The colors don't reverse at Wood's Hole, or any of the nearby Holes.
The do reverse in the Cape Cod Canal, but there are no buoys in the
canal itself so it isn't very confusing.

I'm sure there a few reverses left in Maine, but I think most were
"fixed" back around 1993, to the annoyance of those of use who were
there that summer!

richard wrote:
It still amazes me that there is no better system than red and green
bouys that change and mean just the opposite halfway thru a difficult
channel. I have seen this in a number of places such as Woods Hole or
the Coast of Maine or Boston and nearby harbors. I use charts more
often than not and almost always in unfamilar waters, but I hope that I
will live to see the day when one can look at the navigational aids and
know right away what they mean.
Actually, I do kind of like to figure them out as we are going along.
Adds excitment to the day. and I do own a power boat so I tend to have
less time to figure it out than a sail boat, but I don't draw as much
and I can hit reverse pretty hard if I needed to.

The possible confusion for those using the WH passage, is that for those
entering the passage from the Buzzards Bay side
might be expecting to see the normal "Red Right Returning", but obviously,
the opposite applies.
My best suggestion for solving this is to look at a small scale chart of the
area to get an overall view of the general direction of the buoys,
since the "N-S" "E-W" for the East Coast, coming from sea can lead to
confusion.
Since the main entrance to WH is from the Nantucket/Vineyard sound, all the
buoys associated with that and/or any side channels, reflect that
direction.........G clear as mud.

otn

"richard" wrote in message
oups.com...
It still amazes me that there is no better system than red and green
bouys that change and mean just the opposite halfway thru a difficult
channel. I have seen this in a number of places such as Woods Hole or
the Coast of Maine or Boston and nearby harbors. I use charts more
often than not and almost always in unfamilar waters, but I hope that I
will live to see the day when one can look at the navigational aids and
know right away what they mean.
Actually, I do kind of like to figure them out as we are going along.
Adds excitment to the day. and I do own a power boat so I tend to have
less time to figure it out than a sail boat, but I don't draw as much
and I can hit reverse pretty hard if I needed to.

No terribly clear but, buoys were never intended to be used without
charts.

--

Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in news:qPkjf.51442$uC3.511
@twister.nyroc.rr.com:

No terribly clear but, buoys were never intended to be used without
charts.


I would disagree with that statement, to a point.
The general flow of buoys (sticking to the East Coast,USA) is North to
South, East to West (E-W is "old school") coming from sea.
What this meant was that if you should see a buoy while moving along the
coast and for whatever reason, you didn't have a chart/chart out of
date/you're lost, based on the "N-S", you would know which side to pass.
With out a doubt, a chart is your best bet to see and understand what the
buoys mean, but be sure you look at the "BIG" picture of an area to check
the overall direction the system is taking.

otn

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...

I wonder if there is a spot in New England where more boats, many with
very experienced skippers, have come to grief.

There might be quite a few spots close by Woods Hole.

Going west think about:
Westport Harbor entrance near the Knubble,
"Sow and Pigs" reef,
"Hens and Chickens" reef,
"Robinsons Hole", and
Cana****it.

All of Buzzards bay was considered a ship's graveyard in the 19th century
and the various harbor entrances reefs and and "holes" produced quite a few
drownings over the years. As I recall we lost an expereinced fishing guide
in Robinsons Hole this last summer.

Going east the outer cape (P-town to Chatham) and most of Natucket sound
were considered deadly in the 19th century.


I guess you could characterise cruising Nantucket Sound and Buzzards Bay as
"character building".

I guess you could characterise cruising Nantucket Sound and
Buzzards Bay as
"character building".

I grew up on Buzzards Bay and it was a great place to sail. I
liked going across the bay to Woods Hole and see the rooster
tails coming up from nuns 6 and 8 when the tide was running as
we headed in to Hadleys Harbor.

Leanne

Jonathan W. wrote:

We had occasion two weekends ago to reconsider the matter of removing
large amounts of water from a boat in a hurry. This event caused by
crossing inside of the green day mark #3 marking the Middle Ground ledge
in Woods Hole, MA.

While the events leading up to this are still being debated among those
onboard, part of the problem appeared to be a fixation on the part of
the skipper/helmsman with electronic charting over the real world. If
the course had been adjusted when the alarm had first been raised,(by
humans) or the second or third time, there would have been no incident
to reflect on.

Driving a 20,000 lb, 38 foot sloop drawing about 6 feet over a ledge
with 3 or 4 feet of water over it is an experience I would not wish to
repeat. The full keel and skeg hung rudder took the brunt of the impact
and the bottom of the ruder skeg with it's gudgeon were left on the
ledge (presumably).

The rudder dropped straight down and the now two extra feet of leverage
given overcame the strength of the interface between the rudder's
stuffing box and the hull, ripping open a 2-3 inch hole, depending on
where the rudder/shaft assembly was leaning at any given moment.


The two 2500 GPH bilge pumps were immediately overwhelmed. It is a
sobering sight to see salt water rising inexorably toward the air intake
on a diesel engine. In the confusion, I could not decipher which hose was
the raw water intake to add the engine cooling capacity to the bilge
pumping (and I did not wish to risk my hands in the belts of the dual
alternators). During this, others managed to leverage the rudder
quadrant/shaft into the upright position, mostly closing the hole, and
slowing the ingress of water to a point where the pumps could almost
hold their own. The arrival of a local fisherman in response to the
radio call was comforting, in that a tow line kept us from additional
impact with other natural hard spots in the passage.

