In the Wheelhouse

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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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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