Unexcused Absences

Reflecting on our winter’s cruise …

I’m catching up on sharing what I learned during our Bahamian cruise last winter …

The safety plan for our European canal boat Après Ski is pretty simple – walk to shore (in the chest-deep water) and avoid swallowing canal water. Yes, we have life vests, a life ring, a bell and a horn, but not a whole lot more.

Preparing for our Bahamian adventure aboard the Miss Adventure, by contrast, required a lot more planning. Fortunately, we know experienced cruisers and the folks at Briartek whose business is safety at sea. After doing my research, I boiled our safety plan down as follows:

Safety when Cruising Part A: Initial Preparations

Step 1 – US Coast Guard and State of Virginia Compliance

After registering our vessel and our dinghy, we ensured they met all US Coast Guard regulations. I found helpful resources on the US Coast Guard Auxiliary and Boat US websites. I particularly liked this 45-page booklet from the safety division of the US Coast Guard.

Next, I requested a mock USCG inspection through the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. (I gave a small donation as a thank-you.) This ‘practice run’ was an opportunity to bring a set of expert set of eyes aboard. Eight months later when the Coast Guard boarded the Miss Adventure, I knew our boat would pass their inspection thanks to the mock inspection done by the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

The Coast Guard boards the Miss Adventure

Virginia compliance was easy. The State of Virginia required us to pass the Virginia Boating Safety Course. Boat US offers an excellent online tutorial/test combination which meets the state’s requirements.

Step 2 – The Ditch Bag

When you abandon ship, what will you take with you? Your ditch bag. This waterproof bag remains prepared and accessible at all times should you abandon ship. We tailored our ditch bag for coastal cruising in semi-tropical waters and popular areas. In our bag we keep the following (and if you use the links below to link directly to Amazon, you’ll help defray the costs of running this website):

• a Cerberus rescue beacon (charged every Saturday), described in detail in Step 3
• hand-held marine VHF radio (charged weekly along with the Cerberus unit)
• blood-clotting sponge
• bandages, butterfly closures, medical tape, and gauze
• SAM splint
• disinfectant towelettes
• antibiotic cream
• saline wash
• basic over-the-counter medications (ibuprofen, Tylenol, anti-histamine, anti-diarrhea)
• water
• food (unsalted almonds)
• waterproof flashlight
• extra clothing, hats, and sunglasses
• copies of our passports, boat registration and credit card (in a zip-lock bag)
• emergency funds
• a solar-powered, inflatable lantern
• emergency flares
• multi-tool

We store these items in two waterproof bags. The smaller ditch bag contains water, some snacks, protective clothing and the VHF radio. We take this ditch bag each time we ride in our dinghy (lessons learned!). The second ditch bag holdes the rest of the survival gear and extra water. Both bags have reflective tape on the outside to assist in the event of a night-time ditch.

Step 3 – Additional Safety Items not Required by the USCG

• Cerberus Unit

At the top of our ditch bag list is our Cerberus unit from Briartek. Briartek produces safety equipment for the US Navy and large, sea-going vessels. A few years ago, they began offering personal safety devices. We used the unit on a trip to Africa and asked if we could borrow another for our cruise.

A Cerberus is a satellite communicator and GPS unit, similar to a Spot or a DeLorme InReach. It’s a waterproof device that sends and receives messages and your position via satellite. Linking your smartphone to the Cerberus allows you to send and receive text messages. It is also possible to send a general distress signal simply by pressing a button on the unit. Since the Cerberus is also a GPS, it can inform rescue professionals of your exact location. It’s nice to know somebody’s got our back when we’re at sea! If the worst happens, the ocean’s a big place and we would prefer help to arrive as quickly as possible.

I highly encourage folks to consider a satellite communications device. Cruisers often forget that emergencies can happen back at home. Having two-way communication is extremely valuable. If you’re worried about the price of a unit, Briartek also rents Cerberus units.

• Water-activated lights on our PFD’s

Step 4 – Develop a Man-Overboard Plan

All hands need to regularly walk-through the man-overboard plan. If somebody falls over, you need to act quickly and have your tools ready. Man overboard procedures will vary from boat to boat so regular reviews are important.

Chatting with fellow cruisers

Safety when Cruising Part B : Before each Voyage

Step 1 – Develop and Follow a Safety Checklist

The Miss A has a checklist of to-do’s before we head for open water. First, we secure any loose items on deck and below. We take water, snacks, and extra food to the bridge, preparing to ride out a storm from our flybridge. If conditions get rough, we are already prepared. We always have enough unsalted almonds and water on the bridge to live for a couple of days!

I prepare a full suite of meals and snacks, doing no work in the galley while at sea. I also prepare an extra meal or two in case the journey is longer than anticipated. On the Miss A, we minimize trips below if seas are rough.

Avoid cruising in this by checking the forecast!

Dr. V. double checks the engines’ health the night before setting out, topping up all fluids, etc. We charge our portable VHF and Cerberus unit, iPhones, iPad before to departure.

We double check our safety equipment, ensuring our throwable floats are within easy reach.

We also communicate with our fellow boaters to find others with similar plans. Traveling with other boats allows us to stay in touch and monitor one other’s safety and progress. It can be great to have another boat nearby if you need assistance.

Step 2 – File a Float Plan

A float plan provides all relevant information about our voyage in a single document. We file this plan with a friend, who monitors our progress. If we fail to arrive at our destination, our friend contacts the relevant authorities. Our plan contains our departure, our destination and our latest estimated arrival time. It contains contacts for local authorities, the US Coast Guard and our Bahamian boatyard. It also provides our BoatUS worldwide towing policy information. Our friend also has a current photograph of us and our boat, helpful in a search and rescue. You can find a free float plan here.

Step 3 – Wait for Good Weather, ALWAYS

The best solution to a problem at sea is to avoid having the problem. We religiously check the weather, using multiple sources. It’s often said that the single most dangerous thing on a boat is a schedule!

Encountering sleeping pilot whales in open water

Safety when Cruising Part C: Underway

Step 1 – Wear your PFD

When the USCG boarded us on our return trip to the USA, they seemed surprised that we were wearing our life jackets. That’s a pretty sad commentary! It’s absurd not to wear one when in open or rough water.

Step 2 – Develop a system to track each other 100% of the time

The Miss A is large enough and loud enough that we can’t always see or hear one another. Our flybridge sits high atop the boat, an isolated pod. Going below deck requires a trip down a ladder and a walk around the outside of the boat, where one is exposed to the open sea. Whenever we are not both on the flybridge, we communicate our plans before moving. When moving about the boat, we maintain visual contact until the other crew member is safe. A VHF radio is always on below deck (just remember, everybody can hear you!).

I hope these suggestions help my fellow cruisers enjoy safe and relaxing voyages!

I will be the first to admit that I have been extremely lax about blog post for quite some time. In fact, I don’t believe I’ve posted since the first week of our cruise — to the Bahamas. There are quite a few excuses (preparing for the Bahamas, living in the Bahamas, enjoying the Bahamas, actually working from the Bahamas), but all pretty lame when you consider Dr. V. has kept up with his regular postings.

I have lots of things to share with my good readers, including a lot of tips on provisioning, cooking and cruising in the Bahamas. It seems silly to post on the Bahamas from France. Never-the-less, I shall give it a try!

Look for future posts on our Bahamas cruise about:

-safety when cruising and the importance of a ditch bag

-provisioning

-recipes for cruisers

Our Bahamian winter proved to be a real adventure (requiring real work), but absolutely worth the effort. Now that we are ‘relaxing’ on the canals, it’s time for me to catch up!

The Exumas, where sea and sky merge

Lock keeper Robert Peek (mentioned in East Coast Cruise – Week 1) has been tending the lock in the Great Dismal Swamp for about 20 years. Although his primary job involves maintaining appropriate water levels throughout the swamp, he also tends the lock and bridge at the northern entrance to the swamp. His skills as an educator and entertainer have spread his legend among cruisers for decades. If you meet a cruiser who’s passed through the swamp, they’ve likely met Robert.

