In the Wheelhouse

This post is coming to you as I sit at the mouth of Greenwich Bay Sunday at about 1300, waiting for my next job.

As you can imagine, last week was quite bereft of on-the-water towing work, as people must actually get underway to need a tow, apparently. Yesterday was a decent day weather-wise, and turned out pretty well job-wise as well.

At right is Capt. John of the Shayla Leigh, a very nice 24' Seaswirl Striper that had a dead battery Saturday morning in the Sakonnet River near buoy #8 north of Fogland Point. It was a lovely day for a boat ride, so I decided to take the "outside" route to the Sakonnet from Wickford, down the West Passage, around Beavertail, through the fishtrap area between Ocean Drive, Newport and Land's End, past Second and Third Beach, and up the Sakonnet to Fogland. The Shayla Leigh started right up once I put a little juice to her, and I was on my way to complete my circumnavigation of Aquidneck and Conanicut Islands by taking the inland route home.

I took a leisurely run through the Tiverton Basin, and then went a little faster to get myself in position for more jobs in the East Passage. Not much happended for a couple of hours, then we got a call from a 28' Bayliner that had hit a submerged object in the vicinity of the spindle at the entrance to Greenwich Bay. Capt. Phil was closest, and was on scene in about 5 minutes. The "Miss Dee" had completely torn her outdrive from it's socket and was taking on water. Phil got the flooding under control quickly, and by the time I got there, he had the casualty in tow for Brewer's Greenwich Bay. That's Capt. Phil with the Miss Dee in tow with the Safe/Sea Salvor at right.

After Phil completed the Miss Dee job and she was safely hauled out of the water at Brewer's, Phil met up with me in Greenwich Bay and we headed for home. Shortly after we had tied up and were shutting down the boats for the evening, a 3rd party radio call came in, reporting a large sailboat aground in the area of Dutch Island. Phil and I both scrambled to re-light our diesels and head out to see what was up. As it turns out, I found a 53' Swan lightly aground just north of Austin Hollow. After making arrangements with her Captain, I put a line on her bow and had her free of the bottom in just a few minutes. I don't have a picture of that job, but I might have some video from my onboard camera system, so I'll post it later this week if I do.

So, all things considered, it was a fun and profitable Saturday. I'll wrap up the weekend Monday or Tuesday.

I don't have anything to report (tow job wise, that is) from this past weekend, obviously, as I was just outside Hilton Head, SC for a family wedding. My trip home was a bit of an adventure, however. After a delay on the tarmac in Savannah, my wife and I missed our connection in Atlanta. We were re-booked to Providence on a 2030 flight, but then realized that flight was already 2 hours late coming out of Key West, so we opted for a 1930 flight to Logan and decided to worry about getting home from there. After a ride on the T to South Station, commuter rail to downtown Providence, and a cab to TF Green to pick up our car, we were 5 hours later than our original arrival time, but still 3 hours better off than waiting for the delayed flight out of Key West.

Boaters wasted no time Monday morning getting me back behind the wheel of the Safe/Sea Salvor. Capt. Andy, the regularly scheduled Monday morning boat driver, was doing his thing as the Safe/Sea Fleet Manager down in Point Judith, performing maintenance on the Safe/Sea Block Island, which Capt. Doug had brought in from the island for servicing. So, it was up to me when the first call came in around 0915. At the other end of the line was this nice little 22' Grady White with a blown fuel pump and a captain who had just earned his 50 ton Master license. She was right in the mouth of Bristol Harbor, going back to Apponaug. A nice high speed tow cut almost 2 hours off the time needed to complete this job, and she was tied up at her dock by 1030.

After returning to our offices, catching up with our staff on the weekend happenings and wading through my email, I was just sitting down to work on this post when job number 2 of the day materialized. As it turns out, it was a long-time frequent flyer. This particular customer had a new boat, but it didn't seem to run much better than his last. Ah well, no problem, we were off for Haines Park Ramp from the west side of Prudence Island. That's him at right, wiggling around a bit on the hawser in the Bullock's Cove entrance channel, due to the fact that he's already raised his outboard.

Yesterday was a washout for me, but Capt. Phil did have a short tow in Greenwich Bay in the late afternoon. We'll see what today brings. I'll get my jobs map updated by Friday.

After my lucky and efficient Saturday, my week slowed a bit. I did just one job on Sunday, the center console shown below, picked up on the north side of Patience Island and towed to New England Boatworks at about 21 knots. Trainee Captain Miller (aka Unit 14) was at the controls. You can see him plotting his course in the second picture below.

I handled a 42' Catalina disabled in Point Judith Pond on Monday (no picture, sorry). She had just launched and was heading to her summer berth in Jamestown, but only got as far as The Narrows. She went back to Ram Point Marina at the head of the pond.

My last job of the week was on Wednesday, bright and early. It was a 24' Romarine about 1 nautical mile west of the West Gap of the Point Judith Harbor of Refuge. She went back to the State Pier in Gallilee. That's her on the string below. I'm headed to Georgia for a wedding starting today, so this will be my last post until next week. Have a great boating weekend!

After a cloudy, drizzly work week, Saturday dawned sunny, clear & warm, making for perfect boating (and towing) weather. Capt. Phil got started pre-dawn, heading out for Ohio Ledge about 0430 for a fisherman who had fished overnight with his lights and electronics switched on and needed a jumpstart. That put me at the plate for the next job.

