Quote:
Originally Posted by hpeer
Better to call Boat US or another tow agency and ask for local conditions of the inlet also. Decades ago I was USCG reserve. I came in for my week of reserve duty and there was a fellow Reservist there from my Section in his dress blues. He was headed to court. The previous year some nine head ran hi boat up on a sand bar In the inlet, this fellow took a boat out and took the capt and crew off but declined to drag the boat off. So they Capt was suing the USCG.
No idea how it turned out. That was late ‘70’s.
But also, back then, Vietnam war, lots of guys came in with zero experience and less inclination. Then they would be at a station within months. There were the lifers but they were not handling the phones. Or maybe the guy had 8 years service but on Buoy tenders on the west coast and had only just arrived. Lots and lots of reasons they may have not known.
That’s why I suggest calling a tow boat service, they are local and have a better chance of knowing.
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I hear you about the guy on the sandbar. There are a lot of idiots out there and I hope he
lost his lawsuit.
In my case, the
wind had been blowing stink for a couple of days and I knew that the inlet would be rather rough, but I didn’t know how rough.
When I made the call to the Coast Guard, I first got a junior officer on the
radio and he asked me to standby while he summoned what I assumed was his supervisor. He was the one that told me that he could not give me local knowledge.
There was no BoatUS close. They were in Daytona. The local tow service was a SeaTow. I tried to raise them but got no answer.
I ended up sneaking out to the end of the breakwater to look for myself. I encountered 10 to 12 foot waves and I turned around and came back in.
I am not complaining about the USCG. I think they do an excellent job. But in this case, if the guy had looked out his window and said it looks like crap out there, he could’ve saved me a half an hours time and some trouble, and if I had been a
novice Sailor instead of a rather seasoned inlet runner, he could’ve cost me my boat or worse.
Al, S/V Finlandia