The Coast Guard 41 footer has impressive dewatering capabilities in both
portable and built in pumps. We only needed the portable gas pump to
establish equilibrium. It was a long 30 minutes until they arrived from
their training mission off of Edgartown, however.

Once we were dewatered, and all the floorboard hatches were put back in
place (they tend to float off at some point) TowBoat US took over. While
our pumps were mostly capable of holding us while we were under tow to a
boat yard, they had put aboard two of these:
http://www.starmarinedepot.com/detai...duct_id=RU1416

You have to look a little harder to find these to purchase, than the
2500 gph, but I think one will be high on my list of must haves for the
coming years. It is interesting to look at the loss due to "lift" and
voltage, even this powerful appearing pump actually has. 6 foot lift
would not be uncommon in a boat that has standing headroom in the cabin.
Between lift and the voltage drop to 12v vs 13.5 when an engine is
running, even this pumps capacity gets reduced by about 30%

Just thought I'd share.

Jonathan


Interesting point. I built a "golf club" bilge pump, so I can empty
the dinghy without getting into it. It has a small battery pack
from a bag phone, and I though to improve it's operation my adding a
flexible tail long enough to drop in the water whilst in use. The
effect on pumping capacity was remarkable. The "down" side of the
hose helps with a syphon effect to reduce the workload on the tiny
bilge pump at the end of the stiff pipe handle. Now, the only work
the pump does is effectively to move the water sideways, not up.

All bilge pumps would benefit from this configuration, but
permanently fixed bilge pumps so arranged must include a vented
loop, defeating the syphon assist, it seems, and, I might add,
rightly so, unless diligently supervised. So much for safety
regulations.

Your pump would be more efficient if it has a tail down to the water
to be used only while actually trying not to sink. Unattended pumps
must not offer any possibility of syphoning water into the boat.


Terry K

Jonathan W. wrote:
snip...

Driving a 20,000 lb, 38 foot sloop drawing about 6 feet over a ledge
with 3 or 4 feet of water over it is an experience I would not wish to
repeat. The full keel and skeg hung rudder took the brunt of the impact
and the bottom of the ruder skeg with it's gudgeon were left on the
ledge (presumably).

The rudder dropped straight down and the now two extra feet of leverage
given overcame the strength of the interface between the rudder's
stuffing box and the hull, ripping open a 2-3 inch hole, depending on
where the rudder/shaft assembly was leaning at any given moment.

snip...

We did the same thing with a Viking 28 about 5 years ago. I was at the
helm but blame it on the owner because he insisted we sail up a narrow
channel with the wind on our nose. I went a bit wide past the red buoy
while tacking and ran into a large boulder field. What a sound smashing
into boulder after boulder while trying to sail out forcing the boat to
heel as much as possible. Luckily we weren't traveling too fast and
suffered no permanent damage.
Another time ran into a ledge during a regatta race opposite our
clubhouse on a Mirage 33. Had to be towed off in fromt of the entire
fleet.....oh the humanity! Again damage minimal.

Yoe Don where were you Halifax Harbor or Mahone Bay or Prospect?? What
ledge. Mooron will probably wish to know. Ha Ha.

Don White wrote:

Jonathan W. wrote:
snip...

Driving a 20,000 lb, 38 foot sloop drawing about 6 feet over a ledge
with 3 or 4 feet of water over it is an experience I would not wish to
repeat. The full keel and skeg hung rudder took the brunt of the impact
and the bottom of the ruder skeg with it's gudgeon were left on the
ledge (presumably).

The rudder dropped straight down and the now two extra feet of leverage
given overcame the strength of the interface between the rudder's
stuffing box and the hull, ripping open a 2-3 inch hole, depending on
where the rudder/shaft assembly was leaning at any given moment.

snip...

We did the same thing with a Viking 28 about 5 years ago. I was at the
helm but blame it on the owner because he insisted we sail up a narrow
channel with the wind on our nose. I went a bit wide past the red buoy
while tacking and ran into a large boulder field. What a sound smashing
into boulder after boulder while trying to sail out forcing the boat to
heel as much as possible. Luckily we weren't traveling too fast and
suffered no permanent damage.
Another time ran into a ledge during a regatta race opposite our
clubhouse on a Mirage 33. Had to be towed off in fromt of the entire
fleet.....oh the humanity! Again damage minimal.

Dry wrote:
Yoe Don where were you Halifax Harbor or Mahone Bay or Prospect?? What
ledge. Mooron will probably wish to know. Ha Ha.


Ist time in the Viking was off Barrie's Beach, Eastern Passage.(south of
Lawler Island.
The second time, in the Mirage 33 was at a 'Dr. ???'s ledge', East side
of the Northwest Arm opposite the Royal NS Yacht Squadron.

The one other time we grounded with me aboard was just north of Barrie's
Beach on a sandbar as we were preparing to enter the narrow channelfrom
the South. A large fishing boat was motoring south and our helmsman got
nervous..edging too far over to Starboard. We were able to power off.