Warm Breezes at Block Island

Things got a tad warm out here on Monday morning. Here I am pulling the pin on another extinguisher. The first one put out the mainsail cover and some of the decks....it was a 20 minute battle, but we eventually got it out.

Tandem tow anyone?

CG Cutter Dependable's Crew Rescues 5 in Fla. Cape May County Herald:

Shortly before 4 p.m. Aug. 18, a commercial salvage company had been assisting two vessels that had reportedly run out of gas. Upon towing in one of the vessels, when the salvage company returned to tow the other vessel in they were unable to relocate the vessel and then notified the Coast Guard..... The crew of the Falcon located a 25-foot vessel with one person aboard and dropped food, water and a VHF marine radio. Upon establishing communication with the individual through the use of that radio, the person informed the Coast Guard that his vessel began taking on water the last evening and four persons abandoned the vessel around midnight.

I don't know any details about this case other than what is written in this article, but from what is reported, this sounds like a tandem tow might have been a good solution. This could have had very tragic results. Anyone out there know the details?

Tandem Towing

In Southern California, where twenty-five and thrity mile tows are pretty common, we used to do "tandem" tows when things got really busy. Its not very hard to set up, and can save valuable resourses when the jobs are getting stacked up.

I had a chance to grab a small boat this past weekend and bring two boats inside our breakwall where another towboat took the smaller one off my hands. The picture shows the two boats in tow from my single towboat.

There is a trick to doing this right. Always put the larger boat farther back, and have him steer to one side, then take the smaller boat in close, with just a little helm to the opposite side. The idea is for the smaller boat to just have some tension on his rudder to keep him outside your wake.

With this set up, make very slow, wide turns. Turns towards the side with the big boat are easier.

Gov't getting involved with derelict disposals

Saw this today:

How to Solve the Growing National Problem of Abandoned Boats

... the state governor signed a law allowing the sinking boats to be removed by
DNREC officials. Now if a boat is abandoned or adrift for more than 30 days, the
state can take possession and remove the obstacle. (Source: Delmarvanow.)

Yet more signs that derelict disposal is becoming an alternate income source for guys like us. But, who is persuing it? If we don't, will the state just have their agencies actually do the work?