since that line can be freed without getting off the boat. That line can also act as a fulcrum point to get off the dock.
The kids don’t carry knives to cut lines and they don’t step aboard boats.
We learned on segment loops over the past few years that there are several areas (including some of our favorite stops) where juvenile delinquents and drunks will untie boats at the town wall cleats, allowing them to drift into the downstream current. Some very experienced Loopers have noted that some boats ended up on the bank in the mud a mile or so downstream, but none have gone over a dam or been injured or killed. However, I can imagine how that COULD happen in some areas. (Again, I am not linking the loss of the sailboat in any way with un-tying of Looper boats from town walls).
One multi-Looper chained his anchor and chain to the town cleat with a padlock with no issues. Others use a smartphone anchor drag app (many available) or drop the anchor (but many of these ancient walls have old rebar, fridges and rusted bikes to hook onto).
Last month, a member of a group of Loopers (8?) posted that they got to the Joliet, IL wall late after a long day and tied off. At 2AM, one skipper woke to shouting and found a lady busy un-tying boats, and they had a shouting match which awoke some but not all of the others. One boat drifted out into the current with only his shorepower cord securing his boat to shore; the boat behind him caught that boat with a boat hook.
Several boats were using the ‘cleat only on the boat and never to the shore’ method, and they weren’t touched.
Comments invited…
Hope these suggestions and observations are helpful to you and your crew!
John
There is a lock in the canal, so I suppose the dam is near there. Looking at Navionics, there is even a note that says navigation not recommended due to low water dam and low vertical bridge clearance. Actually, while looking at my navionics, I see that dam on the main channel is a bit farther upstream from where the lock is on the canal. And all the nav aids, if you are following them, take you into and down the canal. While I like my garmin chips that allow for routing guidance, I find too many times it doesn't route in the navigable channel!