Good Karma and rock avoidance
You know that feeling you get when something just doesn't add up? You know, when your inner gut tells you your about to make a mistake. Well I just got back from 2 weeks in the Gulf Islands of B.C.. There is a channel north of Nanaimo that I now understand is infamous for claiming its fair share of boats. As a matter of fact I was just talking to a delivery captain who had a client sink a 70 foot boat there last year. Anyway we were proceeding in the channel and I made a decision to leave the channel marker on my port side. There were confusing markers on the opposite shore, but also a marina to the starboard which affirmed my thinking there couldn't possibly be an obstacle between the marker and the marina fairway. As I approached the marker I started to get a bad feeling. My T&T lessons learned by others synapses fired and I remembered long discussions about not continuing down a path unless you were certain it was correct. I shifted into reverse and looked down at
my de
pth sounder. 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, I began to add power, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, now at 1,800RPM and less than a knot, 2, 1, 0 dead stop.
A week before we had spent the night in Shelter Bay and I slipped out of the marina an hour before low tide. I knew I had 8 feet under my keel when we went in, and according to the tide tables we should have lost about 7 feet when I left. It was then I learned my depth sounder had a 2 foot adjustment in it to account for 1 foot of water between the bottom and the keel, and another foot from the keel to the depth sounder. So I knew I now had a foot of water under the boat. Locals told me it was a mud bottom and there was only one place it would be skinny. I know you east coast boaters are use to single digit depths, but for us PNW skippers anything in the single digits makes us nervous.
At this point I realized I was pretty close to avoiding disaster. The wind was blowing me gently astern, assisted by a slight current. So I began to slowly drift back along my original track. I had shifted into neutral when the sounder went to 0 and each passing second brought the security of increasing depth. Several boats passed by and I fell in behind them. As I passed the marker I could now clearly see on my chart that this was the correct path and had I continued I would have run the boat aground. Reviewing the contributing factors and lessons learned:
a. When in doubt STOP, STOP, STOP. There is no hurry, no reason to rush a journey in unfamiliar waters
b. Don't zoom your chart in so close you can't see the forest for the trees. In an effort to verify where I was in the channel I zoomed so close I didnt get the full picture of the obstacles in my path.
c. Know your boat and it's configuration variables. Knowing my sounder had a 1 foot reserve was very helpful in this situation. Choosing your chartplotter settings is equally important. Are you showing depth in feet or fathoms?
d. Have two radios in the pilot house, and always leave one on 16. I don't know if the other boats in the channel were trying to hail me and advise of my poor choice, I certainly hope so. The reason I don't know is the radio was tuned to the marina hailing channel in an effort to get a slip reserved. In the future I'll make certain to use the handheld for such activities and always keep the primary radio on 16.
e. If you see someone making a big mistake, do try to hail them and tell them. While there may be a bruised ego it's a fraction of the price of a hole in the boat.
f. When in unfamiliar waters learn their use of channel markers. The Canadian system of marking N, S, E or West channel markers was new to me and I should have made sure I understood them prior to traveling a path where they are used.
Was it good Karma that kept me out of harms way, or luck? Was it the discussion on the T&T list or an experience I had in the past? Not sure, but I do know I'm grateful for what ever caused that doubt in my mind, and my decision to stop, and stop quickly. That was a lesson gleaned from this forum, Thanks to everyone that shared their experiences, you really helped me out!
Scott Bulger, N40II, Alanui, Seattle WA
Was the marina Schooner Cove? If so I was there last week, and did the same
as you, except the bottom was rock. In my case, I just felt something was
wrong, throttled back to idle, and asked my wife to keep a sharp lookout on
the bow, and she soon signalled for an emergency stop. As I was backing off,
a fishing boat came along, and told me to follow him through what proved to
be a very narrow, twisting channel. On exiting the marina we took the
longer, afer way round.
