| The trip to New York for the OP SAIL was an adventure. Lot's of miles,
too tight a schedule, but the weather did cooperate.
The trip through the C&D canal, Down the Delaware, around the Cape
(May) and up the coast was cool compared to Chesapeake sailing. We did
not get warm until our return to the Chesapeake.
The events in New York Harbor reaffirmed my feelings of mass
events...head the other direction. The Coast Guard had no idea of how
to handle the crowds of boats. In the three days in the harbor, I
anchored 15 times thanks to the CG. As fast as they asked boats to
move, more filled in behind. After seeing their "expertise", I would
recommend disbanding the CG and letting the local municipalities and
Navy take over the tasks. The money saved would be used in place of
our user fees.
New York Harbor claimed several anchors, including my FX37. With a
depth of 15 feet and the rhode "up and down", I had 65 feet of line
out. After 40 minutes, I finally cut the line. The current made the
boats ride very curiously and was probably the cause of the many wraps.
On Friday evening behind Ellis island, a 35 trawler dragged into the
bridge and lost its tower, bimini and propane system. The crew jumped
when the propane tank was hit. Luckily there was no fire or injuries.
The parade of tall ships was impressive and worth the trip. On Sunday
we were able to motor around the Hudson and East rivers and see them
closer.
The trip was fun, but I look forward to shorter trips in quiet places.
552 miles in two weeks was too much when you stop each night. Of the 96
hours underway, only 12 were sailing only the rest motor sailing or
just motoring to meet the schedule. And I was not able to pay off the
boat during the stop at Atlantic City.
The Pronav GPS was a wonderful asset on the trip. It allowed us to
easily confirm ground speed and see the effects of current. In the C&D
canal, the boat speed was 5.5, ground speed was 7.5 to 8. On the
several times we departed before first light, it was right on every
mark.
One last comment on Cape May. This is a really neat town with rich
Victoria nheritage. We spent two days and enjoyed them a lot. I
recommend this as a stop if you are ever in the area.
Hopefully we will see some notes on how the events in Boston and
Newport for OP SAIL went.
|
|
Boston was great. Everything I could have hoped for.
We left Woods Hole early tours AM, caught the ebb through and jybed
tacked a course down Buzzard's Bay to the canal, averaging over 5 kts
in our 26' Pearson Ariel. Although we arrived about 90 minutes before
the canal was to flood east, we poked through anyway. With the still
strong SW and the motor on we got through by noon. We then proceeded to
Scituate where I had made slip reservations in April. Everything went
just fine. Well, until that knockdown when the front went through
causing the Windex to fly off :-(
Friday we sailed and motored to Boston harbor. We toured the designated
achorages and went up to Charlestown Shipyard to get a look see. The
harbor was chaos with a steady 3 ft chop - too much for our
comfort, but we knew that would happen and we were prepared for it.
We finally decided on the anchorage just off of fort point channel and
Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant (we were Ch 5's backdrop, the little blue
hulled sloop at the corner of the anchorage in their background.)
Although it was already pretty crowded, we managed to drop anchor in
a tight spot and settled down to a front row view of the whole event
with no boats in front of us!
The ferries leaving Rowe's wharf kicked up quite a slop and in general
it was a bit uncomfortable. Once the sun set however, the harbor
patrols started reducing the wakes - all except the ferries, of
course...
The worst part of the weekend (actually 5 days) was the anchorage Friday
night. The wind had gone light and with everyone's scope varying from
1.5 to 3 or 4 we all swung into each other. I got tired of caring about
bumping at about 3 AMish and said the heck with it. Let the other guy
worry, we have a 27 year old boat that looks like a wreck anyway. No
damage was done, and enough wind finally blew up so as to keep us in
formation.
The boaters around us all abounded with patience; no one got mad, and
we all thoroughly enjoyed watching the little runabout try to anchor
with no chain and 1.01 scope. The CG aux even started laughing as they
continually drifted into the channel only to get shooed back in.
The parade was breathtaking, even on less than 4 hours sleep. When Ol'
Ironsides came up the harbor with the fireboats sending red, white, and
blue streams high into the air, my eyes started watering. It was truly
a sight to behold. The official viewing stand and the Constitution
exchanged 21 gun salutes loud enough to take your breath away (we were
only a couple of hundred of yards away).
The parade settled into a steady state of a tall ship (class A) and a
flotilla of smaller boats coming up about once every 40 minutes or so.
