Never understood why people feel compelled to try to
dock or
med moor when conditions are not favorable, especially when they are seemingly rather incompetent or inexperienced. Hells bells, just stay out on the open
water until the situational factors avails easier procedures. The
boat does fine just floating away from shore and other boats.
This appears to be a dreadful case of "Having to get Thereitis", if there ever was one. Schedules should not be permitted on a
boat, leave them ashore. Just as it is not wise to
head out under adverse condition, it may also be not wise at the conclusion of a voyage /
passage to attempt landing; assess if it is good time to approach shore or to defer approach. E.g. if a bar is dangerous you don't cross it. If
docking /
mooring conditions are subject to crashing, just don't.
How hard is that to understand?!!!!! Even if you successfully accomplish such all that you have proven is that you are reckless. There is no pride to be had or admiration to be given when someone chooses and then successfully concludes a dangerous action. Stupid is stupid and there is no fixing stupid, albeit damaged boats, yeah they can be fixed.
Wow, so glad to see no one appeared to get hurt. Loads of opportunities for persons on the boat attempting to moor and for the persons on the moored boats to have gotten hurt. Not on my boat, I instruct everyone to stay away, much rather have the boat take a beating versus a person being put into endangerment. I get the good intentions and desire to mitigate damage by fending and pushing off, but the
skipper has to control the crew and bystanders telling them to just stand off in a place of
safety [down below is usually a good place], out of sight is out of mind. Way too many people out of their minds.
There was a moment when the boat tangled with what appeared to be the bow
mooring line of the other boat and that line needed to be released with crew assistance which task by itself could have been a highly dangerous task when the line was underload, a person could easily have gotten entangled in it. But I am perplexed how that bow mooring line could have been pulled so far to the moored boats starboard fore quarter, I would have thought it would have been under a lot of tension so as to keep the moored boat from drifting aft into the quay. Where did the slack derive from to avail that line to go sideways when the out of control boat throttled forward? A tensioned bow line also aids in fending off a boat that is drifted across one's bow as it should lays on the line, think of it being a "fender rode" running at an angle from the bow down to the seabed.
Engagement in some disciplined calmness would have been good for all parties involved.
That
skipper is probably dangerous pushing a
shopping cart; throttling about like he was in a demolition derby.
I
recall my Sea Scout Skipper teaching each of us youngsters to merely hold position against
wind and currents with the 63 foot
power boat. STOP the Boat. First
learning to control the boat so it doesn't move off of station soon translated to become skilled in controlling when and where you wanted it to gently move off station.
Docking or coming alongside another boat became a matter of intentionally NOT holding a station safely away from something you did not want to bump hard against, the boats movement thence being logically and tactfully thinking rather the opposite of attempting to navigate towards the mooring position. Move from not to. Slow motion, minimizes inertia.
I also remember when us youngsters Skippies / skippers in
training, would each be given our turn to at the
helm, the Sea Scout Skipper under adverse conditions would calm himself and all of us by singing a parody of Buffalo Springfield's song titled "For What It is Worth" with the lyrics changed to become along the lines of:
There's something happening here
What it is, ain't exactly clear
There's a boy with a boat over there
Something's telling me he's got to be aware
I think it's time WE STOP,
Children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down.
There's mooring lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from the tide.
It's time we STOPPED
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're become afraid
Ship gets out of line, the
wind comes and take you away.
[Chorus]
We better STOP
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going
We better STOP
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going
We better STOP
Now, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going
We better STOP
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look our ship's going towards down.
The truly cool thing about a boat is that it will drift down, down wind, down tide. One can assess ahead of time and in real time where DOWN is and why your baby will
head towards DOWN.
One just needs to "Get Down With That". Time for a bit of K.C. and the Sunshine Band.
Baby, baby let's get together
Honey, honey me and you
And do the things, oh, do the things
That we like to do.
Do a little dance, make a little bump, get down, get down, get down, get down, etc.
It is rather amazing how much more coordinated and less stressful a docking maneuver became when we all sang to the same tune. It starts when
Everybody looks what's going down. Be assured we all did go bump, but learned from each instance and always no one was allowed to be put into endangerment, so no one got hurt. Rub rails, got to learn to love your rub rails. If one asks: What's that sound? Well For What It's Worth that be the sound of the ship running against something. And No, it is not "The Sound of Silence."
You can pretty much find a song suitable for all occasions.
In this instance, at the end of the day, most everyone should have said: "Sorry for the things I said and the things we done, when we were docking the boat."
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