Bela’s cartoon and my article appeared independently in the September ’07 Compass. Here they have joined forces.
” Dear Compass,
After reading the article “Common Sense, Common Knowledge and Common Decency” in July’s Compass, the pencil touched the pad and I couldn’t help myself!
Sincerely, Bela Almeida, Merlin of Seixal”
The July “What’s On My Mind” titled “Common Sense, Common Knowledge and Common Decency”, claims some common truths that are mostly nonsense – though I’ll bet lots of readers fell for some of them.
The “Commons Sense” assertion is that “sailing a large, heavy boat in a restricted area is dangerous.” Two examples are given. One is of a 32-foot boat sailing into Tyrrel Bay while the writer watched from a floating bar. “But moments before, a young girl had slid off the bar to swim back ashore….” There, of course, one sees the mortal danger – which is of twice the weight because it’s a “young girl”. Apparently the young girl would not be endangered by a “large, heavy boat in a restricted area” coming or going under power. Apparently she was not endangered by all the yacht dinghies blasting back and forth at several times the speed of a sailboat, doing a hundred times more mileage in the anchorage than the occasional yacht sailing in, back and forth all day and late into the night… including to and from the floating bar from which the young girl had slid, where some of the drivers were drinking – the author himself says he was “enjoying a cold one.” I think this is another case of a bored yachtie looking for a cause.
Nonetheless, bored yachties (and others looking for causes) endanger my lifestyle. There will eventually come a time, for instance, when sailing into an anchorage is prohibited. And then, someone will notice that yachts motoring in without bow thruster steering also endanger young girls in the water. Unlimited blasting back and forth through the anchorage in dinghies will remain unnoticed – we need our Sporty Utility Vessels. They are the car we once had in the lifestyle that we are trying to bring with us. Or the lifestyle from which we are commuting, as the case may be.
And so, this is all as it should be! The article asserts, “many of us know we can competently sail onto and off an anchor, or at least hope we can in an emergency.” No! If you are not practiced at sailing in harbors, don’t do it when you have an emergency! If you are preoccupied with an emergency and learning to sail in restricted waters, you are endangering the young girl in the water – and the other yachts! It probably won’t endanger her as much as all your dinghy trips for emails, FAXs, customs, and such, to repair whatever the emergency was, but it will endanger her more than if you knew what you were doing. Likewise, a person who can’t steer without a bow thruster shouldn’t come in when it is broken. That’s just common sense.
The other example is of a yacht sailing out of Rodney Bay under mainsail. The author says it would have been okay under headsail. That shows how open minded the writer is – if you do it his way. Raising the main in harbor conditions, however, has serious advantages (effort, comfort, noise, and safety) over raising it in a seaway. But the article’s question is, “How could the skipper stop the boat if necessary?” I could spend several pages answering that (is anybody interested?), mostly things you’d want to do instead of stopping, but also, stopping. The writer proposes a ludicrous maneuver and says you’d “have more chance with a stern anchor or sky hook!” He’s right! Stern anchors (and bow anchors) are real good tools! Though probably not for the stated situation. I’d stick with the sky hooks, the sails. All sorts of marvelous things can be done under sail, even steering around swimmers! I’m not saying that everyone knows how to do it, or that every boat is capable….
The “Common Knowledge” section of the article tells us “it’s common knowledge for cruising folk, and should be for all [all?] that the text-book ‘three times’ scope is a bare minimum….” I’d burn that textbook. But that may explain some of the yachts that drag down on us.
Finally, the article gives us a fill on “Common Decency”, regarding peeing over the rail – and worse. Peeing over the rail has already been done in the Compass, but since it’s here again…. He uses the example of a yacht at 20 meters and implies the guy is deliberately peeing toward him. That’s pretty close to be anchored, so there may be some cause and effect here. But that’s far enough that anything he actually sees is mostly in his mind’s eye. Skinny dipping and such are okay, he says, it’s the “not so attractive parts” he doesn’t like – which in today’s world is a matter of taste, so to speak. But here’s my system: I pee over the rail unless I have close neighbors or am within, say, 200 meters of shore. Then I use a jar. But if someone anchors close enough that I can fling a jar full onto their boat, I just might. Same thing for dinghies blasting by as close as they can. My range is five to ten meters, depending on the wind.
But let me end with this. Sailing yacht, motoring yacht, planing dinghy, sailing dinghy, or rowing boat, we are all required to keep a lookout. And the young girl in the water almost always has the right of way. And she should keep a lookout, too.
Caribbean Compass, September ’07
© Copyright 2007