Tagged: safety
Fall Boating
Well, it’s that time of the year again. People are decorating with mums and pumpkins, and temperatures have dropped from cool to brisk. Fall boating is a double-edged sword, on the one hand, it’s very serene -when boating last Sunday, I saw only one other boat underway, but it’s also more dangerous – if you fall overboard while tying a line, that may be the end of your boating career. What to do? I suggest you play safety to the nines. Wear that auto-inflate life jacket and your newest non-skid boat shoes. Focus on being more aware to avoid being [...]
Scouts
Historically, the Boy Scouts motto has been “be prepared”. Based on my experience today, I think it’s an excellent one for fall boaters, too. This afternoon, the swells were in the 6-7 foot range and there was a confused chop laying on top of the massive waves. Many times throughout the afternoon, I could feel and observe the boat being rapidly thrust forward on top of a massive wave with a significant reduction of control on my part. Here are some mental notes I made. One, stand while piloting to give yourself the best chance of avoiding entanglement with lobster [...]
Storm Swells
Storm Swells Hurricane Lee is on the horizon and some challenging conditions are sure to accompany the storm. The forecast is for rain, wind, storm surge, and swells. All of these elements normally accompany large storms and most boaters actively prepare by checking bilge pump operation, attaching extra dock or mooring lines, and checking boat movement possibilities at the dock or mooring. Dangerous swells stand out as an issue many boaters might not encompass in their thinking. While, fun to look at and even ride over, large storm-related swells can prove dangerous by covering and then uncovering various objects from [...]
No Direction Known
This past weekend, a friend of mine unexpectedly lost his steering ability on his small powerboat, a disconcerting experience at least and a potentially disastrous one at worst. Some lessons he learned included: Perform a VHF radio check before exiting your home waterway to ensure you have access to responsive help if necessary – new equipment may have a different interface than replaced equipment, and emergencies are difficult times to get educated. Check your anchor and line to confirm both are within reach and ready to be put to use quickly-anchor lines not used frequently can get kinks and snarls, [...]
Storms and Skinny Water
Boating over the past few days has been a mixed bag with some decent sunshine, but also some measurable wind and a continuous thunderstorm threat. Prompted by an interest in returning to the dock quickly to avoid the storms, many inexperienced boaters will try to shorten their route by steering on the wrong side of channel buoys or following a straight path on the inside line between buoys. Either of these approaches can result in problems primarily because the channels are constantly shifting. And although the buoys indicate plenty of water, oftentimes there is not. You may only need 6” [...]
Down East Conditions
Yesterday, as I cleared the Blyman Bridge in Gloucester Harbor, I noticed a slight wisp of fog over Eastern Point. The weather was sunny and cool, and the fog seemed out of place, so I made a mental note to keep an eye on it and headed towards the Harbor mouth. Much to my surprise, within five minutes of the sighting, I was completely enveloped in a fog bank that reduced visibility from a couple miles to a couple hundred feet. Almost all visible landmarks disappeared, and only the nearby rocks and an occasional house silhouette were partially visible. Needless [...]
Close Shave
Sunday was one of the best boating days of this season and it seemed to drive every local boater to the water. Naturally, the seamanship abilities ranged the gamut from expert to tenderfoot and the mix of overcrowded waterways with beginner level skills made for some tense moments as I experienced heading out the harbor. I was about ½ way to the harbor entrance when I noticed a small outboard runabout on a direct collision course with no one at the helm. The captain, the only person aboard, was rummaging around in one of the forward compartments, completely oblivious to [...]
Low Visibility
Earlier today I enjoyed lunch with an old boating buddy of mine. Naturally, we covered a lot of boating topics, from repowering to fireworks display viewing experiences. I was fortunate in that, on July 3rd, the bad weather cleared during the late afternoon, and stayed that way, for the evening display., resulting in good night-time visibility. On the other hand, he was unfortunate in that the weather, specifically fog, became progressively thicker during the July 4th display creating poor visibility to return home in. Being an experienced boatman, he used his limited electronics and charts to pick up the main [...]