|
|
07-30-2014, 05:53 PM
|
#1
|
Guru
City: Santa Cruz, CA
Vessel Name: Concerto
Vessel Model: 1980 Cheoy Lee
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 1,531
|
Whale-watching tour stranded overnight off Boston
Whale-watching tour stranded overnight off Boston
By Elizabeth Barber, Reuters
Posted July 29, 2014, at 10:28 a.m.
BOSTON, Massachusetts — A planned three-hour whale-watching cruise off the Massachusetts coast turned into an all-night affair for 163 people aboard a boat that limped back into Boston Harbor on Tuesday morning.
The passengers and crew of the Boston Harbor Cruises boat Cetacea spent the night stranded off the coast of Nanhat, Massachusetts, about 8 miles north of Boston, after the boat’s propeller snagged on a cable, said Sheila Green, a spokeswoman for the company that operated the tour.
The vessel docked in Boston at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, after about 18 hours on the water, she said.
“Everybody got off without incident,” Green said.
The boat, carrying 157 passengers and a crew of six, had departed at 1:30 p.m. on Monday from Boston Long Wharf, a popular pier where sailboats, ferries and motorboats launch out into Boston Harbor.
Two-and-a-half hours later, the boat’s propeller caught on a 7-inch thick cable, called a messenger line, in the water near Nahant, said Green.
Three Coast Guard crews, including medical personnel, responded to the incident at about 4:30 p.m., and the two Coast Guard ships remained at the stranded boat’s side through the night, according to a Coast Guard statement.
Scuba divers cut the entangled cable and freed the ship early Tuesday, and the boat returned to Boston Wharf on its own power, Green said.
All passengers of the ill-fated tour will be given a refund, $500 in cash, and a $100 gift card to Boston Harbor Cruises, Green said.
|
|
|
07-30-2014, 07:48 PM
|
#2
|
Guru
City: Vermont
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10,097
|
That's a pretty confused report. A 7" cable wouldn't be a messenger line. Maybe a messenger line would be connected to a 7" cable? And what the heck is a 7" cable doing anywhere near the surface? Maybe it was a tow hauser?
__________________
MVTanglewood.com
|
|
|
07-30-2014, 09:52 PM
|
#4
|
Guru
City: Vermont
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10,097
|
Although the company did right for the passengers, that's one of the most irresponsible whale watch outfits I've ever encountered. I've been out there before and they regularly come screaming down on the whales, run in front of other boats, and generally operate in a hazardous manner. I have reported them in the past to the CG and NOAA because they regularly break numerous whale protection laws for the ohhhh-ahhhh benefit of their passengers.
__________________
MVTanglewood.com
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 12:50 AM
|
#5
|
TF Site Team
City: Ex-Brisbane, (Australia), now Bribie Island, Qld
Vessel Name: Now boatless - sold 6/2018
Vessel Model: Had a Clipper (CHB) 34
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 10,101
|
That sort of behaviour is very strictly policed and punished over here, where we are the midst of whale-watching season right now as well it appears. Probably the whales are going in different directions, all heading to warmer waters in our case, and back to colder waters in your case...
It would be interesting to hear an accurate account of what on earth it was they snagged on, but we may never know..?
__________________
Pete
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 06:45 AM
|
#6
|
Guru
City: Hailing Port: Charleston, SC
Vessel Name: Moonstruck
Vessel Model: Sabre 42 Hardtop Express
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 8,276
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter B
It would be interesting to hear an accurate account of what on earth it was they snagged on, but we may never know..?
|
Stay tuned. I have sent an inquiry to a guy who probably dived the boat. If he did he will know exactly what went on. That is if he can talk about it.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 07:56 AM
|
#7
|
Guru
City: Cape May, NJ
Vessel Name: Irish Lady
Vessel Model: Monk 36
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,966
|
Why wouldn't they just off-load the passengers to another vessel on the first day?
Surely there was a suitable vessel available that could do it in a couple trips?
__________________
Archie
Irish Lady
1984 Monk 36 Hull #46
Currently in Cape May, NJ
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 08:03 AM
|
#8
|
Guru
City: Ft Pierce
Vessel Name: Sold
Vessel Model: Was an Albin/PSN 40
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 28,155
|
Possibly an at sea transfer might have been more/too dangerous ...especially if the Whale Watcher was limited in speed/maneuverability.
I've done quite a few and they never seem to go well.
Cheaper for the insurance company to ply them with cash. booze and impossible promises than one claim.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 08:32 AM
|
#9
|
Guru
City: Vermont
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10,097
|
Just to add to the mystery, I think that boat is a jet drive, not a prop drive. It's definitely a high speed cat. Are such boats all jet drive? I don't know much about them.
There also was one comment after the ABC report where someone said that it was a 7" communications cable that they got hung up. Now what is a communications cable doing anywhere near the surface?
