Actually I never owned one. I did use one – poorly – when I was a midshipman. I could reliably find our continent, might even be able to hit something in California, but I wouldn’t want to trust my best work when it comes to navigating shallow waters, reefs and the like. On the other hand, if you’re going out for an extended period way off shore, you might want to consider some of the bad things that might happen to the GPS satellites while you’re gone.
An article I read recently talked about all the possibilities for GPS disaster, including that the Indians or Pakistanis my take the satellites out to deny each other targeting info. They also cited some more likely issues notably that the signal from the satellite is very weak and prone to physical interference. There’s also some fear that terrorists might jam the signals to disrupt shipping.
Frankly, I’m not nearly as concerned with any of that as I am with the errors you can see everyday. One of the annoying GPS errors is manifested in false anchor alarms. Not that I’d trust any device 100% to keep me off the rocks, but isn’t the device supposed to be accurate enough to tell if I’m dragging anchor?
Well, no.
In fact, I was able to see GPS error quite clearly on my SPOT. I thought I’d turned it off when I put it in my nav bag. I learned that it was on when one of my friends called to ask if I’d run aground, noting that SPOT showed my Jeanneau in my garage.
When I went to the map display two days later, I saw that my garage had made several jumps of 100 yards or more in the course of 48 hours … or the GPS position was occasionally out of whack. And now I know why the anchor alarm goes off randomly.
The article that started this discussion voiced the opinion that we shouldn’t throw our sextants away. Well, mine is as rusty as my skills. I doubt that I’ll clean the one or brush up the other. That is unless I head to open ocean. In the absence of other entertainment, you can find an engaging activity (and for me frustrating) at sunset, sunrise and noon.
In any event, if you’re not in home waters, it makes sense – has always made sense – to keep a DR track going.
The squid fleet is having a hell of a time keeping their boats afloat. About two weeks ago the Fishing Vessel Lady Francis (thought ladies spelled in Frances) ran aground in Smugglers and Sat. night, the F/V Donz Rig ran aground trying to find her way into the harbor. The Fishing Vessel Donz Rig***** is supported by supplemental buoyancy bags and surrounded by oil booms. At least two Vessel Assist boats, a Coast Guard vessel and a few other boats accompanied the wounded lady back home to Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor.
I’ve been trying to get the CG to tell us what caused these incidents as there might be a lesson for us all to learn. Think of it – Lady F went aground on Santa Cruz Island on a no-wind night with visibility unrestricted and under a full moon. How’d that happen?
Donz Rig apparently bounced off the north jetty trying to negotiate the turn into Channel Islands Harbor, began taking water immediately and beached herself on Hollywood Beach.
Actually, I can see how that could happen, particularly to an out-of-towner.
It may take an appeal under the Freedom of Information act, but we mariners need to know the multiple causes of these accidents or we’re liable to repeat the actions ourselves.
more when I learn more
and now I’ve leaned more
****Turns out that the boat towed in Sunday was Donz Rig on her way to the shipyard. Sources in the harbor say the crew thought they were entering Ventura Harbor, spun around when they realized their mistake and clipped the north jetty, ending up aground on Hollywood Beach.
There was a small – a couple of gallons – of diesel discharged during the event.
F/V Lady Francis was reportedly towed from Smugglers to a Ventura shipyard for salvage last week. Sources say that was a particularly long ride at a max. speed of 1.8 knots.
This past Saturday was one of those days that really makes you realize why you took up sailing. Dan and I were taking a couple from Colorado on a two-day sail to Santa Cruz Isl. The forecast was for clear skies and warm temperatures with light and variable winds, building later in the day.
We departed Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard with a SW breeze barely strong enough to sail in. This, however, did not deter us from hoisting the sails to avoid any unnecessary destruction of fossil fuel. As the day proceeded, the winds not only built to a solid 15, with gusts of 17 or 18, but they also clocked around to the west enabling us to sail straight into Smuggler’s. The seas were relatively flat aiding a truly great ride with our SOG averaging between 7 and 8 kts for the better part of the afternoon.
While we are pretty used to winds dying off as you get in the lee of the island, this day was somewhat unusual in that as we were trucking along at about 7 kts., we hit the wind line at the lee, and everything just shut down as if someone threw the off switch signaling the end of the ride. As a result, we motored the rest of the way into the anchorage, which we had pretty much to ourselves save a few boats already bedded down in Yellowbanks.
Conditions in the anchorage were absolutely calm and visibility that night was incredible as we had a nearly full moon (actually a waning gibbous for those of you consistently following this blog) and completely clear skies.
