No Swimming

I was gonna go swimming off the dock next to my boat this morning.

The spot was already taken.

That’s the bow of my boat in the first pic. Yikes! KJ

Sure am happy I don't share swimming holes with those things

If that is fresh water you have a double whammy eaten by croc and potential electrocution. Definitely no swimming. Does anybody know if crocs get electrocuted swimming around marinas?

I don't know any marinas that allow swimming, due to the electrocution danger. Even before the Crocodile, I'd have advised against it. Plus often fuel in the water and bacteria so ear infections more likely.

And, yes, they can get electrocuted. It's one way sometimes they're illegal hunted/fished for.

That size is Bait .

Come visit here and see his grand father 12-14 ft long!

My alligator story:
In 1999 we cruised with our Black Lab, a real water dog. Frequent problem when anchored is that he would jump in and go for a swim.

Now this is a city dog from the north (Chicago). On day he went to the aft deck and started over the transom when he for the first time in his life he saw an alligator. One look and the dog reversed course and flew to the forward stateroom and huddled. Instinct or something saved him.

FF is right! I grew up in Clewiston on Lake Okeechobee and the one in the pic is cute compared to some of the monsters there.

I learned to water ski in Bayou Black (Houma, La.) the gators gave me a great deal of motivation to get up on the ski.

Greetings,
Mr. KJ. Isn't NC a bit far north of the gator's usual habitat? Global warming?

RTF, boy, why ya think they named that creek in NC the Alligator River? KJ is way down in Myrtle, anyways.

KJ, I don't know what that is, but I don't believe it's an alligator. Here is what a real alligator looks like. How about a little pork for lunch?

The really bad one is the one that bit part of that one's tail off.

True story, falling under the category of "how do some of us ever survive to adulthood?"

For several years, my son's email moniker was "gatorbait" because of a stupid thing he did while in college in Jackson, MS. He and some other testosterone-addled friends would go out at night and catch 2 to 3 foot gators, mostly for thrill-seeking and because the gators were fascinating to watch--animals have always intrigued him. They would spot them in the water and simply jump on them, wrestle them to the bank, observe their behavior, take pictures and let them go. (No gators were harmed in this tale.)

One night, he miscalculated and jumped onto a gator that was considerably larger than he is. John's a big guy, ex-wrestler, black belt, a rock-climber and a powerful young man. But he said that instantly they had rocketed 20 or 30 yards down the river, while he held on for dear life. The gator's reaction was so instantaneous and violent that he literally had no time to let go. When he realized the situation he was in, he thought the only thing worse than being in the water in the dark attached to a gator that size was to be in the water and not know where it was. So he continued to hold on.

Then the gator started rolling while he was still locked on with his arms and legs. His friends ran down the bank with flashlights and he could see them shining at him above the surface. At one point, when the light hit the gator, he was looking directly into its eye, which he said was one of the most unnerving moments of all. He saw hands reaching out to him, timed his move when the gator rolled him to the surface, grabbed them and was pulled to safety by his friends. The whole experience lasted perhaps a minute or two but it transformed him from a heedless, "immortal" risk-taker to a thoughtful, responsible adult who now weighs the pros and cons of everything before plunging in. So, despite the outrage his mother and I expressed when we learned about this years afterward, maybe on balance it wasn't all bad.

But, yeah, good call on not going swimming yesterday, KJ

Years ago we were in the recently opened marina in Ixtapa Mexico. The admiral decided that I was not keeping up appearances and thought the hull needed to be waxed. She took it on herself to lay on the dock and reach out and wax the hull.
She was waxing the boot stripe when I walked up ( I was no doubt down the dock drinking free beer at some other sailors expense .. as we sailors always attempted to do ) and noticed a nice sized salt water Crocodile floating behind her about 4' away. Not wishing to startle her too much I reached down and took her hand and lifted her from the dock.. then proceeded to ask her about her "friend".. she practically climbed to the top of my shoulders while screaming at the top of her lungs!

The part that really pissed me off is I had to finish the wax job.

HOLLYWOOD

hollywood8118 said:

Years ago we were in the recently opened marina in Ixtapa Mexico. The admiral decided that I was not keeping up appearances and thought the hull needed to be waxed. She took it on herself to lay on the dock and reach out and wax the hull.
She was waxing the boot stripe when I walked up ( I was no doubt down the dock drinking free beer at some other sailors expense .. as we sailors always attempted to do ) and noticed a nice sized salt water Crocodile floating behind her about 4' away. Not wishing to startle her too much I reached down and took her hand and lifted her from the dock.. then proceeded to ask her about her "friend".. she practically climbed to the top of my shoulders while screaming at the top of her lungs!

The part that really pissed me off is I had to finish the wax job.

HOLLYWOOD

Click to expand...

And thus the moral of the story...no such thing as "free beer"...you always pay somehow...

Kj. I did not know you were such a sissy

okay so maybe you are not a sissy, sharks would make me nervous

As to gators in NC, for years there was a huge gator who lived beside the Battleship North Carolina in the Cape Fear River. He was almost as big a tourist draw as the chip was.

Short story on gators-my parents lived in Gainesville, FL on a golf course. They had several gators in the ponds on the course. One of their neighbors had a little annoying dog that would chase golf balls. Some golfers complained but the owners thought it was cute. One evening as the guy was walking the dog on the course, a gator came up out of a pond and snatched the dog. Those things can be amazingly quick.

