Tag Archives: Safety-Security

Caveat Naviganti

Posted on 13 May 2013 | Leave a comment

Each year we send data back to to our electronic chart maker where those charts have errors (Green Turtle Docks). Sometimes those errors derive directly from the source data. The picture below is our course line relative to the bridge in Vero Beach — we never use the chart-plotter or laptop navigation software when in the vicinity of structures. Two reasons — the charts can be wrong and structures can mess with the GPS signal. Last season we found another bridge to be 300 feet out of position (and not even the correct shape)…

Caveat

OPENCPN Navigation software displaying NOS RNC Chart

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Posted in 2013

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Thud

Posted on 23 Apr 2013 | 2 Comments

Today an exodus started. Lots of folks hauled their anchors and headed west. Friday may be a good day to cross. We have our doubts. One boat didn’t leave. It dragged anchor and hit us.

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Fortunately, Janet hollered me topsides in time I could arrive at our bow just as the collision occurred. Equally fortunately, a stainless handrail at the back of the 40 foot catamaran’s starboard hull lodged between our bow rollers and kept our hull and theirs from touching. Neither did they get tangled in our bobstay. We are talking a one inch tube finding it’s way onto a 4 inch slot…

Aft, Janet had fired up the engine and powered forward and starboard which levered us away from the other boat enough I could push it free of the rollers. We didn’t discuss it, she just knew that’s what I needed. Then I walked aft as the boat slid past us, keeping it away with a boat hook. Then we realized the catamaran was dead centered for hitting Kluane, the Halberg-Rassy 31 on a mooring astern of us. No one was aboard Kluane.

I grabbed the mic and called Green Turtle Club on 16 and asked that they get word through the Cub a boat was dragging. (Its owners turned out to be in New Plymouth at the time.)

I snagged the cat’s anchor bridle with the boat hook and held it against the force of the wind. It was clear that wasn’t going to last long. Janet grabbed a dockline and got a lark’s head around the bridle. We were in the process of cleating that line astern when the Green Turtle Club dock guys showed up with a boat big enough to tow the cat. We happily relinquished the line to them, and they expertly towed the cat to the dock, dragging anchor and all.

People often drag here. Five of us dragged here last year in a squall — it’s the bottom and unsuitable anchors. The bottom is matted with turtle grass. It has tough roots that will hold an anchor for a while, but they won’t let it penetrate the bottom. Then there is the Delta anchor — as a “plow” type anchor it carves its way through mud and cuts its way through turtle grass roots. Eventually, it cuts loose enough to drag, and it can’t reset because it is choked with roots. On a wind shift, they will just twist the roots out like a handful of weeds. And the wind had shifted.

Our new 55# Spade anchor (that replaced the Delta that dragged here last year) held us and the cat in 15 Kt + gusts that filled in behind the passing front.

Nobody got hurt. Later when they returned, the owner graciously apologized. That’s fine. Over; done with.

And the good news is, just before this, I dove to inspect the boat’s bottom, and the zincs are good, and the fouling less than last year, and my breath-holding is better.

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Posted in 2013

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AC Voltage Management

Posted on 16 Feb 2013 | 1 Comment

KlaxonNo cute title, this is a serious issue.

Power outages are eventually followed by power restorations, but the voltage supplied at restoration may not be what it should be. The wrong voltage can damage AC powered equipment and can cause overheating that can lead to fires. This is not a boat/marina issue nor is it exclusively an away from the US issue.

This morning, early, we lost AC power to the boat. I know because I heard our transfer switch solenoid release. Later, I just happened to be sitting in the nav station looking at weather information when the power was restored. I looked up at the battery charger and saw negative amps (discharge) while the status panel indicated bulk charge. WRONG. I also realized the charger cooling fan was already operating. WRONG. My first thought was, “the Xantrex charger is at it again.”

I looked up at the AC Watt/Volt/Amp/Hz meter, and there was “73.6 VAC.” NOT GOOD. I flipped the main breaker, and then realized I could hear loud humming from the dock. When I went topsides, the loudest hum was coming from an unhappy transformer 50 yards away.

While this is not just a boat/marina nor a foreign issue, it does tend to be an edge of the infrastructure one. When in these areas, consider setting up the equipment you can to not restart on power restoration at non-spec voltage. If you can’t do that, set up a lost AC alarm and use it as reminder to switch AC equipment off until you can personally assess the voltage.