Lock keeper Robert Peek

While waiting for the lock to fill, he offered us, cruising neophytes, his version of The Rules, gleaned from years of shepherding approximately 3,500 boats per year through his lock.

1. There is no schedule. The most dangerous thing on a boat is a schedule. If you have one, you’ll risk a crossing you shouldn’t, cruise further and later in the day than you should, or attempt that short-cut you shouldn’t. You are on a boat. Decide your lunch stop in the morning and your evening stop at lunch.
2. Visitors – don’t have them. You’ll ignore my advise (everybody does) and invite friends or family to your boat anyway. Here’s the thing – never agree to meet them. Make them find you; they have the car, right? You can meet folks at a place or at a time on a boat, but never both together.
3. Half the info in any guide book is wrong. Skipper Bob (referring to the author of a series of popular cruising books) and I have had coffee hundreds of times. He’s been dead 16 years and hasn’t written a word since. Water and land move and businesses come and go. Get online with Active Captain, talk to other cruisers and listen to the chatter on the radio to keep yourselves informed.
4. It’s about the journey. You must, at least once, leave the ICW (the main cruising route) and journey 10 to 20 miles off the beaten path to visit the small water towns. You’ll be welcomed as a valued visitor. You simply must experience the warmth and hospitality of rural America.

Robert sharing his wisdom with cruisers

Lake Powell defies proportions. Like its immediate downstream neighbor, The Grand Canyon, photos simply cannot convey the vastness and complexity of the landscape. I’ve heard the landscape described as fractal, a pattern that repeats at every scale, an accurate description. The high-walled canyons open to smaller canyons, which open to smaller canyons …

Lots of houseboats at Bullfrog, about halfway up the lake

Several years ago, our friends from Beaver Creek, Elizabeth and Michael, invited us to join them on their 60 foot (!) houseboat on Lake Powell. In September, our busy vacation schedule and their work schedules finally aligned and we were able to join them aboard the good ship MT Pockets for a week at Lake Powell.

Towing the waterski boat north on Lake Powell

What and where is Lake Powell? It’s a giant, artificial lake formed by the Colorado River. The river flows through the steep walls of Glen Canyon while passing through the desert lands of Utah and Arizona. In the 1950’s, a 600-foot high (controversial) dam was build in Glen Canyon to regulate floods, provide a stable water supply for farm irrigation, and supply electricity to the growing Southwest. Now the canyon, along with numberous side canyons, hosts a lake hundreds of feet in depth and over 150 miles long. Water laps canyon walls once inaccessible to all but the ravens and vultures.

The enormous cliffs at about mile 115

Elizabeth and Michael have been coming to the lake as a family for 26 years, although Mike has been visiting since he was a young child. They both know the lake very well. Our well-prepared hosts packed delicious food, tools and entertainment for any possible scenario we might encounter. Fortunately, we had perfect weather, no wind, no rain, highs in the 80’s and lows in the 60’s, so the sugar-cube slingshot and rainy-day card games went unused while the s’mores supplies were completely devoured.

Perfect boating conditions

After arriving and loading the boat at 2am (we were foiled by a massive peach festival which sold out nearly every hotel room in western Colorado and south-east Utah) we cruised north on our first day for about five hours to Good Hope Bay. This wide area in the lake with several side canyons sits close to the lake’s northern limit of navigability. While Mike and Kent tended the big boat, Elizabeth and I headed out in the ski boat to scout out potential anchorages.

Our “anchorage” on Good Hope Bay

A really really tall cliff

The Milky Way seen from the top deck

A sheer cliff face hundreds of feet tall

Why did we have to scout the anchorages if Elizabeth and Michael knew this section of the lake so well? Due to the Rocky Mountains’ varying level of spring snow melt, Lake Powell is unlike any other body of water; its coastline changes daily, an inch or more a day, typically changing 50 feet or more in a year. A beautiful anchorage on a sandy beach could disappear with a 3 foot rise on the lake, or hang inaccessibly high above the water line with a 5 foot drop in the lake.

Kent carrying the anchor to shore — not a typical anchoring procedure!

