In the Wheelhouse

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.

Towing activity started to pick up this week, with several jobs coming in over the weekdays, generally in the late afternoon and evening. I did a 21 footer into Warwick Monday afternoon and a 24' Maxum Wednesday afternoon.

The most newsworthy item is the fact that the new light tower on Wickford's north breakwater appears to be finished. The day shape is mounted. Next time I go out after dark, I'll confirm that the light is functional. It looks pretty good, as you can see...

Expecting a busy weekend for Memorial Day, provided the weather is decent...

I remember the very first towing job that I did. It was 1984 and I was driving our first version of the Safe/Sea Rescue, named the Kropp 2, which was our only small yacht towboat at the time and identical to our current version. Our industry really wasn't even an industry then, and my dad and I just figured towing boats would be a fun way to spend some time in the summer and earn a few dollars. In fact, back in 1984, you didn't have to have a Captain's License to captain a marine assistance vessel.

Anyway, the very first boat I ever towed was the Cap'n Peach Fuzz, a 19 foot runabout that was disabled close to Castle Island at the entrance to Bristol Harbor. Safe/Sea didn't exist, and there was no such thing as towing coverage or memberships. At the time, the charges were $65 per hour, including travel time. Boy, have times changed.

Last Saturday, I took my 10 year old son Will on his very first tow job. He's been out on our towboats for many rides and seal-watching trips, but had never come along for a real job before.

We got a call around 0830 Saturday morning from the M/V Fishin' Pole, a 21 foot center console, that was disabled about a mile outside Wickford Harbor. The Fishin' Pole needed a quick pull back into Wickford's Wilson Park Launching Ramp. Will and I grabbed our PFD's, and off we went!

As you can see, Will drove out of the harbor, handing the helm back to me once we cleared the breakwater and went throttle-up. It was a beautiful morning, a bit hazy, but absolutely flat calm. The tow home was quick and uneventful, and we had the Fishin' Pole tied up at the Wilson Park Ramp by 0915. As an added bonus, we got another that morning, right off Pomham Rocks in the Providence River. We towed that customer to the Bold Point Ramp in East Providence.

Last 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.

Yesterday was a prime example of the weirdness of the marine assistance biz. The weekend was very quiet. So quiet in fact, that I was able to go to Central Falls to watch my son Will play soccer. Andy did a small job Sunday morning, but other than that, there wasn't anything happening.

Monday should be even deader, right? Same kinda cool, grey weather, a couple showers in the vicinity... not much of a boating day. Well, so much for predictions. I began the day with the 21 Proline at right. As you can judge from the Captain with the red can, the vessel was OOF (that's Out of Fuel, for the acronym-challenged).

Shortly after refilling my jerry can, I was sent right back out to retrieve a 21 Privateer that was broken down off Colt State Park and needed to go back to Brewer's Sakonnet. It was a perfect day for high speed towing, so we averaged 25 knots or so on that run.

On my way back into Wickford, there was more construction happening on the North Breakwater. The crane was laying down more boulders to reinforce the rip rap. I still haven't heard when the USCG is going to re-install the light tower.

It's been very quiet on the bay this week, which is not surprising considering the cold and wind. Capt. Andy did our first job of 2009 nearly two weeks ago, and there hasn't been a sniff of work since. However, there are a couple of discoveries I made during my seal-watching jaunt of last weekend that bear mention... Wickford Harbor has received a couple of upgrades that boaters should be interested in.

First, there's been some nice work done on the North Breakwater. As you can see, the end of the rip rap has been build up from its sad state of repair and a new concrete mount for the light tower and dayshape has been poured. It appears that the tower could be re-installed on its new perch any day, and certainly before April is out.

Second, there's been a major expansion of dockage at Wickford Shipyard. All of the shipyard's docks have been extended significantly to the west, making them even with their fuel dock. This does reduce the width of the Wickford Cove channel that extends down to the village, but there's still plenty of room for comfortable maneuvering.

Hopefully I'll have a job or two to report on this weekend, as the forecast is pretty decent for tomorrow and Sunday.

Well, the boating itch finally got the better of me yesterday and had to be scratched. It was still pretty cold and generally grey, but a fine day for my first boat trip of 2009. On the way out of the harbor, we were treated to the sight of the North Kingstown High Sailing Team getting in some practice time in their 420's.

As many Rhode Islanders know, Narragansett Bay is home to a huge number of seals over the winter months, and seal watching is one of my family's favorite excuses for a weekend outing. Yesterday was a perfect day for it, so my wife and I loaded up our daughter Sarah (12) and son Will (10) for a quick trip out to Rome Point, just south of Wickford Harbor, to see how many of our blubbery friends we could spot.

We were not disappointed! The rocks just off Rome Point were loaded with what had to be over 50 seals. I don't have any pictures of them, as getting too close to a marine mammal is a considered harrassment (and, hence, a felony), but they were all over the place. There were huge grey adults and some juveniles that still sported their white baby fur. The beach at Rome Point was covered with other seal-watchers who made the short hike from Route 1A, where there's a parking lot maintained by the state. As you can see at right, high powered, electronically stabilized binoculars come in rather handy for seal watching.

If you get your boat in the water before the weather gets too warm and the seals depart, Rome Point isn't the only place to see them around the bay. Just about any tidally-exposed rock that's big enough is likely to host some, although Rome Point is usually a sure bet, as it's a great spot that can be accessed by land or sea. Just remember that it's illegal to get too close or harass the animals in any way, so bring your binoculars or a telescope.