Bugs!

It's a fact. Boats are havens for bugs. You know, the awful ones. The ones we whisper "roach" when we see them, right before we run around screaming.

I've had reason to do a little research on them, unfortunately. It turns out that they can live inside or outside. They're opportunistic. Now, anyone with any sense can look at a boat and see that with its dark, damp corners, it would be a haven for bugs. If you don't keep your food in bug-proof containers it's really just a matter of time. But I had done that. I grew up with that as a child and continued the practice all my life. I never even thought about it.

Several of my neighbors had also mentioned seeing them as well, and the timing was suspicious. The marina had just had to re-plumb the entire dock, and I think it disturbed some outdoor-living beasties. At least one male and female (or a female with eggs) decided my boat was a great place to move to.

Well, I'm nearly 68. I know it's Florida, but I grew up in Florida, and I've lived here since 2005, and I've never, ever had bugs ... until a couple of months ago. Here's the problem with bugs and boats -- there are many, many places for them to hide. You may not realize they're there as quickly as you might in a house.

Complicating things, I have a pet. We moved out and bombed the place. That has gotten rid of the occasional palmetto bug (who really don't want to be in your home or on your boat, and who do not eat things like the little crumbs you didn't see and didn't sweep up), but it did not faze these critters.

Plus, then I had to wash down the entire interior of the boat. Even if I hadn't felt that was necessary for me, cats rub up against everything and then lick their fur.

Naturally, when the first bomb didn't work, I did it again. Apparently I like difficult, repetitive chores.

I talked to an exterminator who said that spraying might keep them from coming aboard, but especially in a boat, with all its hiding places, it would not solve the problem. He suggested a paste that he places, exposed, in places the little critters are likely to go. I wasn't really comfortable with that. My cat rubs against every new thing to put her scent on it. I didn't want exposed poison on the boat.

So before doing that, I went to the store and I found RAID "large roach baits." this is a paste poison but in a container that would protect the cat. I put lots down in every conceivable place.

That solved the problem quite rapidly and effectively, I'm happy to report.

So here's the

LESSON LEARNED:

Be proactive. Get something like RAID's "Large baits," and put them out *before* you have a problem. I wish I had, but this boat will be protected from now on. There are a couple of brands of this type of bait, and switching them occasionally might be a good idea. Just assume the beasties are out there, looking to make your boat their home ... because they are!

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Running Aground in the Slip

     Or, Was my face red!

I’d had my Hunter and had been living aboard for about three months. It was February, and there was a full moon.

I didn’t think anything of it. I certainly didn’t connect that full moon with what the dockmaster had told me when I first took my slip, that one reason to keep the boat bow in was that the sand had built up at the end of the slip.

I looked at how the boat was tied up before I left for the evening, but I’d been on the boat for three months now, and I thought I had it all pretty well figured out.

I came home about 10PM and looked at the boat sitting perfectly centered in the slip. “Man, I’m getting good at this!” I thought. I grabbed the breast line to pull the boat over to the finger pier.

Nothing happened.

I pulled harder. Nothing happened

The boat wasn’t perfectly tied up at all. She was aground! She was actually tilting.

Other people might have been able to take a flying leap, or climb over the bow, but I really felt the boat was too far away for either of those options. I knew the cats had enough food and water. I called it a night and slept elsewhere.

By the next morning when I came back to the boat, the water had risen and she was afloat again, and I thought, “I really don’t want this to happen again.” My solution was to re-tie her so that she moved some in the slip. I actually like the sensation of the boat rocking, so that didn’t bother me, and the keel had a chance to dig herself a hole. I lived at that marina for another 21 months and never again had this problem.

LESSON LEARNED: use your depth sounder and/or depth line when you first move your boat into a new slip. Talk to others in the marina, and of course, the dock master. If you have a shallow slip, you need to know about it and what kinds of problems it can make for you.