We got a photo of almost each ship (boy is Photomat going to like
us...). Some masters clearly understood their PR mission and kept
close to the spectators, even hamming it up sometimes. For example, the
Polish ship played and sung the Polish National anthem, we thought,
and another ship had a bagpiper. Great fun. The Japanese chip showed
typical efficiency in striking sail with every cadet running to each
position.
Towards the end of the parade, the thrill was starting to wear off. It
started at 10ish in our viewing area, and maybe 9ish off of Deer
Island. It was 5 before the last tall ship came by us. We had seen
lotsa boats by then and were getting numb and the lack of sleep was
definitely catching up.
When the anchorages were broken up, we got conflicting reports as to
whether we could stay in the temporary anchorage or not. We finally
got kicked out and motored to behind Long Island for a nice peaceful
night (except for the constant jet landings). Perhaps the most
"thrilling" sight was motoring down the harbor channel towards Long
Island only to see just about every boat that was South of Logan
heading IN! I mean, it was one little Ariel vs. a tallship still not
completely berthed and about 500 spectator, CG, and CG aux boats
powering up towards us. More than one Aux boat yelled at us, but the
cox on a 44 said we were doing fine.
Sunday we motored about a bit, got some gas in Hull and then went back
to Scituate where a slip was waiting along with some beautiful hot
showers. We left Scituate early Monday and managed to sail the 28 miles
to the canal averaging about 5.5 knots, mostly with only the 110 up
reaching into a SW 15-22. Quite a sail! We made it through the canal
with a strong following current and even peaked at 10 kt. over the
ground. We anchored opposite the Mass Maritime Academy, had lunch, and
had a gorgeous run down buzzards bay. (the wind had shifted to NW by
then, so the dreaded SW wind verses canal current fight did not
appear.)
All in all, it was an experience I'll not soon forget.
Reporters notebook (or little type bytes):
o The Boston Yacht Club brought their own launch down from
Marblehead. It must be nice.
o Scituate is a really nice harbor. The harbormaster's marina and
personal are first class, and $40 seems fair for a slip with water,
electricity, and free showers. A good restaurant is near by with
excellent prices and killer drinks.
o The CG reserves were great. This was totally unexpected as I though
the yahoos would be out in force; and maybe they were, but the two
boats patrolling our area were the most courteous and helpful power
boaters I have seen. The Boston Police were obnoxious. One even
slowed a sailboat down because he thought it was leaving a wake!
and this while the ferries buzz back and forth 10 yards away.
o Where to people in little boats pee? One small open cockpit
runabout appeared in front of us at about 5 or 6 AM, and didn't
leave until the parade broke up. Where do they hold it?
o Logan. Boston would be a delight to sail if it were not for Logan.
o Sometimes plans work. We had, in almost any analysis, the best of
luck. For example, the easy reach from Scituate to the canal in a
SW, motoring through and anchoring while it politely veered to NW
for our run down the bay? Slips reserved in April that were still
there? Four out of five currents going the right way? Ramar, the
god of sailing luck, was with us!
o Maxis. Next to the Constitution being paraded up with the
fireboats, the Maxis and Whitbread boats put on the best show. Two
of them rocketed in formation to within 15 feet of the official
reviewing stand, then quick-tacked away. They were running
circles around each other and anything else in sight. What
magnificent wind machines they are!
Would I do it again? probably not. I've seen it, and if my luck holds
out and the pictures develop, I'll have lotsa memories. Would I
recommend it to those who haven't done it yet? Definitely.
Your observer,
Paul Sears (with crew Evan Suits and wife Christine, and our boat
"Cachalot")
|
| [Reprinted without permission from the Boston Globe, 28-Jul-1992]
Tug's toilet troubles bring dockside dispute
Captain and Massport official at odds
- David Arnold
Globe Staff
Antagonists in an alleged felony sparked by a tampon dispenser and
fanned by an overflowing tugboat toilet are scheduled to appear in
court today to detail versions of a broadside on the night the
fireworks exploded during the Tall Ships visit.
It was not clear sailing for everyone, particularly for Barbara
Brennan, Massachusetts Port Authority property administrator, and
Arthur Knowlton, president of Guido Tugboat and Salvage Corp.
Knowlton leases East Boston dock space at Pier 1. Massport owns
the pier and Brennan manages it. She had told tenants that guests
and family were not allowed to watch festivities from the pier for
safety's sake. Then Massport apparently filled the void with more
than a few spectators of its own.
On the drizzly night of July 12, a faulty toilet brought
Knowlton and 38 guests ashore for an emergency repair. Words and
gestures were exchanged. Waterfront words and gestures.