__________________
MVTanglewood.com
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 08:38 AM
|
#10
|
Guru
City: Georgia
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 951
|
So someone is without phone, internet, or TV.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 08:43 AM
|
#11
|
Guru
City: Vermont
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10,097
|
And why the heck were they in and around Nahant? There are no whales there, and it's way out of the fly path between Boston and where the whales are. Although there has been a Beluga wondering around in various harbors this year which is extremely rare. Maybe captain Sachetti got a new job?
__________________
MVTanglewood.com
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 09:32 AM
|
#12
|
Guru
City: Georgia
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 951
|
There's a cable area clearly marked on the charts for that area. Were they over the cable area and snagged a "floater"?
A 7" line for a lobster pot sounds rather big.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 11:07 AM
|
#13
|
Technical Guru
City: Wilmington, NC
Vessel Name: Louisa
Vessel Model: Custom Built 38
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 6,194
|
If it was jet drive, hard to imagine fouling both jets.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 11:15 AM
|
#14
|
Guru
City: Cape May, NJ
Vessel Name: Irish Lady
Vessel Model: Monk 36
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4,966
|
Maybe they got a report of a 7" diameter sea serpent on the surface and went to check it out. The SS attacked the jet drive then morphed into a communications cable disguise! I feel a movie in the future.
__________________
Archie
Irish Lady
1984 Monk 36 Hull #46
Currently in Cape May, NJ
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 11:34 AM
|
#15
|
Senior Member
City: La Conner, WA
Vessel Name: Adelaide
Vessel Model: 1983 Tung Hwa Clipper
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 385
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedtree
Although the company did right for the passengers, that's one of the most irresponsible whale watch outfits I've ever encountered. I've been out there before and they regularly come screaming down on the whales, run in front of other boats, and generally operate in a hazardous manner. I have reported them in the past to the CG and NOAA because they regularly break numerous whale protection laws for the ohhhh-ahhhh benefit of their passengers.
|
We have equally irresponsible whale watching outfits in the Northwest as well. The problem is that they guarantee whale sightings. So they often turn on a dime, sometimes in narrow channels without regard to small pleasure craft nearby. The wakes that some of these boats give off is downright dangerous in some of our narrow passage ways.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 12:00 PM
|
#16
|
Senior Member
City: Dayton, OH
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 206
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by High Wire
Maybe they got a report of a 7" diameter sea serpent on the surface and went to check it out. The SS attacked the jet drive then morphed into a communications cable disguise! I feel a movie in the future.
|
I was thinking it was the Kraken making a grab for those tourists, but sea serpents are more common, so you are probably correct.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 05:56 PM
|
#17
|
Guru
City: Upstate,SC
Vessel Name: Shipoopi
Vessel Model: derilic sailboat
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 2,884
|
S.S.Minnow went out on a 3 hour tour also.
__________________
This is my signature line. There are many like it but this one is mine.
What a pain in the transom.
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 06:11 PM
|
#18
|
Guru
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,121
|
Though it does not make much sense to me, the "cable" is reported now to be a "mooring cable" associated with an off shore docking location for off-loading LNG. Has never been used since the price of LNG and supplies from fracking cratered the market. Still odd that it would be off shore and not highly visible with flashing lights, marker buoys etc. Sounds a bit like the fish traps near Newport --- but that's a different story!!!
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 07:08 PM
|
#19
|
Guru
City: Seattle
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,142
|
gCaptain reported that it was a cable for an offshore LNG hookup. Those hookups are underwater hookups. They also reported that the area around the LNG hookup was a restricted area so the whahl watcher should not have been there. Might have been chasing whales and not watching charts!
|
|
|
07-31-2014, 09:40 PM
|
#20
|
Guru
City: Vermont
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10,097
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrisjs
Though it does not make much sense to me, the "cable" is reported now to be a "mooring cable" associated with an off shore docking location for off-loading LNG. Has never been used since the price of LNG and supplies from fracking cratered the market. Still odd that it would be off shore and not highly visible with flashing lights, marker buoys etc. Sounds a bit like the fish traps near Newport --- but that's a different story!!!
|
OK, I know exactly where those LNG stations are. There are two between Gloucester where I live, and Boston, right off of Salem. They are nowhere near Nahant. Although it's possible there would be whales in that area (there are no fences), it would be very unusual. They feed off the edges of the banks, and that's not anywhere near the LNG ports. There also is a service boat that sits out at the LNG stations 24/7 and would have warned them away. And yes, the LNG hook up is way below the surface. It's no more of a hazard that a navigation buoy.
I looked at their AIS track this morning and unfortunately it doesn't show back long enough to see where they were actually hung up. I did see that they went to Rose Marine in Gloucester in the past 24 hrs, presumably for haul-out, check, repair. They get hauled at Rose's every winter (I see them go by, and see them at the yard).
__________________
MVTanglewood.com
|
|
|
|
|
Thread Tools |
Search this Thread |
|
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
» Trawler Discussions |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|