OK…by now you are no doubt asking “why are you writing all this about as perfect a sail and conditions at anchor one could hope for?” Well, read on…
As perfect as the sailing and anchoring conditions were, these were also the perfect sleeping conditions with everything calm and just the gentle rocking of the boat. As a result, after a fine meal we all turned in. I was sleeping quite soundly when I woke sometime between 0200 and 0300 to what seemed to be the sound of numerous ships as well as the sight of some rather unusual lights. Bleary-eyed, I made my way topside, and saw what appeared to be quite an assortment of squid boats, a few other fishing vessels, a coast guard vessel (which actually turned out to be the park service boat, all with every light they had turned on (if you have ever seen squid boats at night, you know that they not only produce some significant candle power, but that some even resort to bizarre lighting that almost borders on the psychedelic – for those of you old enough to have survived the 60’s). In addition, there was a powerful search light trained on the cliff south of the olive grove occasionally scouring the adjacent beach. My first thought was that someone may have gone overboard, and I checked to make sure channel 16 was on to see if I could hear what was going on. I must say that with all the chatter we normally hear on channel 16 that ranges from the mundane…”I’ve run out of gas…” “Hey! Does anyone know where I am?” etc. to bona fide May Day calls with lives in the balance (see an excellent blog entry by Dwight Landis on 17 August – two articles down) But this night there was nothing at all on either 16 or 22. Regardless, I watched for a while, and confident that whatever was going on, there was nothing that I do except get in the way, went back to sleep. Waking early the next morning, I mentioned the commotion I witnessed during the night to Dan. He and I went topside to see what might be up.
As we did, we saw a CG Search and Rescue helicopter approaching and after a brief glance at the shore, spotted the object of the night’s commotion—the FV Lady Francis had run a ground and was getting quite a pounding on the rocks. We certainly hope the skipper escaped unharmed, and at this time have no idea of the cause of the grounding in such benign conditions. The lesson that it should teach us, however, is that the unusual can (and often will) happen when you least expect it.
The rest of the day, we reflected on the hapless skipper and his plight and continued to wonder how he wound up where he did. I suppose that this made us a little more attuned to what was going on around us, which leads to my next two topics.
After sailing an hour or so, there was one of those Securite – messages that we all half pay attention to. This one in particular gave the hot area for a live-fire (real bullets) exercise. Of course we all know that those are rarely anywhere near our sailing area (or are they??). After hearing the message 2 or 3 times, Dan asked me what the coordinates were. I automatically repeated what I had heard, and as I did, I realized that they just didn’t sound right. Dan hailed the CG, and after several attempts to have them repeat the coordinates of the hot area, they answered and asked us to switch to channel 22, which we did. However, no one ever came on 22. We hailed them again, and after a couple more attempts got the Los Angeles Sector to give us the coordinates one more time (which we repeated back to them). A quick plotting of the coordinates revealed that the location they gave was in fact about 50 miles inland in a suburban area. We were quite sure that was not the hot area, and called the CG back. We suggested that they check their coordinates mentioning what we noticed. About 10 minutes or so later, there was another Securite – this time with coordinates that placed the hot area just inside the missile range (a much more believable location). So why am I relating this mildly amusing story. Well, it got me thinking about Dwight’s blog entry (mentioned before). In it, Dwight gives some very good advice about clearly giving your position in an emergency. Among other things, he suggested the manner in which to hail the CG and how to state your position “Coast Guard Sector Channel Islands (or Los Angeles, San Diego, …) this is sailing vessel _________, my current position is 119 37decimal123, 34 36decimal456…” Given the possibility as demonstrated above of someone getting the coordinates wrong, I would suggest that in addition to your coordinates, that you also state your location (e.g. “I am approximately 4 mi south west of Santa Cruz Isl” or where ever you might be). In an emergency, the more information about where you are the easier it will for anyone in the area to provide help, and might help catch an erroneous set of coordinates.
Feeling good about having performed our civic duty, we returned to our sightseeing and cruised along the coast of Anacapa before heading across the Shipping Lane as we have done countless times. This time, however, there were approximately 40 fishing boats in the Separation Zone, all involved in different maneuvers on different courses and at different speeds. Getting through the Separation Zone took somewhere close to an hour (think rush hour on the 405 Freeway!), and kept Dan and me both busy just keeping track of who was going where and who was the stand on vessel. It was really quite a sight, and something that neither of us had seen before.
At the end of the day, what I learned from all of these stories is that even on the calmest of days, and doing seemingly mundane tasks that we have performed time and time again, stay alert and expect the unexpected.
If you think the tax on your boat is too high, the Ventura County Assessor just might agree.
If you’ve looked at any brokerage page on the net, you know that your boat isn’t going to sell for anything near the amount you paid. Yet you keep getting tax bills based on that amount.
If your boat is in Channel Islands Harbor or Ventura Harbor, call the Ventura County Assessor and ask for an assessment appeal form, fill it out and send before the end of November. Don’t bother trying their website. That is an electronic disaster area. Call (805) 654-2181 and request the form.
BTW – the form covers the 2009-2010 tax year and does not affect this year’s taxes.
BTW -2- I intend to file every year for each of my boats. It’s marked on my calendar annually on 1 Oct.
The process takes a long time – about a year, so it looks like I’ll be “in process” all the time if I file a yearly appeal. Even if the economy largely recovers, the value of the boats will likely continue to decline. A sad state of affairs, but a boat fact of life. Don’t let it be more expensive than the law requires.
If you own a boat in California but outside Ventura County, call your county assessor. The process will be similar.
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