Quote:
Originally Posted by Aktungbby
@CaptainCruise : Good to hear from you! I was born in Bronxville in the year of '51 so, IMHO, you're in a good location! About two weeks ago I got to employ some rapid CBDR aspects of Destroyer Command in the San Francisco North Bay on our Friday outing. Basically against a 8 knot out-tide current in the Sacramento River with a large auto-hauler cargo carrier at 300 yards, doing 10 knots-tug free in ballast in the main ship channel on my 320; Closing very fast and optionless and the Carquinez Bridge footing on my immediate 90 at less than 50 yards; the 15 knot westerly wind just dropped, and we were doing 1.5 knots (becalmed according to the GPS speedpuck)...NO JOY imminent! Not standing on ceremony: as crew, exec, teak sander, and jibman-grinder, I turned to the skipper, an ex Navy Commander whose bucket-list gift this vessel is (a Catalina) and issued the Command Imperative: " Start the Engine!!!". His own blood pressure elevating, he hit the button on our mettlesome ancient Nisson 15 HP and it amazingly 'Tapocketa'd' to life as we cleared impending doom in true Mittyesqe fashion. We scuzzed aside the behemoth by 30 yards- were waved at by an officer from the bridge wing, received a salutary blast of the Nippon-bound ship's horn...and rode out the swell on our port quarter. The principle of big-ship little-ship played out to the MAX: and he has right-of way-in the main ship channel...whether I'm on a starboard tack or not! As we shortly re-entered the marina...we ran out of fuel and just glided 200' into the slip with two minor turns...best mooring ever! The skipper graciously forgave my breech of protocol but he bought lunch for going out short on gas-basic pilot error! Will crew for Food! Logging off to go sand and refinish the teak!
|
Forgive me, I don't know how I missed this post back when you wrote it, but that's quite a story you pitched. You hit the nail on the head......forget the "Rules of The Road" when on the water. The biggest boat almost always has the right of way!!!
I've never sailed before but I was a Coast Guard licensed captain for almost 20 years, and I've been at the wheel of several different vessels. Mostly fishing boats, both open and charter boats up to 80'. I ran a 65' dinner "booze" cruise boat (hence my username. Almost no one on the water I worked back then knew me as "Captain Tom") for a few years that I can tell you guys some stories about!!! The cool thing about my cruise boat was it was originally a USN PT boat built around 1945. I don't remember if it was a Higgins or Elco boat, only that it was cut down to 65 ft. and re-fitted as a excursion boat. I also worked crew boats and launches, etc.
How about almost being run down by a USN submarine? I was transiting Long Island Sound from Port Jefferson heading east to Buzzards Bay Rhode Island to assist with the oil tanker "World Prodigy" running aground outside the marked buoy channel and spilling a whole lotta #2 'light sweet crude' oil, if my memory serves. Anyway its very late I'm running east in the Sound and out of nowhere I suddenly get a return on my radar fairly close aboard very close to my course track. I reach for the radio mic to make a call on ch.16 and try to establish comms when all of a sudden my wheelhouse is lit up like the sun. A vessel passing close down my port side just lit me up with his searchlight. It was so dark I never saw who it was and we never made radio contact, but when I looked back I was pretty sure I saw the rapid flashing yellow strobe light that is suppose to signify a submarine, probably heading into Groton. I couldn't make out the hull of any ship, just the lights. I'm not sure subs even have search lights so I may be wrong, but I do know someone lit me up and passed less than 100ft. down my side. It all happened so fast and I never found out what really happened. So yeah.....size means everything!
On my streets of Da Bronx.....
Born in '65, moved to Long Island in '78.
"CC"
