Subscribe to RSS FeedLast Friday night proved to be an interesting evening, towing-wise.
Early last week, we received a satellite phone call from a yacht coming in to Newport from St. Maartin. It was the sailing vessel Knickerbocker, a 118 foot Palmer Johnson motorsailer. Her exhaust system had broken at sea, allowing water to backfill the system and fill her engine with seawater.
You can see a photo of the Knickerbocker here.
Yachts this size don't frequently require towing assistance, but it does happen occasionally. Last year, we assisted 2 70+ foot motor yachts to the dock in Newport. For a beast the size of Knickerbocker, we needed to use two of our front-line 35' twin jet towboats.
After not hearing anything from Knickerbocker for a couple of days, we finally got a call early on Friday estimating a late afternoon arrival. Unfortunately, that estimate proved optimistic, and the final call out was set for 0030 Saturday morning.
Capt. Phil and I arrived off Castle Hill at the appointed hour in the Safe/Sea Salvor and Safe/Sea Newport respectively. Knickerbocker soon appeared off the red #6 south of Castle Hill. The Salvor took her in stern tow just north of the light, as the wind was dying and the tide was ebbing, cutting Knickerbocker's speed dramatically. You can see the AIS track of Knickerbocker at right.
Once in tow, we took it easy, not wanting to impart too much momentum over the last 1.5 nautical miles, seeing as a vessel the size of Knickerbocker takes a long time to bleed off speed. This job was all about finesse, not power. Once on the north side of Fort Adams in the mouth of Newport Harbor, the Salvor disconnected her stern tow and I took the Knickerbocker "on the hip" for the final trip through the harbor to the dock at Newport Shipyard.
Unfortunately, this was exactly when Captain Murphy, of Murphy's Law fame, decided to rear his ugly head. Just as I completed making up on the hip of Knickerbocker and turning her to port to start our approach into the harbor, there was a loud bang and generally nasty noises started emanating from my starboard jet drive. The drive had ingested something unseen and unknown (likely a wad of discarded line). Ugh. So, I immediately called Capt. Phil and had him take my place on the hip of the Knickerbocker with the Salvor.
After handing off the Knickerbocker to Capt. Phil, I was able to work my transmissions to dislodge enough of whatever was in the jet so that I was operational and able to act as a push boat.
You can see our final approach in the AIS track at right. The Captain of the Knickerbocker knew his business well, as he was the only one with a clear view of the dock and needed to act as docking pilot, using our two towboats and his still-functional bow thruster to compensate for his lack of primary power. The slight "hitch" you see in the center of the track is where we spun the Knickerbocker 180 degrees so she could be backed into her slip. We slowly backed her in from that point; where you see the course change very close to the dock is where the Newport got into the act, providing some sideways motion over the last couple hundred feet to finish off the maneuver.
As we were heading out of Newport Harbor around 0230 or so, I could tell that whatever was clogging my starboard jet was still there. However, once I tried to come up to cruising speed outside the harbor, the blockage finally gave up the ghost, and I could proceed home at my normal cruise of 30 knots.
All in all, it was a successful morning, as it's always fun to do a job that's a little outside the routine.
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