Greetings,
To paraphrase....Gator done...

Cool pic and fun thread.

Honestly though, really unlikely that if you had jumped in (I know you were joking) it would have run like crazy. Gators that size are very seldom aggressive towards humans. Not like the crocs in Australia.

motion30 said:

okay so maybe you are not a sissy, sharks would make me nervous

Click to expand...

I shot this video while diving in the Bahamas.

For some reason I feel more comfortable diving with sharks than walking the docks at night with gators lying next to them. I spooked one (gator) the other night while walking down the ramp and when it made a big splash to dive it nearly scared me to death.

K "sissy" J

Electrocution while swimming in marinas between improperly grounded boats and the pedestal is killing more people every year, especially in fresh water. Salt water is not as bad but it can still cause a pretty good tingle.

gwkiwi said:

Electrocution while swimming in marinas between improperly grounded boats and the pedestal is killing more people every year, especially in fresh water.

Click to expand...

Really? I didn't realize that! How would you check for something like that at your local marina? Stick a lightbulb in the water to see if it lights up?

Here is a document on the entire subject from Boat US:

http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/assets/pdf/marina-dock-safety.pdf

Here is another document. Shorter, more readable.

www.esfi.org/index.cfm/pk/download/id/13121/pid/10272

The fact is that electrical systems need to be checked for leaks but it's not just the marina. Several tests have shown from 25% to 40% of boats to have leaks. Problems are often seen first when zincs are deteriorating quickly and when galvanic corrosion is abnormally high. Plus if anyone feels any tingle in the water it's time to get out and fix something.

Sorry. While a slick pdf document, it's clearly written by lawyers and electricians.

This is another case of let's focus on something that may kill one person a year, if that, so we can ignore the policies and behaviors that kill thousands if not more.

Wxx3 said:

Sorry. While a slick pdf document, it's clearly written by lawyers and electricians.

This is another case of let's focus on something that may kill one person a year, if that, so we can ignore the policies and behaviors that kill thousands if not more.

Click to expand...

Perhaps, but it's been far more than one person and would you feel the same if the two kids just killed were your children?

The other aspect of the issue is the problems people are experiencing with the electric components and systems of their boats due to leakages on docks and other boats at the marina. Many people are replacing batteries and other parts only to have them go bad again, finding their zincs lasting no time, experiencing a high level of corrosion and mechanics being slow to figure out it's coming from the docks. I know one marina on the lake we were on and a boat dealer nearby was amazed at the zincs on every boat they serviced there until they checked.

To you it may be lawyers and electricians. To me, stray electricity at marinas is something that needs to be checked and monitored. More and more are doing so, using proper equipment, and have no issues. But I'm sure you've pulled up to those as have I where the wiring was old and ragged looking and extension cords running around the place and the boxes and panels belonged on American Pickers as vintage rusty items they like rather than in actual use.

Requiring GFCI's and ELCI's just isn't that big of a requirement. A land home has the requirements so why not boats and marinas.

Just because there are policies and behaviors that can kill thousands doesn't mean electric safety at marinas isn't worthwhile as well. It's a lot easier to achieve than some of the other things you might suggest. I agree I'd rather eliminate all wars given the two choices, but still don't want kids electrocuted at the docks. When I was growing up, I would bet that no more than 25% of the docks on our lake were actually wired by licensed electricians. The houses were, the businesses were, and they all underwent inspections. But the docks weren't. Today in the county we lived in they are all inspected. In the adjacent county not so much.

Last fall a dock electrical box in our marina exploded, we ere lucky a fire didn't break out. The marina spent a few hundred thousand in upgrades since then, both electrical and a new fire suppression system. I'm glad they did. And no, we wouldn't consider swimming in a marina that's just common sense.

dhmeissner said:

Last fall a dock electrical box in our marina exploded, we ere lucky a fire didn't break out. The marina spent a few hundred thousand in upgrades since then, both electrical and a new fire suppression system. I'm glad they did. And no, we wouldn't consider swimming in a marina that's just common sense.

Click to expand...

That's really the bigger issue too is boat and dock fires due to faulty wiring and lack of proper safety. We once pulled into a small dock that had had a fire so no electric at the dock (just a 200' or so side tie). But they had a box up in the yard and were running extension cords (well, more like cables) from it. We used our generator instead of hooking up. The boat in front of us plugged into it.

Come to most marinas in the Eastern Caribbean. The electricians take every shortcut possible, and the majority of boats do not have holding tanks. A "deadly" combination, especially as the voltage is generally 240 European.

Last friend who got in the water in a marina in St. Lucia was treated to a serious session of disinfectant and ear cleaning.

200 documented cases of "electric shock drowning cases" in US fresh water marinas as stated on the USCG website.

I know one of the people given a grant by USCG and BoatUS to study the issue. He has some interesting reading on the matter in the "Documents" section of his website here.

One of the problems with the issue is that both Captain Rifkin, BoatUS and USCG are convinced that the numbers are grossly understated and many of the known fatalities were originally noted as drownings.

The case that started the whole investigation was the death of young Lucas Ritz. Lucas' father (Kevin)did not believe his son drowned and pushed for further investigation. Kevin has posted on youtube explaining the incident.