Or you can just wait for Mother Nature to surprise you.  :)

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Living On Your Boat Part Time

Living on one's boat isn't going to be most people's cup of tea. Limited space for clothes, no space for an ironing board, and no washer/dryer make simple tasks like dressing for work complicated. Mundane things have to be planned carefully, especially if your boat is on the hook.

And yet ... it can be so wonderful.

I got an 8 X 10 tarp (heavy duty) at Wal-Mart. I tied one end to the ends of my traveler, and I tie/bungee the other end to the Bimini frame. The sides hang down enough to keep all rain out of the great majority of the cockpit. It reminds me of tent-camping.

The night before last, my cat and I sat at the edge of the tarp, watching the rain fall, watching the storm clouds form and move on to be replaced by other storm clouds. The lightning displays were awe-inspiring. It was peaceful and cozy. I do have a fan under the tarp with us, so it doesn't get too stuffy.

It was a delightful experience, but only worth the trouble if you're going to spend the night on the boat. And to top it off, now I have another option for people to sleep on my boat on a trip, because I tried it -- I stayed dry. I folded up the edge of the tarp so the the fold went to the outside, and it channeled ALL the water ... to the scuppers. It's just a matter of having the right sized tarp for your boat.

If I hadn't moved aboard my boat, I never would have had seen the extended and phenomenal experience of bioluminescence in the water. Bioluminescence occurs when small algae that glow in the dark rapidly explode in numbers. I don't think marine scientists know why it happens, but it only happens occasionally in Boca Ciega Bay. In the little place I stayed, Pasadena Marina, the algae exploded into a fantastic bloom during the summer of 2102. When the water is disturbed, the algae get agitated and glow a beautiful, deep, neon aqua that can only seen to be believed.

This bloom started in early August and lasted well into October. At its peak, when you looked at little white caps on the water at noon, you could actually see the phenomenon. Water can sparkle in the sunlight, but this was like sparkling liquid diamonds. At night, you could jump into the water, and make "angels in the snow," only it was "angels in the algae." These algae have no harmful effects on humans, but don't jump into a marina to do this. Marina water isn't always the cleanest, and in addition, the most vicious shark on the planet, the bull shark, seems to like to hang around docks. So don't take foolish risks -- take your boat out of the marina, anchor, and give it a try.

ALWAYS leave one person on the boat, and make absolutely certain you have a good, long ladder so people will have no trouble getting back aboard.

Stay anchored out for the night. Spend a night or two on your boat.

At night it can be tricky to know whether your anchor is dragging or not, so here's an easy trick: use your MOB (Man Overboard) button to mark where you set the anchor. That will give you an easy reference for how far you might have dragged. Most chart plotters also have anchor alarms, but test it to make sure you can hear it.

I tried to photograph the bioluminescence and failed miserably, so here's a site where you can see this amazing sea event. Critters glowing below you; incredible displays of stars above you, not washed out by civilization's lights -- it just doesn't get much better than that.

Try this site to get some idea of what bioluminescence looks like:

http://biobay.com/

The bioluminescence isn't usually that intense in the St. Pete area, but it was in the southern end, at least, of Boca Ciega Bay, last summer. You'll never know the wonders you miss if you never spend the night on your boat.

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OUT OF THE BATHTUB! (Part 3)

     Or, The buck stops here!

______

May 18, 2013

     “The chance of mistakes are about equal to the number of crew squared."

Ted Turner

Tom and I were in a bit of a pickle, in waters way too rough for either our experience or the boat’s size and equipment, and with multiple things going wrong. I had friends who had attempted something extremely dangerous trying to help us. It was time to take definitive action, and I called for Boat US on channel 16 to come and get us (they had us switch to channel 68), which at least ended attempts by crew from other boats to somehow climb onto ours. While a pair of experienced hands might have been helpful, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that we were overpowered for those winds and waves. Our most fundamental problem would still be there. I was also very concerned that if we lost steering, the waves would push us into the shallows, where the boat could get quite damaged.

