How scary is it when.........

[captbbrucato]

nice shot..

[rjbpilot]

Here are some of mine.............Departing Muskegon, Michigan on The American Integrity (1000 foot Laker) and a couple of Rock Cut, St. Mary's River on M/V Edgar B. Speer, also a 1000' bulk carrier. Sorry, not in order. Pics 1 and 7 are Rock Cut.

[rjbpilot]

How scary is it when........a thread gets this far off-topic

Agreed, now let's see some more sea stories posted!

[captbbrucato]

Awesome shots, thanks

[rjbpilot]

Oh by the way, here is a video of the Edgar B. Speer stuck in the ice at Rock Cut in 2004.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epvpq...eature=related

[Siantis]

How scary is it.... when you've been cleared to make a fair tide transit of the Cape Cod Canal on a night when the visibility is between a 1/2 to 3/4nm. No sooner did we pass the West End Stakes, idling along in push gear at 7 knots with 75k bbls of jet fuel and 21' deep draft, when we heard Canal Control telling a west-bounder approaching the East End Breakwaters that visibility had dropped to less than an 1/8th of a mile at the Bourne Railroad bridge.

Or, when Eastbound near the academy, can't see the bow of the 60' research vessel I'm on, there is a tug & barge coming Westbound and a moron in a 25' parker fishing in the middle of the channel?

Scared the holy hell out of him when we passed him with the fog horn going.

[10talents]

Here are some of mine.............Departing Muskegon, Michigan on The American Integrity (1000 foot Laker) and a couple of Rock Cut, St. Mary's River on M/V Edgar B. Speer, also a 1000' bulk carrier. Sorry, not in order. Pics 1 and 7 are Rock Cut.

RJBP, just curious, what is the draft in these pics and typical speed through the cut?

[rjbpilot]

Generally around 27' draft, depending on the water levels, you load accordingly. You can have a foot or so clearing in a spot at Light 29 in the cut at times. Speed is down to about 4kts at that point.

[kzoo pilot]

. . . And you hope like h**l that the visibility has held from 9 Mile Point down to the turn off Oak Ridge into Rock Cut because there is no place to anchor.

Another good Rock Cut Story:

My second year on a license my new bride was able to come out for a week. She got aboard at the Soo downbound and I was, of course, thrilled to see my wife and wanted to do my best to impress her as a pilot. I went on watch about 40 minutes above the Rock Cut turn and had mentally made the turn at least ten times before we went to the pilothouse. The captain could be a bit gruff and the previous season I had spent all my time on his ship and had gone through the Third Mate's diet almost every trip(have the Old Man chew twenty pounds off your ass every time through the river). That being said, I was fairly confident that I was able to get the boat through the river without doing anything too scary.

The Rock Cut turn went great, we were dead nuts down the middle and cleared the lower end in good fashion and I worked her around the Saw Mill turn to Moon Island leading light. A bit of an explanation is in order here . . . Once you clear Rock Cut the river slowly starts to widen once you get around the Moon Island turn. Below Rock Cut you make an easy turn to starboard and head on a leading light to position yourself for a turn to port with two crib lights marking the red side and a spoil island on the outside of the turn. On the Stinson, we started the turn when the bow was 1/2 mile from the lead light and judged the turn by watching the bow swing through the island.

Theoretically, you should keep the bulwark of the foc'sle just touching the shore of the island and the lower green buoy should just barely be visible as you swing through it. Well, I was so proud of myself for sticking the Rock cut turh I totally punted on Moon Island and was way to the red side. In fact, my bride strolled to the port side of the pilothouse and looked down at the lower red crib as we passed and remarked, "Honey, are we supposed to be this close to the light?"

Looking in over, I noticed the Pall Mall in the lips of the Old Man was shaking as he mumbled, "Yeah, are you?!?" I braced for the verbal onslaught . . . but, nothing! The twinkle in the Old Man's eyes said it all; busted! Ah, well. Not a mistake I made again.

[captmrb]

rjbpilot - There was a watercolor artist who specialized in Great Lakes vessels who lived with her family right by the ferry landing at the top of the Rock Cut on the St. Mary's River. She said that about every other year a downbounder failed to successfully negotiate the turn into the Rock Cut, and it looked like they were heading into her living room before they ran aground.

Then they got to watch them offload the vessel to get it refloated.

Pat Norton was the artist. Her work is on display all over the Soo.

[Bucko]

I used to love going through the 'Cut. Of course, I was leaning on the ER gangway, smoking and enjoying the view.

[fairtry]

we were heading home from a seven day groundfishing trip in the gulf of maine it was at night 5 guys on the boat,capt. was in the bunk we were doin gearwork on the net,we put the new 1/2 share guy on the wheel while steaming so we could get the gearwork done before we got in so we didn't have to do it at the dock.someone happened to look up from mending and noticed a tug and barge crossing our path up ahead,we kept getting closer and closer the mate runs up to the wheelhouse to see whats up?the new guy says i thought that it was two boats following each other and i was going to go between the two. what would have taken place if we hadn't decided to do the gearwork on the way home that night? scary!

[10talents]

what would have taken place if we hadn't decided to do the gearwork on the way home that night? scary![/quote]

Hopefully the captain or mate on the wheel of the tug would have been paying attention, blowing the danger signal, throwing his searchlight on your boat and the tow and burning your new man's ears with vocabulary. This is not uncommon in the towing world and something we are trained to always be on the lookout for.

[CaptAndrew]

what would have taken place if we hadn't decided to do the gearwork on the way home that night? scary!

Well, maybe the new guy wouldn't have been on the helm.

[Jon]

I think you had an entire posting had you said "How scary is it when......... we put the new 1/2 share guy on the wheel while steaming," and ended it there.

[rjbpilot]

Well, maybe the new guy wouldn't have been on the helm.

Yes, If you weren't repairing the gear, wouldn't the Mate have been in his proper position, on the helm? It was a little confusing how you ended the post with that last line.........

[seadog!]

Fishing is a different world.
Every man works on deck.
Every man takes a trick at the wheel.
Even new, 1/2 share guys.

At least that was my experience.

[TxKingfisher]

Yes, and no.
It depends largely on the boat. When I was fishing we never put anybody on the wheel we couldnt trust. I spent a couple of seasons in Alaska where myself and the captain were the only ones who could be trusted on the wheel. On one trip we got so damn tired from not being able to share the wheel watches that we had to switch off 15 minute wheel watches to keep from falling asleep. And thats with a watch alarm set!

[rjbpilot]

On one trip we got so damn tired from not being able to share the wheel watches that we had to switch off 15 minute wheel watches to keep from falling asleep.

That sounds pretty safe!!!!! How long a period did the 15 min. watch changes occur over?

[TxKingfisher]

4 or 5 hours give or take. we eventually made it to a safe anchorage and got some sleep. yeah, far from safe, but the only viable option we had at the time.