"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
"Roger Long" wrote:

I've been having much the same dialogue with myself over this that I used
to
have with aviation accident reports.

"He didn't do this thing he should have done."

"Heck, I'm know enough to do that."

"He did this thing he shouldn't have done."

"Heck, I know enough not to do that."

Then, I realize, so was he, in both cases and would probably be saying the
same thing if he was reading the report about someone else. More aviation
accidents happen like this, something causing the pilot's decision making
to
dip far below his own normal, than happen because the pilot was simply in
over his head. The proportions are probably different on the water
because
there are no regulations against taking a boat out bonehead stupid but
Skip
certainly doesn't fit into that category. If there were yacht licensing
requirements, he could probably meet them easily. These things happen to
competent pilots and competent boaters. It's the reasons why we should be
thinking about and not tactical strategy for making difficult harbor
entrances.

It's not exactly on point but my long supressed memory of the closest I
ever
came to losing a boat just came to mind.

My wife and I chartered the largest boat I had ever been in command of and
took a week long cruise with a couple who had never been on a boat before.
It was fun but a little stressful for me. A couple months later, we
chartered the same boat with another couple the wife half of which had
grown
up in Marblehead sailing all her life. It was fun having someone on board
who could do everything well without instruction.

I gave her the wheel out in Penobscot Bay. It was October, few boats
around, wide open water, shore far away. I told her, "Keep her full and
by.", and went down to make lunch.

I looked up a while later from my cooking to see a large buoy passing very
close along side. It was also definitely the wrong color for the way we
were going. I reached the helm without my feet touching a single
companionway step and put the boat about seconds before we would have hit
the ledge.

She had just started bearing off bit by bit. The more she bore off, the
more the boat heeled and the faster it felt to her. The 20 - 30 degree
course change simply didn't register. She saw the buoy and figured, Roger
set the course, he knows what he's doing, it must be all right. It had
been
about 20 years since she sailed a boat.

I would have been pretty hard to explain how I hit that well marked rock
that was just about the only thing within five miles that could have hurt
the boat.

We came into Miami harbor after an overnight from the Bahamas - it was
late at night and we were tired - clear weather though and not a lot
of wind and Miami is very well lit at night. Bob handed the wheel
over to me (as he normally did when coming in to port), and started to
prepare the boat for picking up our mooring.

The first thing that happened was that I missed three little red
floaters at the turn down the ICW - they were on my port side. But
it was high tide so no harm no foul.

Bob then told me (although he denies it to this day) that there
weren't any more markers and just to head for the Rickenbacker bridge.
I didn't think he was exactly right, but whatever. I WAS paying
attention by then though, so when I saw a green square almost dead
ahead reflecting my port running light, I was able to swerve so as not
to hit it. Which we would have done. I passed it almost paint
scraping close. It waked Bob up for sure.

I've also run hard aground at the beginning of a cruise where I forgot
that we were leaving the creek and the red should be on the port. I
put it on the starboard. It was sand, so it didn't hurt the boat,
but our guest down below fell and hit her head and had headaches for
the next couple of days.

The beginnings and the endings of a cruise are the most hazardous
times. (Just as they are when flying a plane, although perhaps for
slightly different reasons)


That's why i keep all my Power Squadron and Chapman books. Sure helps to
flip through and refresh the old noggin on occasion.