Boat US recognized that we were potentially in serious trouble, and said they would make us their top priority, and get there as soon as possible. I told them what our new sail plan was. They called us every five minutes for updates of our latitude and longitude, which a handheld GPS provided (two boats from BCYC stayed near us, and if our GPS had malfunctioned, they could have provided that information also –- sailing with another boat can be quite helpful in a variety of ways.) Boat US warned me that because of the conditions, I might have only one chance to catch the tow rope. I looked at the skinny, bouncing bow, not relishing the idea of going back up there for a one-handed catch.

However, Boat US wasn’t the first “Help Boat” to arrive. I looked up to see a boat pounding toward us. It was from EC-SAR –- Eckard College Search and Rescue. Eckard College, a small school in South Pasadena, FL, runs a co-curricular search and rescue program staffed by highly trained, dedicated and brave students. I looked at them in surprise and said, “Boat US is coming for us.”

“We know,” was the reply. “We’re here because we heard them tell you that you would have to go to the bow to catch the tow rope. We’re here to fish you out if you fall in.” Boy, was I glad to hear that!

Well, Boat US did find us; I did catch the tow rope, I didn’t fall into the water, and the team from EC-SAR waved goodbye and scooted away to help someone else in trouble in those messy seas.

When we were under tow and safe, Tom went below to check out what the other two “thumps” were. I think he already had an idea.

The first thump had been his backpack rolling off the V-berth on to the floor. The second thump was the porta-potty, which flipped itself over the bungee cord and spilled its contents –- on to Tom’s back pack!

LESSONS LEARNED:

FIRST: So far I’ve only talked about what I did right that day, but I made several mistakes, one of them a “no excuse” goof: I did not decide for myself whether, when and where I should be sailing my boat. I should have checked the weather reports myself. Twin Dolphin Marina had a computer for guests, and the information was available to me. Instead, I entrusted that decision to “more experienced” sailors in the group. The problem with that is that they made the decision to sail based on their experience and their boats –- not mine.

If I had seen the wind and wave prediction, I would have done two things. First, I would have put Tom on someone else’s boat to go home, as he had to get to work on Monday, and second, I would have stayed at Twin Dolphin until the wind died down and the waves decreased (waves will continue to be riled up for some time after weather has settled down). I didn’t even have to know all that. If I’d asked questions of the other sailors about the next day’s forecast, the answer would have been enough to raise alarm bells in me. The staff at Twin Dolphin could have advised me.

I would have had to bring the boat back by myself (although someone from the club might have been willing to make the half-hour drive to accompany me back), and I could have gone back up the “ditch” along the Skyway Bridge, a much more sheltered sail than along the west coast of Florida.

Another option, had we had a little more experience, would have been to reef at the dock before leaving. However, if we had done that, I might not have realized how inadequate my reefing plan was for a while.

SECOND: As we left to sail south on Saturday, I told Tom we could “co-skipper” the boat, since we had similar levels of experience. But when things get bad, one person has to be the skipper, and typically that would be the owner of the boat (I would have had no problem turning the helm over to an experienced sailor in this situation, but we didn’t have someone like that on board). Our agreement on Saturday made it harder for me to assert myself as skipper on Sunday when most of the trouble occurred. My personal opinion is that if it’s your boat, you have to do the scary stuff. Tom wanted to go up to the bow both times it was necessary, but I felt that I had gotten us into the predicament we were in, and that I was obligated to do the dangerous stuff if I was able to.

THIRD: I let someone with inadequate skills work on my boat. If I had asked around the club, I would have found out that the fellow who “installed” the gas tank and the porta-potty didn’t exactly have the best reputation for quality work.

FOURTH: I did not check the work done on my boat the day before. Even the best, most reliable people can make serious mistakes (see my story, “Your Boat Could Sink! Really!” for an example of that).

FIFTH: I did not double-check information I was given about my boat. If I had asked virtually anyone at the club about my so-called “reefing system,”  each sailor would have pointed out the obvious risk and encouraged me to install a better one, something I did more or less immediately after getting back from this trip.

