Doug Lloyd wrote: > > Just finished reading the latest issue (DEC 2000). [snip] > PS I wonder who got their article rejected about doing a crossing > without a VHF radio across a shipping channel? Mention was made in the > editorial. Guess I shouldn't point fingers after the failed Storm Island > crossing. I do know I went out and bought a waterproof VHF right after > the incident, [snip] One wonders why the editor got fussy about that lapse, given the panopoly of other errors which appear in other articles. Perhaps it was the 'tude of the dude. IIRC (my issue is lost in the maelstorm we call a house), the guy was boastful. If memory serves me, Duane has pointed out on this list that "dodging" a freighter is easy for a maneuverable craft such as ours, if one has good visibility ... not that I'm eager to play in freighter traffic. Reminds me that a local pair got lost in rapture of the deep (or something, maybe vertigorapture) while ogling picturesque Skamokawa, upriver of here, only to catch a freighter bow in their peripheral vision ... just before the five long horn blasts! One of them, my long-time paddling buddy Gary, said it was nearly a brown cockpit experience! I love to twit him about this lapse, 'cause he's a degreed oceanographer! I would not want to be a grease spot on a freghter bow! Duane, if you are reading this: ever surfed a freighter wake? How close do you have to be to make that work? I never have, though I've hooked short rides on a couple tugboat wakes, generated by cooperative tug skippers who knew I wanted a big wake to play in. Ah, well, the games we play! While I'm babbling (see, Doug, others have run-at-the-mouth disease, too!), I should mention that the tug operators on the Columbia must be about the most savvy bunch of mariners extant 'round here. Same local pair mentioned above got searchlighted by a tug operator one *very* dark night as they paddled parallel to the ship channel (in safe waters). How he (she?) was able to pick them out against the dark shoreline boggles me. They run just outside the shipping channel, often, to stay away from the heavy tonnage. Nice guys, too. When paddling the Columbia, I leave my VHF in dual monitoring mode, on 13 and 16, just so I can listen to the shipping traffic -- nice to know when they are coming. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Nov 08 2000 - 00:27:28 PST
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