And #2 Son's secret Super Power is not falling off the tube, even when I goose the throttle.
But Wood's Hole is no joke. The tidal current runs up to 6 or 7 knots at times, and there are BIG ships that dock there, on a regular schedule that I expect the Captain is paid to keep to. I was glad that my Mercruiser V8 (likely the most powerful engine of any vehicle I ever owned) let me go where I had to, when I had to, when I went through Wood's Hole harbor.
And I only drew about 18" draft. Paul took a lot bigger vessel into Newport. Seems some rich dudes (not "The 1%" - more like "The 0.01%" decided to take a regatta of antique yachts across the harbor channel as his ship headed in to dock. Of course, the "Rules of the Road" say that a vessel proceeding only under wind power has right of way.
Ya know, when I was active in the Coast Guard Axillary (recommended), I learned the "Rule of Tonnage":
A bigger ship will crush you like a bug, if it ever hits you. If you had the Right Of Way, I hope that you're wearing your Personal Flotation Device.And Buzzard's Bay is damn cold. Anyway, the Newport Rag Baggers decided to cut off a large ship in a narrow channel - which also has Right Of Way, even over sailing vessels.
Hilarity ensues.
But I guess that you can't really blame those rich Newport guys. I mean, after all they're on a boat:
Oh, and I would so like to drink beer with Paul and Uncle Jay, even if I have to pick up the tab ...
Folks that run sailboats can get rather self righteous about the "right of way". The freighter in the channel has little maneuvering room, and probably a 2 mile turning radius.
ReplyDeleteSo, you can have all the self righteous "right of way" you like, and in the end, be dead right.
Watched a 30 foot sailboat "hand" it's way around the bow of the Galveston ferry (ferry being in full reverse, horn a blowin) as a kid. Even at the age of 6 or 7, the word "morons" traced through my thought processes.
The commercial vessel more than likely is running under what is know as "Restricted Maneuverability" and has the Right of Way over a sailboat.
ReplyDeleteThinking that "my/a sailboat has the right of way" is something that should be banished.
Admiralty lawyers make a good living because of ignorance of the basic maritime rules of the road.
Remember even if you are in the right and you hit someone or thing you can still be held responsible.
Once you're within cursing range, everyone is at fault for not preventing an incident... One of those lovely ancillary rules that favors those who have to draw a paycheck from moving from A to B over the water. The other often-overlooked one is the "When in doubt, honk and hard port about;" making an announced, early and obvious turn to port when it is time to deviate from the Rules to avoid an 'in extremis' situation.
ReplyDeleteRemind me to tell you about my experience with a Submarine, Cooper River, and a 100' yacht... :-)
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that not enough people understand the basic maritime traffic rules. They've heard one or two of them, and think they know everything.
ReplyDeleteThey heard the rule 'boats under mechanical power must give way to boats under sail or manual power' and failed to realize that there are caveats to this.
Boats under restricted navigability conditions, such as a ship in a channel or a power boat moving upstream in a tight river seam *that have already entered that channel* have the right of way over everybody else. Period.
I tried to explain this to a raft party once when I was forced to pass very closely to them in a whitewater section. I was already in the white water, powering my way upstream (I was in a jet boat) with about 8 inches of water under the keel, when the raft party got into their rafts and launched upstream of me and let the white water carry them downstream into my path.
They did it because they were rafter elitist douches (there is a very common argument between rafters and jet boaters out here, because rafters think that they river is theirs and that they own it, and are constatly trying to get the jet boaters banned. One of the ways that they do this ist o create situations like the above, so they can report it and get the jet boater in trouble, and add an additional "reportable incident" to the stats to show how much jet boaters endanger rafters.
The fact is, I'm under power in a channel so shallow that if I cut power, I'll be on the bottom and stuck in no time flat. i'm in a channel that is only about as wide as my boat. once I'm committed to the rapid, I've got to go through, so they wait upstream until I start in and purposely create a "near miss".
I got a visit from the ranger later that day. He was pretty cool about it, and basically told the rafters that even thought they technically had the right of way, that they are idiots and inconsiderate aholes.