[Alberg30] More on Water Depth

[Melissa Currier]

As usual Roger you have not failed to entertain, amuse and enlighten!

However, you have not listed the THIRD way of negotiating the Narrows and
other "channels" throughout the Chesa-bumb Bay.

This summer my husband and I were out giving a guided tour of the South
River to his aunt and uncle on their visiting Valiant 40.  They draw more
than 6 so it wasn't too long a tour.  And the tide was ebbing...  On our
way back into Hillsmere (Kitty Duvall Creek) where they were borrowing a
mooring from us, we ran aground IN the channel.

Sidebar:  The oyster hugger coop of disagreeable and useless
environmentalists decided last December to "seed the shoal" off Hillsmere
with a spoils barge-full of shell and spat last January.  I am all for
repopulating the Bay with necessary wildlife, but some logic should
apply... I sat on the dune in HORROR in the cold watching as the majority
of the VERY expensive seed and shell was blasted via firehoses into the
CHANNEL.  It seems that the wind and tide were not as the barge operator
had expected and so he had to "blow his load" (as the DNR put so lightly
put it) where he could before he was aground himself.  ARGH!

So, anyway, WE ran aground IN the channel with a horrible shell-munching
CRUNCH.  And we had to -- yes, I'm getting to my point -- enlist the help
of a passing motor boat to make several passes to create enough wake to
lift us intermitantly as we redredged the channel at full throttle making
the most hideous nails-on-a-chalkboard noise...

As much as I have learned to despise motor boats, it seems they do have a
role play in the big picture.  As for the oyster people... They need to
visit Wellfleet, MA and learn from the professionals (3 generation+
locals)
how to grow oysters...

> 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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********************
Melissa Thompson Currier
Tel: 410-990-9855
Cell: 443-871-4602

I don't know about you, but my most insightful and profound thinking is
done under the influence of chocolate. My exclusive source for the "good
stuff"?  http://www.anstinescandy.com
********************


 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                This Old Boat by Don Casey                     |
 | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071579931/alberg30-20 |
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