I DID DO SOME THINGS RIGHT: I studied the chart before sailing. I moved the boat away from the lee shore (over the protests of my crew). I took steps to keep the boat from rounding up so easily. I had a knife tied to my pants, which meant I couldn’t drop it overboard while freeing the headsail. I went forward to the bow prepared to do everything necessary to deal with the sail (bungee cord). I refused to allow a dangerous attempt at boarding my boat. And, importantly, I had towing insurance. While EC-SAR will sometimes tow disabled boats in, they are a search and rescue organization, not a towing service. If someone else had called them with lives on the line, they would have released me, as protecting people is their priority (see tomorrow’s story, “Oh, Dorothy!” for an example of how they do that.)

The major lesson learned was that you are the skipper of your boat –- and that with that comes responsibilities. Study the weather reports yourself. Be prepared to make hard decisions, such as not to sail –- or to not follow the advice of well-meaning crew. Tom, not realizing the danger, was having fun as the boat repeatedly attempted to broach, which is why he did not want to spill the sails. In addition he had not studied a chart of the area, so even if he had realized what the boat was trying to do, he might not have recognized that the “lee shore” shallows at that spot (off Bunce’s Pass) extend far out into the water.

Even more experienced sailors may overlook something you believe to be a significant problem. Or, they may engage in wishful thinking (“Oh, that won’t be a problem!”) These things are not for the crew to decide, although you should listen to what others think when there’s time to do so. But ultimately, it’s your boat and your insurance on the line, and you are responsible for the lives of those on your boat.

By the way, it turned out that the nuts on the bolt holding the tiller to the rudder mechanism were loose. They were easily accessible and easily tightened, but it took two monkey wrenches, and I only had one on board. Sometimes having extra tools is not a bad thing.

In addition, I put netting on the front of the boat after our return. If we had managed to drop the sail from the cockpit, the sail could easily have been blown off that tiny bow into the water – where it would have filled with water and created a true crisis. Make sure you can control your sails when they come down.

EC-SAR is a phenomenal organization. If you live or sail along the central Florida coast or Boca Ciega Bay, you should have their phone number on your boat: (727) 864-8288.  Also see their website at http://www.eckerd.edu/waterfront/ecsar/.  

After EC-SAR has come out to help me, which they have in  a highly skilled way more than once, I always give them a generous donation (whatever cash I have with me). Both times, they helped protect me and my boat from serious harm in a remarkably well-coordinated and efficient way. 



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How Joe Shattered His Leg, and How He Survived

_______

May 5, 2013

     You are primed to come up with a creative solution.

Fortune cookie

Joe lives in St. Petersburg, FL. Last December, he was going for a sail on a friend’s boat in Venice, FL, about an hour south of his home. A 36’ boat, it had a fair amount of freeboard –- its deck sat higher from the water than smaller boats. Nevertheless, it was an abnormally low tide, and a bit of a drop to the boat. Joe had gone through two knee replacement surgeries in the previous year, so he carefully considered his options. As he was first to arrive at the boat, he would have to do this all himself.

He pulled the boat close to the dock, and tossed his backpack into the cockpit. He didn’t want to risk dropping anything into the water during a tricky boarding. That also kept his center of gravity lower, always a good thing when boarding.

Holding the boat close to the dock with his right hand, he sat on the edge of the dock and swung his legs over the lifeline. He judged that he could make the short drop well. Typically, stepping on to the outside of the lifelines would be the best choice, but the boat was so low in the water that this didn’t look like a good choice to Joe.

Unfortunately, soon as he let go of the boat to jump down, the boat moved rapidly away from the dock. This threw his balance off, and with his feet inside the lifelines, he ended up hanging from the lifeline by one knee. While the knee was not injured, his body twisted, and he broke his left femur quite badly. Fortunately the boat had moved so far from the dock that he did not hit his head, but his body weight pulled him into the water. Now he was in cold water, and he was badly hurt.