Cheers, Garrett
----- Original Message -----
From: scottebulger@comcast.net
To: trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com;
trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 8:09 PM
Subject: T&T: Good Karma and rock avoidance
You know that feeling you get when something just doesn't add up? You
know, when your inner gut tells you your about to make a mistake. Well I
just got back from 2 weeks in the Gulf Islands of B.C.. There is a
channel north of Nanaimo that I now understand is infamous for claiming
its fair share of boats. As a matter of fact I was just talking to a
delivery captain who had a client sink a 70 foot boat there last year.
Anyway we were proceeding in the channel and I made a decision to leave
the channel marker on my port side. There were confusing markers on the
opposite shore, but also a marina to the starboard which affirmed my
thinking there couldn't possibly be an obstacle between the marker and the
marina fairway. As I approached the marker I started to get a bad
feeling. My T&T lessons learned by others synapses fired and I remembered
long discussions about not continuing down a path unless you were certain
it was correct. I shifted into reverse and looked down at
my de
pth sounder. 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, I began to add power, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, now
at 1,800RPM and less than a knot, 2, 1, 0 dead stop.
A week before we had spent the night in Shelter Bay and I slipped out of
the marina an hour before low tide. I knew I had 8 feet under my keel
when we went in, and according to the tide tables we should have lost
about 7 feet when I left. It was then I learned my depth sounder had a 2
foot adjustment in it to account for 1 foot of water between the bottom
and the keel, and another foot from the keel to the depth sounder. So I
knew I now had a foot of water under the boat. Locals told me it was a
mud bottom and there was only one place it would be skinny. I know you
east coast boaters are use to single digit depths, but for us PNW skippers
anything in the single digits makes us nervous.
At this point I realized I was pretty close to avoiding disaster. The
wind was blowing me gently astern, assisted by a slight current. So I
began to slowly drift back along my original track. I had shifted into
neutral when the sounder went to 0 and each passing second brought the
security of increasing depth. Several boats passed by and I fell in
behind them. As I passed the marker I could now clearly see on my chart
that this was the correct path and had I continued I would have run the
boat aground. Reviewing the contributing factors and lessons learned:
a. When in doubt STOP, STOP, STOP. There is no hurry, no reason to rush
a journey in unfamiliar waters
b. Don't zoom your chart in so close you can't see the forest for the
trees. In an effort to verify where I was in the channel I zoomed so
close I didnt get the full picture of the obstacles in my path.
c. Know your boat and it's configuration variables. Knowing my sounder
had a 1 foot reserve was very helpful in this situation. Choosing your
chartplotter settings is equally important. Are you showing depth in feet
or fathoms?
d. Have two radios in the pilot house, and always leave one on 16. I
don't know if the other boats in the channel were trying to hail me and
advise of my poor choice, I certainly hope so. The reason I don't know is
the radio was tuned to the marina hailing channel in an effort to get a
slip reserved. In the future I'll make certain to use the handheld for
such activities and always keep the primary radio on 16.
e. If you see someone making a big mistake, do try to hail them and tell
them. While there may be a bruised ego it's a fraction of the price of a
hole in the boat.
f. When in unfamiliar waters learn their use of channel markers. The
Canadian system of marking N, S, E or West channel markers was new to me
and I should have made sure I understood them prior to traveling a path
where they are used.
Was it good Karma that kept me out of harms way, or luck? Was it the
discussion on the T&T list or an experience I had in the past? Not sure,
but I do know I'm grateful for what ever caused that doubt in my mind, and
my decision to stop, and stop quickly. That was a lesson gleaned from
this forum, Thanks to everyone that shared their experiences, you really
helped me out!
Scott Bulger, N40II, Alanui, Seattle WA
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scottebulger@comcast.net writes:
There is a channel north of Nanaimo that I now understand is infamous for
claiming its fair share of boats. As a matter of fact I was just talking to
a delivery captain who had a client sink a 70 foot boat there last year.
Anyway we were proceeding in the channel and I made a decision to leave the
channel marker on my port side. There were confusing markers on the
opposite shore, but also a marina to the starboard which affirmed my
thinking there couldn't possibly be an obstacle between the marker and the
marina fairway.