Sure enough, two jobs came in within 3 minutes of each other right around 0900. First up was a 20 foot Angler with engine trouble about a quarter-mile south of Sandy Point, Prudence Island going back to Winstead's in Warwick Cove. Second was a 22 foot Stamas OOF (out of fuel), right off Homestead, Prudence Island. Jackpot! Time to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

My plan was to zip out of Wickford, around the T-wharf and pick up the Angler off Sandy Point. Once I had him in tow, we would shoot up to the Stamas, which was right along our track toward Warwick Cove, drop off 5 gallons of gas and a quart of 2-stroke oil, and then continue on our way to Warwick with the Angler. The picture above right is the Angler behind me on the way to drop off the gas to the Stamas. Below is the Stamas getting restarted and weighing anchor after putting the gas in their tank, as I slowly tow the Angler past them to continue our run to Winstead's.

My good luck of having jobs drop in my lap continued all morning. As soon as I finished up with the Angler in Warwick, there was a 24 Four Winns waiting for me off Rocky Point, going back to Lavin's. That's her at the bottom of this post, taking a picture of me taking a picture of her, in the Bullock's Cove entrance channel.

As soon as that was done, I was headed south again, to pick up a 28' Carver off Conimicut and take her to Norton's. Unfortunately, I didn't grab a photo of that job.

The fortuitous timing and location of these four jobs, coupled with the high speed towing capabilities of the Safe/Sea Newport, allowed me to complete them all in less than 4.5 hours of elapsed time. Now that's efficient!

Well, I finally got a round to building a new Google Map for the jobs I do in 2009. My 2008 map proved pretty popular, netting almost 10,000 visits in the last year. Since it is an unlisted map, all of those visits originated at one point or another from this blog. I've left the 2008 map intact as well as posting the new 2009 map. One cool new feature is that I'm starting to embed photos (when I have them) in each job/placemark. Check them out in the sidebar at right!

Crummy weather made this week a boat-driving bust for me. There were a couple of odd jobs for Phil, Andy and Doug, but I've posted a big goose-egg over the last 3 days. Andy's just finishing up one as I post this, and the weekend weather is predicted to be sunny and in the 70's, so it could be a busy weekend.

Stay Tuned!

Memorial Day Weekend, the "official" start of summer (in my mind, anyway) has come and gone, and, if it's any indication of how the rest of the season is going to go, we're in for a busy one. Everyone got into the act this weekend, even Capt. Doug out at Block Island, which is usually pretty quiet this early in the season. Be sure to check out Doug's blog, which features a daily photo from the island all summer long!

Anyway, let's get to the tow jobs. Sunday didn't really get going until the late afternoon and evening, and I am the early boat on Sundays, so I only did one job that day. It was a 24 foot Four Winns that you can see me shortening up at right as we head into the Warwick Cove entrance channel.

I was early boat again on Monday, and again, the action didn't start until nearly noontime. We were all hanging around on the dock checking equipment when a "Mayday" call came across the radio. It was readily apparent that the skipper issuing the distress call had a serious issue, so Capt. Phil jumped aboard with me on the Safe/Sea Newport and we headed out to Gould Island as quickly as we could.

In the meantime, we learned that the vessel in distress was a 24 foot Bayliner that had a fire aboard. According to the skipper, there was a lot of black smoke coming from the engine room, but no visible flame. As we were in transit, the smoke started to dissipate, and both Capt. Phil and I expected to find an overheated engine and a melted hose or two.

Capt. Phil and I arrived on scene first, and I put him aboard the casualty immediately to assess the situation. When we arrived, there was no smoke, no flame, and the vessel was floating on her lines. The couple aboard was a little rattled, but very much in control. A quick peek into the engine room confirmed what we had expected; the engine got too hot and an exhaust hose partially melted, producing a great deal of nasty smelling smoke.

The customer was a member, so we starting rigging to tow them back into NETC just when the DEM boat and USCG 41 footer were arriving. Once we told them the situation, we were on our way to NETC with the Bayliner in tow. The second picture is taken at the ramp dock in the NETC marina right after Capt. Phil had signed off on the job and we were about to head home.

Kudos to the captain of the Bayliner, who did the right thing by issuing a coherent Mayday, keeping his cool, and not panicking.

It's only Saturday night as I write this, but this year's Memorial Day Weekend has already been a great success here at Safe/Sea. Friday was particularly busy, with 8 cases, including 2 rescues of vessels entangled in the fish traps south of Land's End. The first fish trap job was run by Capt. Phil, Capt. Andy, and super-diver Rich Marquardt around 0700. I wrapped up the day with the second fish trap extraction around 2200 with Capt. Phil, Rich, and the mysterious Unit 14 as my crew. In between, I did a high speed tow of a 27' Sea Ray from the Potter's Cove area to Dickerson's in Apponaug. The first picture at right is our approach to the marina.

Today, (Saturday) wasn't quite as busy, and everything seemed to fall perfectly for Capt. Phil, as he got an early tow around 0830 handed off from Capt. Doug that was inbound from Block Island. From that point until 1500, he had one job after another fall into his lap just as he was wrapping up the previous one. I finally got into the act around 1400, as I was sent off to get a 30' Hunter and take her into Newport Yacht Club.

The weather for tomorrow is looking a little unsettled, so we'll see what happens. Memorial Day Weekend is usually a bit of a bust around here, especially when it fall early like this year, but this one's been great so far.