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Columbia River Marine Assistance

When you need a friend…on the water.

My Brother Dave

So, I have to introduce you to my brother Dave. Dave is a great guy and has recently taken up boating as a hobby, with predictable results. Dave is one of those guys who jumps right into things, with both feet, and never looks back. Usually there is carnage in his pathway and in this case, carnage in his wake. Dave feels that things like proper instruction, reading up on a subject prior to participation, asking for help of any kind, are strictly anathema. “That’s for those other guys”, he always says, usually just before he makes a fatal error. Offering any sort of help or advise to Dave is like offering him castration, he takes on this hurt look, gets pouty, and acts like you have removed his manhood in front of every eligible female in the entire world. I will be passing on stories about Dave and his newfound hobby, so that you, the reader, may learn from his mistakes.

Memorial Day Weekend, on the Columbia River:

Dave is out on his new boat, with a couple of friends, their kids and a host of water toys, including wake boards, and inner tubes, having a great time out on the river. While motoring by the upstream tip of Government Island, he spots a kid on a Jet Ski, who had broken down and was drifting down onto the wingdam. Dave, being the really nice guy that he is, really wants to help, and motors up. He throws his ski tow rope to the kid on the Jet Ski who ties a knot onto the towing eye of his PWC. Well, most of us know what the water above Gov Island is like this early in the season, fast and swirling, and Dave manages to run the ski rope under his boat and wrap it around his prop, thereby disabling his boat also. Now he and the PWC are tied together and fast heading for the wingdam. Luckily Dave has his favorite brother’s number in his phone and gives me a call. (He always calls me his favorite brother when he is in trouble, actually I’m his only brother) Dave tends to get in trouble using skill, and gets out using luck. Luckily, I was close by and was able to get both his boat, and the PWC hooked up and pulled away from the wingdam. Ashley put on her drysuit and went under Dave’s boat with a knife, and cut the ski rope from the prop, and we towed the Jet Ski as well as the kids back to Chinook Landing and safety.

What to learn from Dave’s mistakes: First we can learn from Dave that its important to help your fellow mariner when they are in trouble, that part he certainly got right. However, its not a good idea to offer assistance that can compromise your own safety, or even more so, the safety of your passengers. Being the captain of a vessel is a lot of responsibility, and you have to think of your own passengers first, especially if there are children on your boat. They don’t have a choice if the captain decides to do something risky, however they could pay a very high price. Dave could have made a call on the VHF radio, channel 16, and someone more able to help could have snagged the PWC and rider, he could have still been a great help without endangering his own boat and family.

31May09

Dave had a breakdown on his boat near the range lights on Gov island across from Steamboat landing marina. The boat was safely anchored about 100 feet off the shoreline. He asked that I tow him back to Portco where his trailer was. Usually not a big deal, we came alongside and tied up, finished paperwork and with his boat on the hip, motored slowly forward so he could retrieve his anchor and line. The line came in but the anchor appeared to be snagged on the bottom and no amount of pulling by hand seemed to clear it. He had no anchor retrieval system. Normally this would have been as simple as me attaching my own retrieval system to his line and using boat power to recover it. While I was getting the retrieval system out, Dave thought he would have better luck pulling from the stern of the boat where the footing was better. BAD MOVE! Never attempt to retrieve an anchor from anywhere but the bow of the boat with any current or wind happening. Instantly both boats (still tied together) rotated around and the sterns were now facing up river. With a bundle of rope lying at his feet, the rope tightened up from the current pressure against the flat stern(s) and within seconds he was being pulled over the edge of his boat. I quickly moved to help and, backing him up, took a turn around a cleat but the rope was slipping through both our hands and also around the cleat. I instructed him to gather the rest of the line from around his feet and get it overboard before the line tangled around him, which he did. Once that was done I let the line slip off the cleat and let go with minor rope burns for my troubles. The tow was finished without any more drama. Only a lost anchor, rather than any lost fingers, for a result.

What to learn: First, as stated above, NEVER have an anchor or mooring line tied only to the stern of a boat with wind or current present. The wind or current will spin your vessel around and now, instead of water sliding past a pointy slippery bow, it is pushing against a wide flat stern and the strain increases exponentially even to the point of pulling a vessels stern underwater. A woman was drowned under the power lines by Chinook Landing several years ago when the small boat she was on capsized for that exact reason. Always keep a sharp knife handy to cut any lines that are putting a vessel or persons in danger. We have one sheathed right on the tow post where it is handy, as well as on our belts. My lesson was never to expect anyone to know what to do without being told. Dave bringing the line to the stern was poor seamanship and I should have seen what he was up to before he did it.

17MAY09

Dave called at 9pm tonight from the downstream tip of Reed Island. Seems that he had been running his boat, marveling at the incredible fuel economy he was getting, as the gas gauge needle had not moved off the 1/4 tank mark for a whole day of boating. (Whoops!) As any salty mariner knows, the fuel gauges on boats are notoriously inaccurate. He was at anchor (good move!) out of the channel in about 25 feet of water. We told him we would be there in about a half an hour. It was just getting dark as we left Tomahawk bay and we arrived on scene at 9:35, now in the dark. We tied alongside and used our onboard aux fuel cans to deliver 10 gallons of fuel to Dave’s boat. While Ashley was getting the paperwork done and I was handling the fuel cans, one of the crew aboard Dave’s boat took the opportunity to begin pulling the anchor up. I noticed that we turned sideways to the current and began drifting and realized that the anchor wasn’t holding. I asked if someone could check the anchor and the crew member stated that he had raised it with a proud smile. Again, I expected a boater to know not to do something unless asked to and again I am surprised at the lack of seamanship. I was quite happy to be at anchor until the fuel could be transferred but it was not to be. It turned out to not be an issue, but if you ever find yourself in a situation of being assisted by CRMA or anyone else, don’t make any decisions without consulting the captain!

What to learn: Never trust a boats gas gauge! Always fill the fuel tank before any outing. Know the size of your vessels fuel tank, keep a log of all boat run time. We keep a log of engine run time and fill the boat after every day on the river. Our log looks like this.

Date POB Engine hours hours run fuel Econ

10may09 R&A 710 10 50Gal 5gph

12may09 R&A 718.5 8.5 41Gal 4.8gph

15may09 R 732.5 14 56Gal 4gph

And so on. If we know the capacity of our fuel tank (71 Gallons for Tugger), then we can calculate our average fuel consumption which is about 4.5 gallons per hour and know that we have a maximum run time of 15.75 hours which we would never run all the way to. We prefer to use the rule of thirds and use one third of our fuel heading out, a third to get back and keeping a third in reserve. This is an excellent strategy for running offshore, here on the river we generally fuel up anytime we get to the one third left point, usually at 10 hours of run time, as read from the log and the engine hour meter. We keep track of POB (persons on board) on the boat log, for sea time forms that must be submitted to the Coast Guard with our license renewal every 5 years. If you ever considered getting a captains license, it is a very good idea to keep a boat log. A boat log is also very important to keep track of engine maintenance schedules.

503 349 4401

Hang on…Tugger is coming!

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