[Alberg30] More on Water Depth

Roger L. Kingsland rkingsland101 at ksba.com
Tue Nov 18 09:14:12 PST 2003


Albergers;



Earlier Mike  Meinhold wrote;



"...Getting up to Deale harbor we hit bottom in the channel, but got
through. At the mouth of the
harbor we got stuck hard, in the channel. A powerboat pulled us off, and we
poked in the rest of the way.

We made several approaches to the alley the slip was in and kept running out
of water.  We finally found a deeper channel, and were cruising along at 3
knots when we abruptly hit something hard and passed over it - I think it
was a
piling on the bottom. I will be interested in seeing the keel!

Did anyone else go sailing on the Chesapeake this weekend and do some
sounding?"







Mikes discussion on water depth is one of several on The Page this fall.
Since it is seems to be (approximately so) a topic of such great interest, I
could not help but weigh in on the subject.  Pease forgive the lack of any
real content.





RLK Missives on Water Depth

I can swim, but definitely prefer to reside on the water rather than in it.
I am especially not sure I want to be part of the real shallow stuff where
you can touch bottom.  To me, 18" of water is definitely yucky and a perhaps
little bit scary.  Mud, mosquitoes, geese, jelly fish, even sharks all seem
to like shallow water.  Besides, if the tide is out, it smells too.



I once jumped off the boat into shallow water and sank so deep into the mud
that it sucked off my brand new Topsiders.  Ever since then I have worn
double lace army boots while on board boats and nobody invites me back.



Have you ever seen a horseshoe crab?  Those things must have somehow been
able to freeze the evolutionary process.  If not, can you imagine how ugly
and scary they were twenty million years ago?  Just knowing they are down
there makes me want to take up gardening.



When I chartered boats on the Bay I used to be obsessed with the depth
gauge.  Unless they sat close to it, I never even got to check out the deck
ornaments in their bikinis.  Someone's cell phone would ring and I would
dive for the gauge thinking it was the depth alarm.  And, I still managed to
run aground on a regular basis.  These experiences, however, have taught me
some valuable lessons, I think.



For example, do you know that there are two types of shallow water in
Tilgman Narrows, each requiring a totally different navigation strategy?
The first is those little bumps on bottom of the channel.  Strategy:
throttle up and flatten the suckers with your keel.  Talk about a confidence
builder.  While the entire crew stares at their skipper with profound
expressions of concern, you, the Master of their Universe, put the peddle to
the metal and confidently plough through.  Thoughts of a new names for your
vessel bubble up; "Furrow" or "Caterpillar" or "Yellow Iron."  You are
actually doing that timid guy behind you in the center cockpit, Gulfstar 50
a favor by blazing the trail.



(Side Bar--you know, the Gulfstar 50s with air conditioned, wrap around
plastic-glass enclosed cockpits.  When I first observed this phenomenon I
thought the boat was owned by the Centers for Disease Control (boat name
"Quarantine").   I have since discovered they are mostly owned by old folks
who think their cataracts get worse when they are on the water when, in
reality, their grand-kids have taken some 300-grit wet & dry sandpaper to
the plastic glass.)



Of course, the second shallow water condition is the actual edge of the
channel; you know, the place where it goes from 6 plus feet to 20 inches in
a horizontal distance equal to the length of your check book.  The strategy
here is to A), avoid this underwater retaining wall, or B), bump and back
(up that is).



Lesson learned: never apply the strategy appropriate for the former
situation, to the latter.  Assuming the former, the Master of their Universe
increases throttle proportionally to the increase in the area of keel
encased in mud while confidently announcing to the crew, "Don't worry, some
of these bottom bumps are bigger than others."  As they say in the Budweiser
commercials, "True."  I mean how was I, a kid with a Hobie Cat, supposed to
know the difference between a bottom bump (sort of a pot hole in reverse)
and the underwater equivalent of a Jersey barrier.  If only those kids had
walked out from shore to sell lemonade before we arrived on scene, at least
I would have had a hint.  (Sidebar; by the way they were walking, I think
the kids were protecting their Topsiders by wearing snow shoes.)



So, the nice kids get five bucks for the lemonade (the service was
excellent) and the zit faced teenager with the Whaler gets fifty bucks to
pull intrepid, "Furrow" back into the channel (just when we broke loose I
could have sworn I heard a sound much like when you pop your finger out of
your mouth).  Not before however, the grandparents chug by, in Quarantine
(now renamed, "Misty") dead center, mid channel.  After performing another
valuable service for them, in this case as an unusually large channel
marker, they don't even bother to wave.  That's OK though, their cataract
operation is probably not till next week.





Roger Kingsland
Chief Financial Officer (AKA, check writer)
Mahina Manu, A30 #148
N40°  29.288'
W79°  54.228'

Author's Disclaimer; This email was produced exclusively by the sender and,
in the interest of expediency, without the benefit of editing by others.
The sender, thank goodness, is a much better architect/sailor than
speller/editor and, frankly, constantly laments an obvious flaw in "spell
check," it does not know what the author is thinking.  Please accept the
sender's sincere apologies for any "typos" that may appear in this document.
If present, they are certainly unintended and hopefully do not cloud the
message, or spawn any unnecessary lawsuits.





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 |                This Old Boat by Don Casey                     |
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