We have also decided we will no longer leave AC powered equipment on when we are away from the boat. Flipping that one big switch isn’t that hard, and we can wait for hot water if we have too.

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Posted in 2013

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Dyspedia

Posted on 16 Apr 2012 | Leave a comment

The Bahamas use the English system for traffic management (We refuse to say they drive on the wrong side). Their pedestrians generally walk in a similar fashion — passing right shoulder to right shoulder.

Visiting pedestrian deaths and injuries here tend to be rooted in looking the wrong direction before stepping off a curb.

So some guidelines For Marsh Harbour.

  • Use the sidewalks. When stepping off, STOP, STOP, STOP — LOOK BOTH WAYS TWICE and LISTEN. Americans are programmed to look the wrong way in these situations.
  • When using the sidewalks — when one can, stay as far from the road as possible. Cars here are both left and right hand drive. We have noticed left-hand drive drivers tend to gravitate toward the curb. [A human factors engineering dilemma I suspect.] When they do, they sweep their rear-view mirrors along over the sidewalk at a speed that will injure or kill. And some right hand drive vehicles do the same. Stay away from the curb.
  • When there is no sidewalk (frequently), walk facing traffic — on the right hand side of the road. Always be looking ahead for where you will bail out when things get tight. We have noticed that the vast majority of passenger vehicles manage these meetings well — commercial vehicles and motorcycles, not so much.
  • Parking lots and turn lanes are a serious issue. Most car pedestrian accidents here involve vehicles making turns and visiting pedestrians going “deer-in-the-headlights” and freezing or bolting the wrong way.
  •  We wouldn’t recommend a golf cart (we’ve seen none here), a bicycle (we seen some oblivious folks depending on providence’s favorable attitude toward idiots) or a push, electric, or powered scooter. The town’s essential services are in walking distance and a two-wheeled cart of the folding variety comes in very handy.

And one seasonal observation — national elections are approaching. The number of signs and placards are increasing. Some obscure the view along the road — and some drivers stop in the middle of the street without notice, to bolt from their car and tear down the offending political message. [Happened in front of us on the way to dinner last night.]

Having one’s head up and on a swivel, as my flight instructor insisted upon, is every bit as relevant advice walking here as it was flying.

And I should point out we haven’t seen or heard a wreck here, nor have we seen the evidence of them littering the street. I can’t remember anywhere I’ve been before this where I could say that. In the middle east…

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Posted in 2012

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So, Why Are We in Kilkenny Creek off the Bear River?

Posted on 22 Dec 2011 | 2 Comments

We had planned to head offshore from Beaufort, SC toward Jacksonville. Instead we are about to endure a rainy night in Georgia.

The whales and the weather did it.

When we last transited Port Royal Sound (2009) we listened in on the Coast Guard rescue of a boat that had hit or been hit by a Northern Right Whale. They come to the coast of SC, GA and Northern FL to calve. They are up to 50 feet long and weight more tons than we do (the boat).

Calving season starts in November and continues to April. The whales don’t have calendars…they usually show up late and leave early, but none the less, we have no interest in hitting one. This is made more probable when 14 of 29 hours offshore are spent in near total darkness. The moon rises in the early morning and is a 19% orb.

On top of that we are better off sailing offshore than motoring. The wind has persistently been right out of the direction we wish to go…if it was blowing at all.

We decided total risk management called for us to stay inside. This means the choppy stutter step of odd departure times to ensure we reach the trouble spots when they are the least potential trouble (generally half-tide rising). Today we left our anchorage at 1100 to be able to pass Hell Gate between the Vernon and Ogeechee Rivers with enough water and enough time to get to a decent anchorage — Kilkenny Creek (if you don’t mind shrimpers droning by in the night).

These are not bad problems to have. As the cruiser migration is essentially over and Christmas approaches, we see fewer and fewer people. It is truly peaceful.

We have learned that the problem area in the Cumberland Dividings has been remarked. This leaves the canal behind Jekyll Island as the last thin spot demanding attention to tide and time.

So we will pull into Brunswick, GA for the holiday and its Eve. We’ve already been invited to a party there. The slight delay will give us an early daylight high tide as we pass Jekyll Island.

Now for the first rain at anchor in well over a month…

Merry Christmas, everyone!

PS, I didn’t rain….

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Posted in 2011

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