The upshot is that Brennan has filed civil complaints against
Knowlton for assault and battery and making physical threats - the
only felony complaints filed to date related to the six-day, 6
million-person celebration, according to law enforcement officials.
The clerk magistrate of East Boston District Court will hear
arguments, then decide if formal complaints should be issued against
Knowlton.
Knowlton vows innocence. Brennan was unavailable for comment.
Massport says this is Brennan's matter, not the authority's. But
you can't separate Brennan from Massport to reach the human
fireworks that erupted with the star clusters and magnesium slautes
exploding overhead.
Their courses began conveging in earnest two months ago when
Massport announced rents were going up between 100 and 400 percent
for the 24 Mom and Pop shops that work the waterfront from Pier 1.
Then came a June 11 notice from Brennan's office stating that all
access to the piers - Pier 1, and the adjacent, dilapidated Pier 3 -
was prohibited during Tall Ships events.
Massport eventually reconsidered when it realized this would
keep the pilots, tug operators and docking masters from getting to
their boats for the volunteer work that guided and docked the ships.
A subsequent memo from Brennan said tenants would have access to
boats, but there would be no viewing that Saturday's parade and
Sunday's fireworks from the pier.
Come Saturday, however, perhaps two dozen Massport employees and
their families were seen watching the ship parade from lawn chairs
at the end of Pier 1, according to a videotape taken by Robert
Clement, a tugboat engineer. Boston City Councilor Robert E.
Travaglini (East Boston) and acquaintances had Pier 3 almost
exclusively to themselves.
"I recognized some people at the gate," Travaglini would explain
later. "No one stopped me."
Tenants were beginning to smell hypocrisy. Enter Capt. Arthur
Knowlton, in earnest.
Knowlton, 50 and hefty, is something of a waterfront legend,
according to tug operators. He retrieved acid containers at
considerable risk to himself when a Boeing 707 cargo plane crashed
into the harbor in 1973 - then he towed the broken-down Massport
fireboat home. Nine years later, he was first on the scene by boat
with blankets and dry clothes when a World Airways DC-10 slid off
the end of Runway 15.
Captains orders -
So Knowlton boarded his tug on fireworks night feeling life with
Massport was imperfect but civil. He had 38 guests - many of them
family and clients. They all got the captain's briefing about how
things such as the toilet work.
"And nothing goes through it that hasn't first been through
you," Knowlton told them of a machine with a disdain for foreign
objects. He has a way of being direct. It became a factor later.
At 8:50 p.m. he anchored Adam J. near the fireworks barge. Ten
minutes later, he had to send a crew member below to switch the
toilet's flow of effluent - Knowlton calls it "product" - from one
holding tank to another. At 9:05 p.m., someone flushed a tampon
dispenser down the toilet, but not all the way.
The object caught in a small grinding motor, which shorted out.
Wires began burning, a valve broke, and Knowlton had himself a
bigger problem. Product started spilling onto the 480-volt diesel
generator located directly below the valve.
He decided not to alarm his passengers - they were, after all,
clients. Deckhand Robert Proulx was sent below in a raincoat to
deflect product from shorting the generator. Proulx would later
have little nice to say about the task.
"Not the dream job," he would say. He had to close all hatches
and doors to the engine room to keep the smell of burned wires and
spilling product from guests.
Demands to leave -
Knowlton intended to return to Pier 1, retrieve a small Sears
Wet-Vac from his office, pump the original holding tank empty, then
steer Adam J. back towards the fireworks barge.
But Knowlton met Brennan at the pier - along with perhaps a
dozen faces he did not recognize including family members of several
Massport employees, he said he learned later. He also met with
demands to leave. One James Solari, a Massport maintenance manager,
apparently is recorded on a videotape shouting at Knowlton to "get
out like three Massport officials have told you to do." Knowlton's
laywer has the tape.
Apparently, there was little concern for the guests aboard Adam
J. - or deckhand Proulx, still deflecting product below as the
fireworks started exploding above.
The meeting between Knowlton and Brennan is not on videotape.
As the captain tells it, the collision was verbal only as he
inexorably worked his way toward his office and the Sears Wet-Vac.
By the time Knowlton got back with the pump, then emptied the tank
and got Proulx topsides for fresh air, the show - the fireworks show
- was over.
Ultimately, who did and said what may be left in the hands of
the American judicial system. But one thing is certain. If you are
ever asked aboard the Adam J., do as the captain asks.
|