Anchoring was a complicated exercise, involving beaching the boat, carrying the anchors ashore and securing the boat to the shoreline by looping large lines around boulders or sinking the anchors into the sand. So, the girls scouted and identified anchorages and the boys followed in the larger boat once the anchorage was chosen. After we were settled in for the night, we fired up the grill, opened a bottle of wine and enjoyed the wild surroundings.

Our secret evening hide-away deep in a side canyon

Possibly the best part of being at Lake Powell was the night sky. The cool, clean, dry air of the desert provided excellent star gazing and satellite spotting. With a first-quarter moon, the stars and planets were soon as clear and bright as we’ve ever seen them. Sleeping on the top deck of the boat allowed us to sleep sous les belles etoiles. We lay awake, amazed, on our first night just staring at the stars. I could easily track the progress of the night by watching the milky way and constellations move across the sky.

A starry sky over moonlit rocks

When dawn arrived, it was time for the morning water ski. After a delicious breakfast of Elizabeth’s egg-and-sausage burritos, we gassed up the ski boat (with a pump from the main ship), grabbed some snacks and hit the water. Because the canyons wind and twist, it seemed it was always possible to get nearly perfect conditions to ski. And, you could ski for miles – literally. With Mike and Elizabeth’s excellent coaching, I was even able to drop a ski and try slalom for the first time.

Elizabeth during an early morning pull

The single dark cloud on our time on the Lake was an unfortunate accident when Mike separated his bicep tendon while skiing. Mike is a truly beautiful skier, and we were crushed when he severely injured his arm on the second day. We’re wishing him a speedy recovery from his surgery!

Mike has clearly done this before!

On our one cloudy day, at Mike’s suggestion, we planned a short hike to an area Elizabeth and Mike knew that contained an old uranium mine. Due to circumstances beyond our control, our one hour, mile-long hike became a “Big Hike” of around 7 miles and 4 hours. We trekked off across the open desert (fortunately we always carry extra water) and up to a small ravine our hosts knew. It contained a huge petrified tree, whose trunk was easily as wide as I am tall.

An enormous, petrified tree.

The rest of the week, our days consisted of skiing (except for Mike), exploring, hiking, skiing again, an evening meal and campfire and sleeping on the top deck under the stars. What a great way to enjoy the outdoors and the excellent company of dear friends!

Pretty good scenery for Kent’s slalom session

Some cliff dwellings at the end of a side canyon

Checking out “Defiance House”

Petroglyphs, left by Ancestral Puebloans* about 800 years ago.

A stand of trees from when it was Glenn Canyon, before it was a lake

It was with mixed emotions that we gazed at stunning canyons towering above us while floating on a boat, knowing our presence came at a price. The dam’s waters buried Indian ruins and settler’s villages along with hundreds of feet of what has been described as one of the most beautiful canyons in existence. The dam changed not only has the ecology of Glen Canyon, but the ecosystem of the Grand Canyon (just below the Glen Canyon Dam) as well. The dam provides much-needed power to the southwest (especially Phoenix), and regulates the flow of water for area agriculture. Nature has adapted to the presence of a giant lake in the middle of the desert, and huge flocks of migratory ducks, herons and grebes now visit or inhabit the lake. Humans profoundly changed the area, and we were grateful to have the opportunity to see and explore this amazing site.

Amazing anchorage, good friends, and a campfire for s’mores

Our Lake Powell vacation with Elizabeth and Michael was absolutely one of the most fantastic vacations we’ve ever taken. The combination of desert, canyon and lake must be unique on the planet. The wildness of the place, its enormous scale and the raw beauty of nature made of a heady combination. We highly recommend a trip to Lake Powell if you ever have the opportunity!

Heather drops a ski…

…gets the back foot in…

…balances…

… and skis away as a slalom skier

All alone off Red Canyon

The real desert

Filling the little boat from the big boart

A flock of water chickens

Kent tries that “other” watersport

Kent biffs a slalom turn

Our final morning at anchor

*The ancient inhabitants of this region are no longer referred to as Anasazi as this is a pejorative term coined by the non-native Navajo which roughly means “ancient ones of our enemies.” Ancestral Puebloans is the term preferred term today.

