Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

[Pitsligo]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

...if I made a slot in the transom for the OB to kick up, there goes the aesthetics as far as I am concerned.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to sometimes consider brute pragmatism secondary to aesthetics. Then again, I haven't even managed to figure out a good way to mount an outboard *anywhere* aboard Bucephalus, so I'm hardly one to talk.

Thank you for this thread, Alex. I've been bookmarking your "series" as a cruising guide to pore over during winter dreaming.

(The other) Alex

[Yeadon]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Just read this thread. Shocking.

[Bruce Bateau]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Alex, I appreciate the tale. Thanks for all the details. It gives a fellow in a motorless boat a lot to think about when that day comes that I run the Inside Passage, in whatever form that takes. I almost bought a Garden designed Eel a while back and that seemed like an ideal boat for the trip- it just wasn't so useful for all the other pursuits that I have, so I'm sticking with my Arctic Tern.

And good on you for being on the water in any form. When you're outside, you win.

[auscruisertom]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Wonderfull story and pictures thank you.
I spent around a decade living and sailing around Port Hardy and Nanaimo and while I met a number of small boat cruisers, engineless boats other than kayaks where unheard of in those days.
Unless a camp cruiser does not have a timetable to adhere to an engine represents prudent seamanship in that part of the world.

[AJZimm]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Just read this thread. Shocking.

I know. Who would have thought it would come to this?

When I was mounting the outboard on Fire-Drake for the first time, in my driveway, my next door neighbour, a retired commercial diver, asked "Isn't that against your religion?"

[AJZimm]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Thanks for the good words, guys.

It's always fun to share the experiences.

Soon I will probably turn into one of those boring old farts who won't shut up about how great they were when they were younger.

[signalcharlie]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Thanks for the thoughts on motor location, seems best to keep heading down the KISS trail.

Cheers!

[Dave Lesser]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Just read this thread. Shocking.

I know. Who would have thought it would come to this?

I saw it coming

[dsimonson]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

^^ haha, Dave, good foresight!

Another great trip log, Alex, thank you so much for bringing us along! (I'm glad you found your way down from Grace, I'm sure we'll all be following you sooner or later.)

All the best,
Dale

[rbgarr]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Your near miss in fog with the ferry was VERY fortunate. Although there are few guarantees in fog, using a VHF to call out your position, speed and course with some frequency is good practice. Just last week a 60 foot racing sloop appeared out of the fog less than 150 feet off in the fog heading on the opposite course from us. The closing speed was likely ten knots so I had about five seconds to recognize and turn. We'd been calling out our position, speed and direction between buoys but never heard similar calls from any other boat. It would have been very bad for everyone had we hit.

Some standard advice here:

"... call out a brief "sécurité" on the VHF radio giving your position, course, vessel name, and type. But if there are too many boats around you, this may become counterproductive if everyone is calling. Use your best judgment as to when to transmit. ALWAYS listen for other calls and respond if prudent.

When you give your position, it may be appropriate to give... your latitude and longitude... speed... also your position relative to a known ATON or landmark. Many skippers are so busy in fog that by the time they determine the location of a lat/long position, it may be too late. Some commercial vessels and large yachts with sophisticated equipment can tell quickly what your lat/long means to them and will probably know your location, speed, and bearing. But you won't know whether the other vessel is so equipped. Obviously, an automatic identification system (AIS) can be invaluable in a fog situation. However, there will still be vessels, as well as other objects, not equipped with AIS."

[Ben Fuller]

Re: Fire-Drake Falls from Grace

Seems to me that there once was this thing called a foghorn, maybe a bell? Hard if you are single handing but not so bad if there is crew. My guess is that 60 footer had some idling rail meat.

[AJZimm]

Good advice on getting on the blower with a securite. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it at the time. I do have a manual sound-maker, which makes a piercing sound and which I used but I always have trouble with nailing down the direction of someone else’s horn.
In this case I was able to get to water too shallow for the ferry pretty quickly but there were a few tense moments before that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AJZimm]

AIS is awesome. I’m sitting in Sausalito at this moment, having come in yesterday afternoon after sailing down the coast with Dave and Rosemary Lesser in LaVieEnRose.
AIS enabled us to keep track of other boats with AIS in low visibility, such as the middle of the night in fog, of which there was a fair amount. However not all boats have AIS which is why we kept watches 24/7


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk