Whoaaaaa on the salvage, soft groundings and such....
Any tow company that has to work 4+ hours on a tow could have easily called it salvage if you wanted off...peril or not...they could have charged you for it despite being a tow member.
The difference in Sea Tow and Boat US is how the franchise pay is set up. Sea Tow franchises pocket the majority of member dues while Boat US it all goes to their National Org. No Sea Tow franchise owner is gonna let his captain pull on you for 4+ hours...the boat will come, assess and leave it it ain't gonna happen. Boat US franchises will tend to stay many times and pull, because all their time is billed back to their National HQ. So the longer they stay, the more money they make.
Boat US basic membership that covers $50 or so will barely let you get through a phone call to them...you have to get towing insurance if you want to ever be towed/ungrounded for free.
I left at sunset yesterday to unground a 45 foot power cat. The site was about 7 miles away through some long no wake zones....before I left I told my boss that the chances of me getting him off based on his position was not likely, but we go anyway...like most/all franchises. Sure enough, he was hard aground and I would be stuck if I stayed more than a few minutes. The professional captain aboard and I discussed his exit route and by the time was all said and done...we decided that I needed to come back near high tide which was well after midnight.
I went back earlier after studying the tide cycle, pulled him off and across all the sandbars till we were in deep channels leading to a marina. Unfortunately it was shortly after midnight and the ICW bridge was unmanned and we had to reverse course southbound on the ICW several miles...running the unmarked channels (because the USCG pulled the channel buoys for the winter) and headed to the next town south where I got him tied up at a marina.
The whole ordeal as far as boat towing insurance could have stopped back when I showed up and decided he had to wait for the next tide...that's what membership usually covers. A non member would have paid the franchise I work for $700 for me to show up and tell him what I knew when I was safe back on my trawler before ever leaving the dock...ungrounding wasn't gonna happen with the rapidly falling tide. As it turns out...I did the return trip as agreed upon, soft ungrounded the Cat and led him to a safe dock (slightly outside my area of coverage) and the bill to him was zero, as a non member he would have paid $1940.
For all posters...be aware that travelling the NJ ICW after Oct 15th you may encounter areas where navigation buoys are pulled, lights are removed from daymarks and bridges are allowed to close till morning after a given time in the evening...I think it's outrageous!!! There are still local here that need those services let alone any travelers that may have no idea that the government would abandon part of the US intracoastal system...sorta like shutting down bridges, tolls and lights on the US Highway system without notice.
