In the Wheelhouse

I've decided to just pick out a couple of jobs for posting from last week to complete my catch-up since the 4th. This is one from July 7, a 53' motoryacht that was OOF (out of fuel) off Weekapaug, 10 nautical miles west of Point Judith. It was a little sloppy with about about a 2-4 foot confused seaway; just enough to be annoying. The view on-scene is below.

Of course it was another of our famous (at least this year anyway) "unsettled" weather days, and this lovely line of boomers was bearing down on us (I was at the tip of the white arrow). Severe weather warnings were posted for possible "winds in excess of 40mph," so I buttoned up and prepared to ride out a potentially nasty few minutes. However, by the time the line reached us, it had dissipated a bit and just brought a bunch of rain.

The rest of the job proceeded without incident, and below is the casualty on a short leash inside Point Judith Pond, headed for the fuel dock.

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The towing gods have been keeping me busy this week, and I still haven't posted up my pics from last weekend! So, I'm going the photo-blog route until I get to a job that deserves some explanation. Following is what I was up to on July 4th Weekend...

I started out with a repeat customer, almost in the same spot I retrieved him a week previous, off Conanicut Marina, back to a mooring at Clark's Boat Yard.

Next, up this cruiser just south of the Tiverton Basin, going back to Borden Light Marina.

This Monterey needed a jumpstart off Greene Island.

First job of Saturday, off Potter's Cove to the Bold Point Ramp.

This member went from Barrington Beach to Lavin's.

I serviced this folks last year as well. They needed a jumpstart.

Headed home after 2 more quick jobs around Newport.

By the 5th, I was getting tired of taking pictures. I did 5 jobs that day, here's what I've got left....

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High speed towing. Safe/Sea has pioneered the concept and application of modern propulsion technology over the past several years to provide this major innovation in the quick response marine assistance industry. Here's an example of a member whom I was able to keep out of a major thunderstorm due to the Safe/Sea Newport's high speed towing capability.

Here's the view out my wheelhouse windshield coming into Bristol Harbor. Hog Island is the landmass to starboard. It's looking to get ugly shortly.

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As just about every boater in Rhode Island knows, last weekend was air show weekend off Quonset. Normally, that mean lots of sunshine, southerly breezes and towing. However, the awful weather we've been having continues to put a damper on the onset of summer.

Last Friday was started off pretty well, as I got the job in the first picture at right around 1300. Willie was hanging around, so he hopped on the boat with me for a trip to Oakland Beach. We had to hurry a bit, as the customer had cut away his anchor to head in (as it was fouled) and then found himself broken down with a hook. Murphy demonstrates his law again! We got there with a few minutes to spare before the 23' Penn Yan was going to hit the beach. Later in the evening, I was sent back toward Greenwich Bay, but the customer restarted before I arrived.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty normal airshow day. Capt. Phil was on the Safe/Sea Titan with the Rhode Island Disaster Medical Assistance Team paramedics onboard, patrolling the spectator fleet to provide any needed emergency medical services, so he was out of the towing scene for the day. I went to Point Judith and was soon brought north to the bay for the 23' North Coast in the second picture at right, disabled just south of the Newport Bridge, going back to Clark Boat Yard.

Soon after I finished up at Clark, I was sent to the north side of the Air Show spectator fleet for the disabled 27' Bayliner in the third picture. She was headed back to Warwick Cove Marina. Before I could even finish that job, I had the 38' Chris Craft in the fourth picture waiting for me. He had broken his steering, which, as you can tell from the way he's towing behind me, was stuck a bit to starboard. He was just outside the entrance to Greenwich Cove, going back to Warwick Cove. After completing these two jobs, I was headed back to Point Judith to put away the Safe/Sea Point Judith for the night.

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This week marked my first pre-dawn wakeup call of the season. When the weather is not ideal and the phone rings at 0245 on a Wednesday morning, you know it going to be bad, and it was. All I had to go on from our dispatcher, Nick LeBlanc, was a USCG report of a vessel hitting a nav aid somewhere off Quonset Point and sinking.

Capt. Phil and I got underway as quickly as we could and were on scene at the Electric Boat gantry crane and dock by around 0310 or so. As you can see from the first photo, the scene was pretty ugly.

When a high speed boat comes to a screeching halt, bodies fly and have collisions of their own, as you can see from the blood-spattered console and seats. Thankfully, there appears to have been no permanent damage to the occupants.

As you can see, the same can't be said for the boat, which was heavily damaged. The buoy in question, the red #6 directly off Quonset held up better that the boat, but still showed some signs of the force of the collision. Notice in particular, the 'X' shaped steel angle iron that is bowed inward from the impact, and the pronounced cant of the electronics box in the center of the buoy.

Judging from the damage discovered after the casualty was hauled out, the boat hit the buoy very squarely and then went over the top of it, as there was fiberglass damage along the full length of the bottom, and the port outboard was missing its skeg.

I'll leave the details of the operation to Capt. Phil, whose salvage blog will be starting up next week. Everything went as planned and we had the casualty hauled out at Pleasant Street Wharf around 0915 Wednesday morning.

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Needless to say, June remains cold and wet, making my job more tedious and downright boring than it should be at this time of year.

Following is a photo-based wrap up of how last week and weekend shaped up at the end of my towline...

Below is a bowrider I took into Greenwich Bay Marina last Wednesday night, which is the latest good weather I can remember.

Here's a nice little Parker that needed a jump Saturday morning in the fog off Matunuck. Unfortunately, these folks had not caught any fluke yet. I left work early on Saturday to attend the wedding of part-time Safe/Sea Captain and full time Confident Captain/Ocean Pros owner Kent Dresser. More on the wedding in a later post, as there were several Safe/Sea types in attendance, including the Salty Barrister.

Sunday was a bit more interesting, as the wind was up around 15-20 with some 30+ gusts as I went to pick up the Patriot, a 32' 1967 Bristol in Dutch Harbor suffering from a starter problem. After warning the captain that it would be an unpleasant, but not unsafe, ride behind me to Norton's, we were off.

Here's a shot as I try to hold my iphone steady and get a shot of Patriot in tow off Quonset. The wind was blowing out of the bay with the tide flooding, so the seas were very steep and close together.

We made it to Norton's without incident as expected. I was nice and toasty in my pilothouse, but I can't say the same for the Patroit's skipper, who had an excellent opportunity to verify the integrity of his foul weather gear. With the wind blowing right down the entrance to Greenwich Cove, it was a bit choppy at the dock.

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Sunday started with some pretty solid rain, basically killing any hope of a busy day, even though the rain stopped well before noon. I was the early captain, as usual on Sunday, and the only job I did all day came in around 1100. It was a 21' Boston Whaler Outrage that had just launched at the East Greenwich Ramp and was heading to her home dock in Greenwich Bay. She overheated shortly after getting underway, tied up at the EGYC fuel dock, and waited for me to arrive.

After a quick and uneventful tow across Greenwich Bay, she was secure and I hung around off Sandy Point for a few hours. Because there was so little activity going on and I had already done a job, I headed toward Wickford around 1430 to give my boat to Capt. Phil who was next up. I became the back-up and Pt. Judith captain for the duration of the day, which allowed me to watch my son Will wrap up his soccer season with a win over Cumberland. He scored twice, and as you can see by the grin, had a great time!

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