GL: Sunken Yacht in the ICW near Belhaven, NC

[John & Judy Gill]

The point that everyone seems to be missing on this thread is that a  
"towboat" knocked out the marker.  Did the towboat report his  
incident to the C.G.?   Was there a Notice to Mariners posted about  
the missing marker?  On the boat which sunk, I have read that there  
was not one but two "licensed" captains "delivering" the boat South  
for the owner.

Hopefully they were not exceeding any of the slow, no-wake speed  
zones on the ICW (no mention of them doing so).

Could this be another case of the "locals" not paying attention to  
navigational hazards in order to help the local repair businesses??   
A boater from our marina was subject of such a situation a few years  
ago -- strangely in the same area where a temporary USCG bouy was  
removed, causing his sinking.

John

==========================================
On Nov 21, 2007, at 6:24 PM, Dave Cooper wrote:

> It looks to me that this guy was either over running his eyeballs/ 
> skills or
> was just going to fast for his navigational skills.
>
> At 22 kts the turn he made at "17" gave him a chance to line up  
> with "16" to
> his port in about 5-7 secs after the 45 degree turn to starboard  
> between
> "19" and "17" (at 22kts this would be a fairly sharp turn in this  
> boat).
> Then he has 1.16NM to the "missing green" aka "15" which is only  
> another
> ~40-45 seconds. Little time to (a) look around to see where it is  
> and (b) to
> realize that it is missing.
>
> So again I'd say speed had a great deal to do with the collision as  
> it is
> apparent that he didn't know the route like the back of his hand so  
> need to
> lok for the mark, check the charts and look again. Too late!
>
>
> At 8kts you would have had 3 times as much time to ascertain that  
> the marker
> was missing and take action based on that. More than likely you  
> would have
> avoided the same situation. I assume that this guy wasn't the first  
> to have
> passed thru here since the barge took it out. Why didn't they impale
> themselves on it? Maybe they were going faster or maybe they kept  
> closer to
> the channel or maybe they has concluded it was missing.
>
> This event started from "17" and was over in the time it took you  
> to read
> this email!!
>
> Still don't think that speed had anything to do with it???
>
> As always YMMV....
>
> Dave & Nancy
> Swan Song
> Roughwater 58
> daymarkers mark the narrow barge channel in the middle, so you  
> really don't
> have any visual aids to tell you where the 6' water lies.
>
> When I do this route, I tend to slalom the markers, not too close,  
> not to
> far. With "15" missing, you only have "14" and "16" to port, if  
> southbound,
> to guide you. I don't think speed was a factor. Even a 7 kt trawler  
> stands a
>
> good chance of finding the submerged daymarker,  albeit with less  
> damage.
>
> On a personal note, I now remember "15" well. Ted, RIP, the former  
> owner of
> Dowry Creek Marina, when hailed to tell him that you are in the  
> area and are
>
> looking for a slip, would always say, "when you get to Green 15, put
> yourself on a heading of 330 degrees until you see our markers and  
> follow
> them in."
>
> He ran Dowry Creek Marina well, loved cruisers, threw a great beer can
> chicken potluck every few days.  One of the few good reasons to NOT  
> anchor
> out on the ICW.
>
> -- Jim Ague
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