Mondays 04/24/2010 Question and boating safety tip.

[CaptainScott]

Safety Tip:
Binoculars. Not just the cheap 20 dollar ones from Walmart either. I'm talking a very nice set with excellent optics and light gathering!
OK, So now you are wondering why in the world would I mention good quality binoculars in a safety thread. We always keep a very nice set of Steiner binoculars aboard Destiny and they are always handy. If you cruise long enough it will only be a matter of time before you find yourself in the dark. Literally in the dark. Did you know that a good pair of binoculars can help you spot a buoy, marker, or light in the dark? I'm not talking a cheap pair with crappy optics but a very nice quality pair. Many times we've been in the dark and the GPS indicated a buoy is right over there! We just can't see it! Using a good pair of binoculars a lot of times you can actually spot the buoy in the dark! If you've never tried it, take your binoculars out after dark on the water! Look around with them! Get familiar with how they work in low light situations! You just may be surprised at how well a good set will actually gather light after dark! Now I would not make binoculars a number one safety item. Maybe not even in the top ten. However, once your boat is outfitted properly with safety gear and Santa asks what you want for Christmas, you might consider trading in those 15X35 cheapos and get a nice quality set of 7X50's. FYI, 7 times magnification is the common standard usable magnification on a boat without image stabilization. Most find any more magnification is hard to use or to shaky when aboard.




Question:
Bobs back! ( this name does not reflect any forum members )
For those following from a few weeks ago, Bob struggled getting his boat from his house to the water with a variety of less than stellar decisions. Well I want to let you know he did eventually manage to get his boat into the water. His wife forgave him most of his transgressions however his cell phone was lost for good.

Well, now he is on the water and ready to drop anchor and relax. Please read the following and point out some items Bob could have done better. Also, note this is not going to challenge you on what is legal vs what is not. This will hopefully make you think twice about how you do things! LOL!


First though let me describe the situation. Bob is in tidal waters. Here a ten foot tide is daily and 15' is not that uncommon. For the sake of the story lets say we have a ten foot tide that peaks overnight. Bob wishes to spend an over nighter with his wife and kids. Bob has heard of a nice cove that is supposed to be great! Nice beaches and reasonably well protected and large enough for many boats! Bob however has never been there before. On the advice of his buddies Bob finds the cove and enters the cove!
Bob has a nice Danforth anchor properly sized for his boat with ten feet of chain plus 50' of properly sized line attached to it. The anchor and line are stowed on a 5 gallon bucket centered in the bilge for better boat performance while underway!!

Here is where our story begins.
Bob rounds the point and now has a full view of the anchorage. "See honey!" he says! "There it is"! his sleek vessel skimming along at 20 knots. He sees the green buoy on the far right side of the entrance to the bay marking the rocks so he stays in the middle of the channel and well clear of the marker keeping it far to his starboard side. Noticing the other boaters waving he smiles and waves back as he takes his sleek ride into a long lumbering circle and slowly dropping the power. His ride eases off a plane and down into the water. Bob sees all the boats in the back of the anchorage so he motors over to them noticing them to be about 50 feet apart. Bob guides his vessel to the front of the boats not wanting to get between them and their view of shore he finds a spot 50 feet in front of a beautiful sailboat! "Look honey! isn't that perfect"! Some day we'll have a sailboat like that! How nice is that! He's standing on his bow watching us"! Bob grabs his bucket of anchor and rode and runs to the bow! He drops the anchor over and watches about 1/2 of the line fly out the bucket before the anchor hits bottom. He tosses out another 10 feet of rope for good measure and ties the loose end of the rope off to a deck cleat. A quick scan of all the boats in the harbor he see's they all have chains that drop off their bows and hang almost straight down. To match the other boats Bob grabs his anchor line and pulls some back until his anchor rope angle matches all the other boats chains. Feeling good he notes to himself that his boat is 50 feet of the bow of the sailboat exactly as planned! Bob and his wife jump into the dinghy and row ashore to explore the new wonders that await them!



Whats wrong with this picture?

[lecker68]

Fist off Bob must have a Bayliner as
#1 you lower the anchor never toss it also if he is in 10 feet of water he doesn't have enough rodeand if it is a rocky bottom a danforth would be the wrong choice
#2 give enough scope you need more rode
#3 coming into an anchorage on plane needs to be shot below the waterline
#4 never attempted to set the anchor
and most important should have taken a boating course.

[EmergencyExit]

however his cell phone was lost for good.

Yeah, well so was his dignity !

[EmergencyExit]

Bob,

About that green buoy - did you also notice a red one ?

[CaptainScott]

Nope. No notice of the red marker.

[EmergencyExit]

Thought so - Hey Bob. (Edit) Red right returning doesn't count if there's a green one between you and the red one.

[Alanhod]

[EmergencyExit]

Alan, I'm reading Scott's reply of "Nope. No notice of the red marker." to mean there was a red marker since he says "the" red marker. I might be reading wrong, if so I'll blame it on Scott.


Also under the heading of "He tosses out another 10 feet of rope for good measure and ties the loose end of the rope off to a deck cleat." not tying that loose end to a cleat BEFORE dropping the anchor over the side is a good way to lose it all. Excellent scene from "Captain Ron" movie comes to mind.

If he tied the "end" of the line to the cleat no telling how much slack he left on the deck, and he's going to drift a long way, probably into the other boats.

[CaptainScott]

[CaptainScott]

Excellent scene from "Captain Ron" movie comes to mind.

I like the dropping of the anchor part but when he duct tapes bricks to the kids shoes and is describing how to signal to come back up when the dad arrives on scene . . . . . . .


priceless!!

Scott

[EmergencyExit]

There's also a great line that slips by quickly where the dad stops calling him "Captain Ron" and refers to him as "Captain Moron".

I bet we could do a whole thread on that movie.

[LeatherneckPA]

I'm LOVIN' these threads. Learnin' much. Too new to play at the game yet.

Also LOVE Captain Ron. Wife and I are both in love with that boat, even if she isn't really practical for just two people. I'm a believer in the Lynn and Larry Pardey school of thought, smaller is usually better. Oooh, that reminds me, I need to Amazon their "Self-Sufficient Sailor" book.