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Harsh lessons in Cape Elizabeth today
The long and smooth 7 – 9 foot swells from Florence are rolling into
New England’s shores on a deceptively mild day and handing out some harsh lessons. A 21 foot lobsterboat was flipped this morning and the fellow who just bought the boat last year spent half an hour in the water. Someone on the shore just happened to glance out their window and spotted the overturned hull so he lived. Normally, I get called to these events because, as the Harbormaster, I am the "Receiver of Wrecks" and have legal custody of the boat until an owner or representative shows up to claim it. A new dispatcher didn’t know the drill so I stopped into talk to him after hearing about it from my son who had been on a beach clean up. While I was there, I learned that another lobster boat had gone over and someone was missing. I went down to the shore to find quite a scene with a 30 – 35 foot lobster boat upside down in the surf, a USCG chopper overhead, and just about every rescue boat and team from a 20 mile radius all searching. The chopper landed a swimmer on the end of a winch cable to check for sounds of someone trapped inside the boat. He heard nothing but hope wasn’t abandoned. A hole was cut in the hull and the wreck eventually hauled ashore by a large wrecking truck The lobsterman, according to reports at the scene, the father of one of the crew members, is still missing. Two crew members were pulled out of the surf by roofers working on a nearby house who saw the capsized and called it in. Lost in all this excitement was a rescued kayaker that I never did get the details on. This is all a reminder that, no matter how smooth the seas look and how gentle the wind, whenever your water depth is less than twice the wave height, there is the possibility that one of the big waves that come alone infrequently will break on you. On a day like today, these large waves can kill even a fairly sizable vessel. -- Roger Long |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Harsh lessons in Cape Elizabeth today
Roger Long wrote:
The long and smooth 7 – 9 foot swells from Florence are rolling into New England’s shores on a deceptively mild day and handing out some harsh lessons. A 21 foot lobsterboat was flipped this morning and the fellow who just bought the boat last year spent half an hour in the water. Someone on the shore just happened to glance out their window and spotted the overturned hull so he lived. Normally, I get called to these events because, as the Harbormaster, I am the "Receiver of Wrecks" and have legal custody of the boat until an owner or representative shows up to claim it. A new dispatcher didn’t know the drill so I stopped into talk to him after hearing about it from my son who had been on a beach clean up. While I was there, I learned that another lobster boat had gone over and someone was missing. I went down to the shore to find quite a scene with a 30 – 35 foot lobster boat upside down in the surf, a USCG chopper overhead, and just about every rescue boat and team from a 20 mile radius all searching. The chopper landed a swimmer on the end of a winch cable to check for sounds of someone trapped inside the boat. He heard nothing but hope wasn’t abandoned. A hole was cut in the hull and the wreck eventually hauled ashore by a large wrecking truck The lobsterman, according to reports at the scene, the father of one of the crew members, is still missing. Two crew members were pulled out of the surf by roofers working on a nearby house who saw the capsized and called it in. Lost in all this excitement was a rescued kayaker that I never did get the details on. This is all a reminder that, no matter how smooth the seas look and how gentle the wind, whenever your water depth is less than twice the wave height, there is the possibility that one of the big waves that come alone infrequently will break on you. On a day like today, these large waves can kill even a fairly sizable vessel. The sea can be cruel. Wife & I drove over to Lawrencetown Beach just outside Halifax to watch the surfers enjoy a beautiful day on some decent waves left over from Florence. Actually, by the time we got there at about 1130 hrs, the waves were only approx. 5 to 8 feet in height. No comparison to past storms when Hurricanes brushed closer to the coast...or when we had a direct from Hurricane Juan 3 years ago. |
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