I see in today's paper our now famous, front page, "captain" with "30
yrs experience" claimed he tried to nav Ponce (which he was totally
unfamiliar with) at night, in a $1.4 million boat(insured) without a
single fuctioning searchlight and against the advice of the marina he
was trying to reach, with the assistance of his gps/chartplotter.

With all my experience at Ponce that is not something I would look
forward to, at all.

Furthermore, he declined to call Seatow for an "guided escort" through
the inlet.

Sometimes "saving money" gets people into jams they never imagined
were possible.
--
SJM

(Scott McFadden) wrote in message . com...
"Gary Warner" wrote in message ...

"Scott McFadden" wrote in message
om...
I don't suppose, hiccup, alcohol was factor.

It was not rough at all last night.

http://www.n-jcenter.com/BreakingNews/area99.htm


The article says that Roberts said he was navigating by instruments. What
makes
you think is was alcohol and not an error, mistake, bad-navigation skills,
or stupidity?

Oh I guess the fact that being intoxicated leads to error, mistake,
bad navigation skills and stupidity.

FWIW, I have been through that inlet at least a hundred times in a
little Whaler (among other boats) and never relied upon any
"instruments", other than my eyes.

I have never heard of anyone else using "instruments" to nav Ponce
either.

It is simply absurd.

How wide is the inlet he was trying to navigate? And, what's the margin of
error for GPS nowadays?


"Scott McFadden" wrote in message
m...
I see in today's paper our now famous, front page, "captain" with "30
yrs experience" claimed he tried to nav Ponce (which he was totally
unfamiliar with) at night, in a $1.4 million boat(insured) without a
single fuctioning searchlight and against the advice of the marina he
was trying to reach, with the assistance of his gps/chartplotter.

With all my experience at Ponce that is not something I would look
forward to, at all.

Furthermore, he declined to call Seatow for an "guided escort" through
the inlet.

Sometimes "saving money" gets people into jams they never imagined
were possible.
--
SJM

(Scott McFadden) wrote in message
. com...
"Gary Warner" wrote in message
...

"Scott McFadden" wrote in message
om...
I don't suppose, hiccup, alcohol was factor.

It was not rough at all last night.

http://www.n-jcenter.com/BreakingNews/area99.htm


The article says that Roberts said he was navigating by instruments.
What
makes
you think is was alcohol and not an error, mistake, bad-navigation
skills,
or stupidity?

Oh I guess the fact that being intoxicated leads to error, mistake,
bad navigation skills and stupidity.

FWIW, I have been through that inlet at least a hundred times in a
little Whaler (among other boats) and never relied upon any
"instruments", other than my eyes.

I have never heard of anyone else using "instruments" to nav Ponce
either.

It is simply absurd.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message ...

How wide is the inlet he was trying to navigate?

Outbound, once I get a little ways east of the beach, I'll stay within
150' of the N jetty, paralleling it, until I clear the jetty tip.
Then, I'll break immediately to the northeast. Reverse procedure for
inbound.

That inlet has baffled the CoE for so long it is really embarassing.
They dredge and dredge, they built weirs, which they then decided to
replace w/a big, long north jetty. $23mil later and still 9/10's of
the south side is unusable (shoals, sandbars, rough, ect).

The whole damn place gets wild as Hell w/a outgoing tide bucking a
stiff onshore breeze. (However, this was not the situation the night
Captain Crash's "voyage" prematurely ended)

Now they're talking about a big, long south jetty. yawn

I have suggested to the Corp that given their "track record", perhaps
people should send in their suggestions, we'll put them all on a big
dart board, blindfold some of the engineering staff and let'em throw
the darts at it.

The suggestion with the most "hits" is the way we go.

Couldn't be any more ineffective.

And, what's the margin of error for GPS nowadays?

Ponce Inlet is not the place to be needing a GPS.

Just ask it's most recent victim, "Captain" Roberts, formerly of the
vessel "Baroness".
--
SJM

Subject: Yet another brilliant boater at Ponce Inlet nearly gets KO'd.
From: WaIIy

On 25 Sep 2003 07:29:48 GMT, (LaBomba182) wrote:

Subject: Yet another brilliant boater at Ponce Inlet nearly gets KO'd.
From: WaIIy

How many times for the *first* time at night in a 60 footer?

Duh


That sounds like his first mistake. Duh!

Capt. Bill

You missed the point. Oh well.

Hardly Wally.
But if you changed hair stylist it might not be so obvious.

Capt. Bill

On 25 Sep 2003 16:07:22 -0700, (Scott McFadden)
wrote:
The whole damn place gets wild as Hell w/a outgoing tide bucking a
stiff onshore breeze. (However, this was not the situation the night
Captain Crash's "voyage" prematurely ended)

=====================================

I took a 42 foot sailboat in there back in the late 1980's under those
conditions. We had big 15+ breakers hissing by us on both sides and
the buoys kept disappearing behind waves at critical moments. We had
to practically pry the helmsman's hands off the wheel after we got
inside.

Had a nice dinner that night at a place called Black Beard's if my
memory is correct.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

=====================================

I took a 42 foot sailboat in there back in the late 1980's under those
conditions. We had big 15+ breakers hissing by us on both sides and
the buoys kept disappearing behind waves at critical moments. We had
to practically pry the helmsman's hands off the wheel after we got
inside.

Had a nice dinner that night at a place called Black Beard's if my
memory is correct.



Blackbeards is still in business in New Smyrna Beach and still serves the
best oysters in the area.


--
Bill Grannis
service manager

"remove the first 8 letters or the last 8 letters of my email address to
reach me"