Scott,
I keep my trawler at the "marina to starboard" you mention, about 200 feet
from the rock, and we watch about a boat a day go aground on the rock -- as
an FYI, it's Oregon Rock in Newcastle Channel. At very low tides the water is
only about 6 inches deep. I draw almost 7 feet, so needless to say I treat
that channel with caution. For what it's worth, the only way to get into the
marina is the "long way around", through the marked channel. When we see
boats heading for the rock, we do try and hail them, usually to no avail. In
fact, on the day the 70 footer went aground last year (see some pics at
http://www.islandeagle.net/summer2005/breanna) TWO additional boats went
aground -- while the 70 footer was sinking!
While your story raises some good points, especially regarding having the
right charts, there is one point that you missed. Prior to the Breanna
grounding, the channel marking consisted of a single green daymarker and a
single green can. Since the channel runs between two bays (Nanaimo Harbour
and Departure Bay), there is a reasonable chance of mistaking which side you
should leave the marker on.
However, after the Breanna grounding, Transport Canada added two new red
cans, directly opposite the green markers (these are the "confusing markers"
you refer to). Thus, the preferred channel is now clearly marked, with red
and green buoys. The moral here is that if you see a red and a green buoy in
close proximity, go between the red and the green.
By the way, just so you know you are not the only one, I did essentially the
same thing coming north of Sidney a week ago. There was a red buoy about 100
metres off of a point, and then about a 1 km wide fairway to the left of the
buoy. I eased through the channel, left the red to starboard, set the
autopilot, and headed up the fairway. When I looked at the depth sounder and
saw 6 metres, I had a small heart attack and looked at the chart again. It
turned out that my "fairway" was in fact a mass of shoals, and the channel
was in fact a fairly narrow affair between the red marker and the point.
So, the second moral here is that if you ever see an isolated red or an
isolated green, STOP, get out the chart, and figure out what the preferred
channel is.
Scott Welch
Island Eagle
I can't understand why there is not an informational marker on the
rock....if there is so many groundings, (one a day?) wouldn't a $10.00 sign
on the rock or a floating obstruction marker make sense?
Bob Clinkenbeard
24' custom trailer trawler
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-aboardbobbinalong
I keep my trawler at the "marina to starboard" you mention, about 200 feet
from the rock, and we watch about a boat a day go aground on the rock --
as
an FYI, it's Oregon Rock in Newcastle Channel. At very low tides the water
is
only about 6 inches deep.
Monday, September 18, 2006, 1:11:57 PM, Scott wrote:
SHEW> I keep my trawler at the "marina to starboard" you mention, about 200 feet
SHEW> from the rock, and we watch about a boat a day go aground on the rock -- as
SHEW> an FYI, it's Oregon Rock in Newcastle Channel. At very low tides the water is
SHEW> only about 6 inches deep. I draw almost 7 feet, so needless to say I treat
SHEW> that channel with caution.
Is that the beacon that used to have the "Keep Right" (or Left, as appropriate) signs and arrows pointing to the preferred channel? Have those private additions to the beacon been removed?
--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lien Hwa 28 (AKA Polaris 30) "Sea Spray"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca
Peter Bennett peterbb4@interchange.ubc.ca writes:
Is that the beacon that used to have the "Keep Right" (or Left, as
appropriate) signs and arrows pointing to the preferred channel? Have those
private additions to the beacon been removed?
Yes and yes.
Scott Welch
Product Manager, FirstClass Group
"If we continue to take an eye for an eye, then surely the whole world will
go blind." - Gandhi
Bob,
that would take away the daily pleasure the local experience every day!!
Lee
(just kidding!)
On Sep 19, 2006, at 01:37, Bob Clinkenbeard wrote:
I can't understand why there is not an informational marker on the
rock....if there is so many groundings, (one a day?) wouldn't a
$10.00 sign on the rock or a floating obstruction marker make sense?
Bob Clinkenbeard
24' custom trailer trawler
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-aboardbobbinalong
I keep my trawler at the "marina to starboard" you mention, about
200 feet
from the rock, and we watch about a boat a day go aground on the
rock --
as
an FYI, it's Oregon Rock in Newcastle Channel. At very low tides
the water
is
only about 6 inches deep.