BoatBanter.com - Why we are not boating.

On Jan 21, 6:14*pm, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:07:18 -0800, "Steve B"

wrote:

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
messagenews:vpehl55i69b7mkce0s9ogf42id6e0nc0u4@4a x.com...
On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:26:22 -0800, "Bill McKee"
wrote:

A clip from Santa Cruz at the Light House.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XLHp...layer_embedded

Pansy.

When I remember some of the storms in the Gulf of Mexico I've been in on
work boats and personnel boats, that water isn't so bad. *When the wave
crashes over the wheelhouse and takes out the radar and antennas, or any of
the windows, it's starting to get bad.

Oh man - those supply boats heading out to the rigs out of Venice
and/or Galveston were the worst in bad weather. *Half the time the
rear deck would be under water in particular if they were running in a
stern sea. *Never worried about it, but you kept your eye on the pitch
meter a lot. *:)

When I worked for Texaco, we had a problem with a DECCA 202 radar
system - fresh install - on the David P. Guidry (130' sea going supply
tender/tug) which was built at the Litton Yard in New Orleans. *They
were doing some steering tests when I arrived with the technician so
we figured we'd just go along and work on the system while the tests
were underway.

Boat heads out into the Mississippi River and the captain and pilot
started manuevers - the tech and I headed up the mast because we
needed to run some antenna tests. *All of a sudden, the steering
system went full starboard, the boat turns into the current and she
heeled right straight over. *No joke - I bet we weren't more than
twenty feet from the river on that turn and looking straight up at the
deck of the Mississippi River Bridge. *Damn good thing we had our
safety belts tied off to the mast or we would have went in.

Tech was a girly man though - he was screaming. *:) *I was just
****ed they didn't let us know.

Turns out it was an accidental trigger on the auto pilot - the pilot
wasn't familiar with the system and just pushed the avoidance manuever
panic button which had not been programmed or labeled properly - the
thing just slammed into hard starboard. *The funny thing was that the
righting system worked just fine - and that hadn't been programmed
either. *

Some guys have all the fun!