In the Wheelhouse

Captain Andy Casey was surfing around Google Earth the other day, and noticed a bright white wake off the west side of Conanicut Island. As he zoomed closer and closer, it became apparent that it wasn't just any boat's wake, but the wake of the Safe/Sea Newport towing a member toward Wickford. I was driving on that job, on May 1, 2010. Now we know the last time Google refreshed their pictures of the bay. Here's the map below. It's amazing the detail those satellites can see!

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Suffice to say that anyone who's been paying attention to the Rhode Island Boating scene this week is sick of seeing the horrid story of last Saturday night's debacle at Despair Island replayed over and over, so I'm going to gloss right over Sunday's main job and continue on with the more routine aspects of my week of boat driving. If anybody has any question they want to ask about the accident recovery job, leave me a comment, and I'll try to answer it, but please don't ask about the accident itself because I wasn't there, and I don't know exactly what happened.

Rumor has it that the striper action continues in the Upper Bay, north of Conimicut, and our job log bears that fact out. A full 40% of our cases originated north of Conimicut Light this week, and I delivered no less than 3 customers back to the India Point Ramp myself. It's been a busy early season for us so far. In fact, our number of jobs hasn't been this high this early since 2006.

Here's one of my India Point runs from earlier this week. I like it up there, as it's almost always a mill pond.

The Proline below was fishing just off Rocky Point and she needed to go back to Haines Park. Unfortunately, I was on my way back from another India Point run, and I was driving our smaller single-engine boat, the Safe/Sea Titan, and thus couldn't high-speed this job. Oh well, it wasn't far anyway...

As a final note this week, it looks like a busy weekend coming up, as the boating weather looks pretty darn good. One of our boats will be at the boating safety extravaganza at Brewer Cove Haven Marina on Saturday as long as it's not needed on the bay to tow customers, so stop by and see us if you're in the area. Also, there's a big dinghy racing regatta off Wickford happening Saturday and Sunday, so keep your eyes peeled for a bunch of single and double handed in the lower West Passage. Otherwise, have a great boating weekend and here's hoping you just wave at us as we pass by!

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That's the beauty and curse of the Marine Assistance Industry. You just never know when odd jobs are going to come in. I certainly wasn't expecting a member to need a tow from the Hurricane Barrier to Bullock's Cove last night about 1900, especially considering it was about 45 degrees and a Tuesday night. luckily, I had just finished dinner with the family and saddled up promptly. It's a bit blurry, but I kinda like the Providence skyline with the I-Way Bridge in the background.

My pilothouse heaters worked flawlessly, and I was warm and toasty while I zoom-zoomed around the bay.

This morning dawned cold, gray and choppy, so I was even more surprised when I got a text around 0900 that Capt. Phil was headed to Newport for a jumpstart on a 44' Sea Ray. It was one of them new-fangled ones, where everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is electronic or electronically controlled. Despite his best efforts, Capt. Phil was unsuccessful getting the engines to fire, and suspects the problem lies somewhere in the electronic solenoid "override" box below. Hmmmm.... taking one look at that thing, I'm with him!

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Thanks to Capt. Andy, who has kicked-off the 2010 towing season this morning at 0730 with this 30' Pearson going from Allen Harbor to New England Boatworks! There's been a few launch jobs earlier this month, but this is the first tow we've done this year.

It's been a needed few months off from the blogosphere for me, but The Daily Breeze and The Salty Barrister have stood in admirably during my hiatus. I'm going to make this blog a little more of a collaborative effort this season, using some jobs from Phil, Andy, and Doug to spice things up a bit and keep the posts coming on a more frequent basis.

It's been a good winter at Safe/Sea, as we're fully moved into our new digs at 683 Boston Neck Road, which is just south of Wickford on Rt. 1A. We're in the strip mall just north of Hamilton Elementary School, if anybody wants to stop by and say "hi" this spring.

The Safe/Sea Newport is in the water and ready for action, the Safe/Sea Titan has a new coat of paint and will be launched soon, and we're ready to get back at it!

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Seeing as school had already started before the Labor Day Weekend this year, it was slightly less busy on the water than usual. However, the weather was fantastic... sunny, warm and calm. Following is a picture from each day of my weekend.

I had the Point Judith duty on Saturday. This long-time member was 27 nautical miles southeast of the Point needing a jumpstart after fishing for most of the day. Jobs like this are when I *really* appreciate the extra-calm weather. Twenty-four miles out, twenty-four miles back, and about 3 minutes to get him going. I ended up with 4 jobs around the Point that day.

Sunday found me zipping around upper Narragansett Bay, doing mostly high-speed work. Bullock's Cove was the destination of choice this day, as I was in and out of there at least 3 times. Another beautiful calm day, ideal for getting stuff done in a hurry.

I finished the weekend as the morning boat again, and again found myself in the upper Bay doing mostly short jobs. There were a couple early on, and then a nice family in a sailboat going back to (where else?) Bullock's Cove. It's amazing how jobs clump together sometimes. I hadn't spent a whole lot of time going there this season, but then get at least 5 jobs ending there in one weekend. Anyway, these folks were very friendly, and had a great weekend in Dutch Harbor.

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The last couple of weekends have been very quiet (not this past one, Labor Day Weekend, but I'll get to that in a later post) due to the tropical storm scares and the whole back-to-school thing. However, I didn't lack for night work on week days.

There seemed to be plenty of folks taking advantage of spectacular weather after work to get in some boating. Unfortunately night work doesn't lend itself to my rather limited photography skills. That being said, following are a couple of shots I took over the last week on my way out of Wickford Harbor to retrieve customers.

Sunset over Wickford Harbor, August 31...

Moonrise between the breakwaters, September 4...

Next Post: Labor Day Weekend

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Tuesday, August 11 presented me with an opportunity to combine work with some family fun. My son Will is a 1st year Opti racer in the Wickford Yacht Club sailing program, and was going to sail in his very first regatta that day (along with 5 teammates) at the Bristol Yacht Club.

As all my Rhode Island readers know, getting six optis from Wickford to Bristol by land is a royal pain in the you-know-where. As it turns out, Tuesday is usually the least busy day of the week for us at Safe/Sea, and I'm not technically on duty until noon, so I figured it would be fun to load up one of our 35 footers with the optis and arrive at the regatta by sea.

As you can see in the photo below, six optis was the perfect deck load for the Safe/Sea Newport, 3 on the foredeck and 3 on the aft deck.

It was a flat calm morning, and we saved at least 30 minutes of driving time and battling traffic. Once we arrived and offloaded, it was my plan to hang around and watch Will sail as much as possible, but be ready to depart whenever needed to do jobs. Here's some photos of the action (or lack thereof, since there was no more than 3 knots of wind all day.)

Will heading out to the Green Fleet course.

Will leads a pack of boats to the leeward mark, battling for 8th place.

Luck was with me that day, as I was able to stay for the entire regatta (until about 1600), reload the boats as soon as it was over, and return everything to Wickford without having to do a job. Below is Will on the Safe/Sea Newport's foredeck as we approach Wickford Yacht Club.

Of course, once the regatta was over and everyone headed home, I was still on duty the rest of the night. Shortly after dropping Will off at my folks' house, I was off to Point Judith to get a boater that had run out of fuel 13 nautical miles southeast of the point. I was up kinda late that night, but I did get this nice offshore sunset out of the deal.

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