Jul 25 2007
Sailing Safety in Southern California
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Either I’m paying closer attention than usual or there are more idiots on the water these days. Button 16 has been crackling with lunacy.
Take last weekend’s adventurer who 1. Lost power 2. Didn’t know the name of the boat 3. Couldn’t get the anchor rigged and deployed 4. And (this is the best) didn’t know where he was!
Vessel Assist was very patient and tried to puzzle out where to send their rescue boat (“vicinity of Anacapa in the fishing area” just wasn’t a small enough search area.)
The Vessel Assist guy gave him a lesson on how to use his GPS to derive present position, but was having a very unrewarding time. For all we know, he’s still adrift.
Think about what else he probably didn’t know about – the coastwise traffic lanes, for instance. That fog can come whistling in even on clear days. About Sundowners, Santa Anas … I may switch my vote and speak out in favor of licensing boaters.
Other safety issues – there’s a new Red Nun buoy at Ventura. Haven’t seen it yet, but it’s the #4 buoy, so it will help keep us clear of the shoal water near the south jetty. The smart money has always gone to the #2 buoy and lined up with the channel, but it’s not all smart money in play and someone in authority has gone proactive and given us a safety marker a bit closer in. Judicious sailors would still head for the #2, especially in times of reduced visibility.
Back to lunacy. Let’s address the lunacy that comes in liquid form. Neptune/Poseidon know(s) that I like a beer when sailing, but I don’t touch it before the trip and wait until I’m tied up or the hook is firmly holding before I have that first one.
The legal blood-alcohol limit is .08 – just like driving and the penalty is the same as driving drunk – loss of driving privileges.
But legalities aside, think of the jeopardy you’d be in if you’d had something more than your legal limit and the fog settled in …. or a Sundowner knocked you down … or there was an unexpected 10 knots of crosswind when you attempted docking. How ’bout if you were schnockered and the furling line disengaged from the winch …. could be exciting going on deck if your balance and reactions are impaired.
How agile would you be with 3 or four beers under your belt? How good would your depth perception be; how fast could you react?
Sailing drunk is probably more hazardous than driving impaired. We’ve got no yellow lines out there and you can’t easily pull off to the side when you’re underway.
And, by the way, it’s not smart to let your crew get wasted either. Among other things, the probability of losing them over the side goes way, way up. Not to mention the puke factor.
