Island Moon A 13June 17, 2011

On  The  Hook

By Captain Arthur HelmsteadtI was beginning to think there would never be anoth-

er good offshore window. Finally, on Wednesday of last week, that chance ! nally appeared. The following Thurs-day was the best I’d seen in a while. To sweeten the pot, Sarah was just looking for a reason to close down the shop and take a day off. After all, we do live in a vaca-tion destination; why not take advantage of it from time to time. The decision was made, to hell with working on Thursday. Our friends Dave & Heidi were in town the entire week and were dying to get the “Super! shal” their 32’ Century out. A few phone calls later and the plans were set. There is nothing quite like breaking the Jetties on a weekday morning with good friends and calm seas. Even Augs caught a horrible cold and had to join our day out.

Rescue  at  Sea  We even spotted a Scalloped Ham-

merhead shark as we pulled up to our favorite rig; it was the ! rst one I’ve ever seen. That’s one of the things I love about going offshore, you never really know what you’re going to see. We caught our share of tasty ocean creatures throughout the day and even had a fun battle with a good size black tip; which Augs masterfully litered and released. The highpoint of the day was rescuing the two snorkelers in the picture. Apparently another boat had left them behind so we volunteered to take them back to shore. Those two characters were so friendly we decided to have them over for dinner that night. Whatever boat is responsible for leaving them stranded that day should be ashamed of themselves.

Going  Green  Always the considerate one, Augs went green with his

recycled rusted hammerhead Grouper rig…..must be that hippie girlfriend setting an example for him. Don’t worry folks; all snapper caught were current on their tet-anus shots.

It turned out to be a beautiful day on the high seas with good friends and good ! shing. Many thanks to Dave, Heidi and the “Super! shal” for the good times and great Kosher dogs.

Stop  rockin  the  boats!  Let’s talk about boat wakes and “No Wake Zones.”

There are a number of designated “No Wake Zones” in our area. All are well marked and well known. It’s dif-! cult to ! nd a good de! nition of what no wake speed is. In fact, no wake speed varies greatly from one boat to another. A good rule of thumb is no faster than about

4.5kts. That said, one must under-stand where the law sits on the subject. The Coast Guard takes a slightly different approach to the no wake dilemma. Their rule basi-cally says you are responsible for your own wake. If the boat you’re captaining creates a wake disturbance large enough to damage another person’s property, you are responsible for that damage. In other words, you own your wake.

Most of us are familiar with that little strip of water be-tween Marker 37 and the JFK. Though it IS the ICW and

technically not an enforceable no wake zone, it should be traversed with a certain amount of courte-sy. In fact, if there are any boats present at “Snoopy’s”, “Doc’s”, or even around the “Trula B”, it should be considered “no wake” territory.

I feel bad for boat owners eat-ing at Doc’s or Snoopy’s on a busy afternoon. I see boats ev-eryday getting slammed up against Snoopy’s docks just be-cause other boaters don’t have enough courtesy to slow down. Slow down between the Marker 37 buoy and the JFK Bridge…..

there is usually some nice scenery to view in that area anyway. Lol. Blasting underneath the bridge at high speeds is also a bit unsafe as well. Visibility is greatly diminished and this area as it is kind of like a 4-way in-tersection on the water. Also, please understand that “no wake” speed is not an exact speed. I’ve seen many boat-ers slow down from 30kts to around 9 kts, thinking their doing everybody a favor. The reality is, they’re creating dangerously larger wakes. At 9kts most boats are plow-ing through the water not quite on plane but de! nitely not off plane. Even small boats create huge rollers at those speeds. Not long ago I was almost thrown out of my work boat from someone doing this. The best thing to do is bring your engine all the way back to idle, ad-vance from there to a reasonable speed.

Most of us are guilty of going a little too fast from time to time. I know I’ve caught myself many times. All I ask is that we all try to be a little more considerate of oth-ers. Slow it down a bit if you notice a lot of chop behind your boat. If you do “wake” a fellow boater out, give em a wave or swing back and apologize. How big of a hurry could you possibly be in?

See y’all on the water!

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