No one else was around. Hollering for help brought no one.

He managed to pull himself to the stern of the boat, and that is where the owner of this sailboat helped save his life—even though he wasn’t anywhere near the boat yet. The owner had tied his stern ladder up with a “half bow tie,” with the loose end of the line long enough for Joe to reach it from the water. Here’s a picture of the type of knot his friend used. It is also commonly used to secure the mainsail to the boom.

Joe managed to pull the line, drop the ladder, drag himself up the ladder and land in the cockpit using his arms and his good leg.

Once in the cockpit, he was able to find his cell phone in his backpack to call 911. Since he had put his belongings in the boat before he tried to board, his cellphone had not gone in the water with him, and so it worked. The ladder, rigged to be deployable from the water, saved his life. With such a severe injury he wouldn’t have survived long in cold water.

When EMS got Joe to the nearest hospital, the doctor told him he needed immediate surgery. “Please transfer me to St. Petersburg, where I live,” Joe asked.

“You’ll be dead before you get there,” the doctor bluntly responded. “We have to operate NOW.” A piece of bone had cut the femoral artery, and Joe was actually bleeding to death inside his leg, even though the skin had not been broken. Joe has boarded boats many hundreds of times over the years. This is the only time he was hurt, but it was a doozy.

It’s really important to have a good ladder on the stern of your boat. There are several things that go into that. The ladder needs to hang from the boat at the right angle. If it hangs at more than 90º, people will have a hard time climbing it. Injured, it would probably be impossible. In addition, it needs to be long enough that the lowest wrong is well down into the water, or it will be hard to use, especially with a significant injury.

Your ladder also needs to be rigid. I was on a boat once where the owner had made his own ladder out of wood and rope. It floated at the surface, making it difficult to get a foot in the bottom rung after a swim. In addition, its flexibility let it curve under the boat. Finally my friend had to physically hold the ladder out at a 90º angle and then I managed to get back on the boat. A ladder is no place to try to save money. West Marine sells portable ladders you can hang over the transom or the side. They work well. If you use this ladder, get the longer one—it only costs $59.99 at this writing. The farther that ladder drops (rigidly) into the water, the easier it will be for an injured or otherwise impaired person to get safely aboard.

The problem with this type of ladder is that most owners won’t leave it hanging on the boat unless they are on the boat, so it probably wouldn’t have been there when Joe needed it so desperately. However, it is highly superior to anything made of rope and boards. A permanently installed ladder is a better choice, but this one is a lot better than nothing, or a ladder that can’t be lowered from the water.

Joe survived this accident for several reasons. First, he kept his wits about him and didn’t panic, even though he knew it could well be a fatal accident. Second, he was familiar with the boat. He knew that ladder was there, and that it was worth his rapidly fading strength to get to the stern. Third, the boat owner had a ladder long enough to be useful even under extremely difficult conditions. Fourth, the owner secured the ladder in a way that made it easy to deploy it from the water. Finally, Joe had kept his phone safe and dry, and was able to get to it. He does not believe he could have gotten to the marine radio in the cabin. Without his cell phone, he would have bled to death in the cockpit.

LESSONS LEARNED:

FIRST: When boarding any boat with either life lines or railing, pick a place to get on where you can place your feet on the outside of that lifeline or rail. By the shrouds is an excellent choice: you can step on the toe rail and grab the shrouds, which are very strong, at the same time. Then swing one leg over the lifeline, get that foot secure, and then bring the other leg over. This is an expansion of rock-climbing technique: three points secure (one foot on the toe rail and two hands on the shrouds), with one leg moving at a time. If your legs are on the outside of those life lines and the wind suddenly blows the boat away, even if you fall in the water, it won’t be nearly so dangerous a fall. The only thing likely to be hurt will be your pride. But in all likelihood, you’ll be able to keep your behind on the dock, stay dry, and just try again, or hang on to the boat. Either way, you’re safe.