A safe depth for even the largest barges

Canal cruising sometimes includes cruising on a navigable river. In this post, I note several differences between canals and rivers for our readers and fellow cruisers.
1. Depth control = a safe minimum for both

As on the canals, the waterways authorities maintain a minimum water depth on navigable rivers. Boats drawing less than this should not hit the bottom or an obstruction while traveling in the marked channels. Locks keep the river level from becoming too shallow and help control the river level’s variations (floods and droughts) throughout the year. Traveling on a navigable river is like traveling a series of long, thin lakes, not like white water rafting.

2. Current and water-level changes = on rivers

Locks limit the amount of current on a river, but rivers flow. The water may flow quickly, but the surface isn’t choppy. Because of the current, downstream travel occurs faster than upstream travel. Take this into account as you plan your itinerary. On the largest rivers (Rhine, Rhone, etc.) currents can run faster than small boats can travel, so beware. Precipitation affects a river’s level, so cruisers can expect river levels to change. Floods or droughts can close rivers to navigation if water levels stray too far from the norm.

3. Swimming = on rivers

We’ve taken some refreshing swims off the Après Ski. We deliberately left the Garonne canal and traveled on the Tarn River to escape a heat wave during our first summer aboard — a great choice for a hot day. So far this summer, we’ve been swimming in the Moselle three times – a bonus during this hotter-than-normal summer. Swimming in canals is not recommended (see: lack of pump-out facilities).

Watch behind you!

4. Speed limits = greater speeds on rivers

Waterways authorities limit the speeds boats may travel on navigable rivers and as a result, other boats will travel more quickly than on the canals and will generate smallish wakes of about a foot or less. European countries strictly limit water skiing and wake boarding to designated sport areas. You will feel other boats pass, but you shouldn’t see your coffee cup slide off the table. Since large commercial traffic (cargo or cruise ships) travel at greater speeds than most pleasure cruisers, you will need to watch behind you and move over if necessary.

5. Mooring locations = limited on rivers

On the rivers, the natural shoreline prevents boaters from pounding in stakes and camping out for the night. Typically, cruisers must use marinas or quays for overnight stays. Authorities actually prohibit anchoring on some rivers, so plan your stopping points carefully along a river.

Canal du Midi’s towpath

6. Towpaths = canals

Many rivers do have lovely paths running along their banks, especially near larger cities. But, a river may not have any paths in more remote areas. Jumping on and off the boat to cycle or walk is nearly always impossible. You will likely be prohibited from using large, commercial locks as embarkation points.

A deep lock

7. Locks = can be larger on rivers

On larger rivers regularly used for commerce, locks may be hundreds of feet in length. Waterways authorities require life jackets for all folks on deck. Allow larger, commercial traffic to enter the lock first and then follow (if signaling indicates). Allow commercials plenty of room. They can kick up quite a lot of water when exiting the lock. Sometimes, you will attach your boat to a floating bollard. At other times, you will use a vertical pole or attach to a series of bollards recessed in the lock walls. In our experience, commercial locks fill and drain smoothly. Although they look intimidating, we often find them much gentler than the smaller, older locks along the canals.

8. Scenery = more open on rivers

A big benefit to river travel is the greater variety of wildlife, particularly birds, that live along the banks. The grasses and trees house a huge number of species. River travel also includes many beautiful, open vistas. While a great deal of canal travel’s vistas can be blocked by thick foliage beside the canal or limited by high, grass-lined canal walls, rivers can give you a chance to see interesting scenery such as steep cliffs, vineyards running down sloping river sides or old mills powered by the river’s flow.

Beautiful Bernkastel

Traveling along the German Saar and Mosel rivers during this summer, we’ve gazed with amazement at vineyards clinging to 60-degree slopes, tucked between huge rock outcroppings. We have traveled with commercial barges nearly 550 feet in length carrying coal, oil and shipping containers as well as lovely cruise ships with hundreds of passengers, ferries loaded with day trippers and cyclists and even a re-creation of a roman vessel. As Barbie would say, “Life is better at the rivah!”