Most people think boating on rivers is safer than oceans. It certainly doesn’t have the risk associated with big storms and monster waves. But it does have many other risks like logs, rocks, strong currents, shoaling and lots of distractions. As old timers like to say, inland waters don’t have “sea way.” Likewise, the margin to disaster without seaway has shrunk from hours to seconds; things happen very quickly on rivers, you need to be a lert, i.e. one who is aware of his surroundings at all time. And staying a lert, means not letting your guard down for even a short period of time – the shore is looming just a few feet away. Traveling at 6kts (10.1 ft/sec) you can be on shore in less than 5 seconds in some of these narrow passages! Ocean travel is much less stressful as a result. Who would have thunk?
A log like this is more a hazard to a power boat which would skip over the top only to rip off the prop and rudder. Of course, hitting the log on its end would be like being hitting the castle walls with a ramming rod right on the boats waterline. What better place for a hole?
This benign little stick looks docile enough but is it attached to a big ole log lucking below? And we are center channel with a rocky shore only 50ft away.
In the chart above we were coming up canal from the bottom of the pic and heading “left”. The triangular island shows a well-marked intersection so we choose the left branch. I didn’t see the tiny little print of shoaling to 8 ½ ft in 1966 but if I had I likely would have ignored it anyway because we only draw 5ft and the note was from 1966! But something told me to be more cautions as we approached G”5” so I pulled the throttle back. It was providential, by the time the boat reached the shoaling note on the chart we were in 4ft of soupy mud and I was in full throttle reverse trying to stop our forward motion. Had I not been a lert, we might have needed assistance getting off the shoal. Instead we backed out on our own. As we went through the next lock, I notified the lockmaster and he said he’d tell the work crews. Three days later the NY Canal System sent out a notice to marinas of a dredging operation at the site we almost ran aground. Either they were already planning the dredging or they were unbelievably responsive, NYCS desires a lot of credit either way for maintaining the canals so well.
The video is a 3kt tidal current we were anchored in at Atlantic City, NJ. It was truly amazing, to be at anchor in such a strong current. If our anchor broke loose, we would have had a minute maybe two before we were pushed onto the rocky shore. It’s unnerving to think of but if you did you’d probably stay home and watch TV.
A log like this is more a hazard to a power boat which would skip over the top only to rip off the prop and rudder. Of course, hitting the log on its end would be like being hitting the castle walls with a ramming rod right on the boats waterline. What better place for a hole?
This benign little stick looks docile enough but is it attached to a big ole log lucking below? And we are center channel with a rocky shore only 50ft away.
In the chart above we were coming up canal from the bottom of the pic and heading “left”. The triangular island shows a well-marked intersection so we choose the left branch. I didn’t see the tiny little print of shoaling to 8 ½ ft in 1966 but if I had I likely would have ignored it anyway because we only draw 5ft and the note was from 1966! But something told me to be more cautions as we approached G”5” so I pulled the throttle back. It was providential, by the time the boat reached the shoaling note on the chart we were in 4ft of soupy mud and I was in full throttle reverse trying to stop our forward motion. Had I not been a lert, we might have needed assistance getting off the shoal. Instead we backed out on our own. As we went through the next lock, I notified the lockmaster and he said he’d tell the work crews. Three days later the NY Canal System sent out a notice to marinas of a dredging operation at the site we almost ran aground. Either they were already planning the dredging or they were unbelievably responsive, NYCS desires a lot of credit either way for maintaining the canals so well.
The video is a 3kt tidal current we were anchored in at Atlantic City, NJ. It was truly amazing, to be at anchor in such a strong current. If our anchor broke loose, we would have had a minute maybe two before we were pushed onto the rocky shore. It’s unnerving to think of but if you did you’d probably stay home and watch TV.
enjoyed this posting!!
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