SECOND: Always have your boat’s safety features fully functional. Joe might have fallen off of someone else’s boat without a good ladder, but he still might have been able to get on his friend’s boat, and perhaps by hollering for help from the cockpit, another person would have come along in time. Your properly secured and adequately long, rigid ladder could save someone’s life some day.

A (Different) Dolphin's Tail

 

May 6, 2013

      Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

I wish this had happened to me, but these people belong to my sailing club, and if I claim it as my story, I’m gonna be busted.

They lived aboard their sailboat in the same marina as me, two slips down. They report that one morning about 4AM they were awakened by a loud sound reverberating through the hull of their boat. For those of you who haven’t slept on a sailboat, if you flipped it upside down and took the keel off, it would be shaped somewhat like a bell. Things that bump into the hull make magnified sound. So when their hull rang like a bell, he grabbed a flashlight and got up to see what was going on.

What he found was a group of dolphins hunting sheepshead. Sheepshead are fish with hard beaks for mouths. They hang around in marinas and eat the barnacles that grow on the seawalls and the pilings. So what happened?

His boat was in a dolphin’s way, so when the dolphin needed the boat to out of his way, he just whapped the boat with his tail! Those dolphins are very strong, and the boat moved.

The dolphin hunted in the marina for several nights before moving on.

That is the biggest noise I’ve heard of animals making on boat hulls … but not the only one. The first marina I lived in was salt water. When I went to sleep in the v berth (the bow of the boat) in the summer, I could hear faint clicking sounds -- little shrimp eating the algae off the hull. Thanks, guys! Then I moved my boat to a marina in a river six miles from the Gulf. Now I frequently hear louder clicking, day and night. That sound is crabs – eating the algae off the hull. Thanks again, guys!

Where to Keep Your Boat

      Or, Once again -- Hitting hard things is what breaks boats!

_______

April 29, 2013

     "Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit."    

Brooks Atkinson

 Take another look at this video, filmed while Tropical Storm Debby was pummeling the Tampa Bay area.

You can see how rough the water is out on the bay and in the canal, but as the video pans around, notice how much calmer the water is in the marina. That is Boca Ciega Yacht Club’s (BCYC) marina. The one just further north, the Gulfport Municipal Marina, is also very sheltered. The BCYC marina is sheltered north, south, east and west.

In stormy weather, where you keep your boat can be crucial.

When I got my first boat, I lived in a condo that had very reasonably priced docks. At first, I thought that was great. Then one day we had a front come through. I looked out at my boat, and that little thing was rockin’ and rollin’! I could only hope I had learned enough about tying her up to keep her safe. As it happened, I had, and she was OK.

But I thought about it, and I looked at how the docks were built. They weren’t terribly stout. I realized that if the dock broke, my boat would not be secure. In addition, I was at the mercy of my dock neighbors and could only hope they had tied their boats up well. As I looked around, I saw that not everyone had, including the boat next to mine. So I had my beloved boat tied up at a flimsy dock that was quite exposed to heavy weather.

So I moved my boat to the BCYC marina. It cost a little more, but when the next storm came through, I saw the boats rockin’ and rollin’ at the condo docks. I got in my car and drove to the marina to check on my boat. I expected it to look like a bucking bronco, but the marina is well sheltered and the boats weren’t moving at all. The bay was all churned up, but all was calm in the slips.

This area also got brushed by the edge of a hurricane in 2004. In the marina just west of BCYC, multiple boats were severely damaged, because those docks were exposed in a way that BCYC’s marina is not. Not one boat was damaged at BCYC in that storm. Being sheltered counts.

In addition to the BCYC marina being physically sheltered, everyone using it has to sign a lease that includes instructions about how boats must be tied in bad weather. We actually have club members walking the docks during storms, adjusting lines as needed, so all the boats ride the storm out well. (That’s another reason to join a club, and if possible, keep your boat there).

Consider more than price when deciding where to keep your boat. Ask other sailors in your area, and they will be able to tell you which marinas are sheltered and which are not.