16 Aug 16
According to the coastal pilot, it is advisable to enter Newburyport on a rising tide and definitely NOT when the ebb is flowing against an easterly gale. The wind today is E5 and if we leave Kittery at 09:00, we should be in Newburyport before the ebb gets too strong, so hopefully we can get over the bar without too much trouble; all these constraints! We were up at 08:00 and had the engine on by 08:58. The flood was still flowing strong - about 2.0 knots and the Kittery/Portsmouth bridge was about 2 lengths in front of the boat. The plan was to let go the stern line and bow line almost simultaneously and let the current push us off the dock, whilst backing up enough to ensure we did not get swept into the bridge. I tested going astern before we let go anything, just to make sure the engine/prop could counter the current. When it came time for me to let go the stern line, we were pushed off the dock faster than I could pay out line and throw the loop off of the dock cleat, so I just let the bitter end of the line go (the other end was attached to the stern cleat on the boat. Unfortunately, with 25 feet of line in the water, I was nervous about powering up for fear of wrapping the line round the prop. The stern swung out very rapidly and by the time we had the stern line reeled in, we were at the bridge. The port-side back-stay contacted the lower side of the bridge girder and we started to heel over when I gunned the engine ahead and we powered out from under the bridge. We were very nearly swept under the bridge. In retrospect, there were several things we could have done differently. The Admiral did everything correctly on the bow-line. There is a bit of paint on the back-stay, but it appears, from a distance at least, to be otherwise alright, although I will go up in the bosuns chair later to have a good look. It could have been much worse, but it was still very sobering to let a stupid lack of understanding or consideration on the part of the Captain bring us so close to disaster. I wish I could say it is cathartic to write about it, but it is only embarrassing. Another stark reminder to NEVER get cocky, complacent or over-confident. So, what could we have done differently:
- wait 2 hours until the flood stopped; i.e., HW slack - then the bridge would never have been an issue. We would still have arrived at Newburyport in plenty of time ahead of LW.
- let go the bow first, then brought the Admiral back to let go the stern line, while I drove the boat in reverse, stemming the tide in a controlled manner,
- walked the boat back on the dock a boat length before we started to let go,
- got somebody on the dock to help us let go the stern line,
- when the stern started moving away from the dock faster than I could throw the line off, I could have simply put a wrap on the cleat and stopped the whole process.
After my heart-rate returned to normal, we motored on down the Piscataqua River, turned south into the Bigelow Bight and made the trip to Newburyport, MA without any further excitement. We got over the bar in a very light easterly breeze without any issue, turned up the Merrimack River and picked up a mooring ball in town just after 12:30. That is it for Maine (and New Hampshire) for this boat. After lunch on board, we went for a long walk around Newburyport, which is an old New England port town and the home of the US Coast Guard, among other things. Happy hour and dinner aboard. We had light showers for a while about sunset.
42-48.829’N, 070-52.190’W
17 Aug 16
As forecast, the front came through about sunrise and the wind got up to NW 20. We decided not to do an inspection run up the back-stay until it calms down a bit. It finally started to calm down a bit after lunch, so we went into town for a stroll and a bit of shopping, and spent most of the afternoon in Jabberwocky Bookstore. But we also went for a long walk to the liquor store on the edge of town. Back to the boat for happy hour and dinner.