Radar Love...

[boomerang]

The early 70’s tune by Golden Earring was definitely in my head this past Friday as we motored to a get together in the beautiful maritime town of Urbanna for the weekend.
This was our scenery for the entire 4 hour cruise, from the moment we left our dock on Dividing creek off of the Chesapeake to the time we got inside of Urbanna creek 10-12 miles up the Rappahannock river.
I never was concerned but when we tied up at the final destination, I kissed the radar,autopilot,chart plotter and automatic fog horn...in that order! [emoji38]

 

[boomerang]

Evidently catching a fish was very important to this guy. No radar, no radio call and not a lot of effort to keep a watch! I was watching them on the radar the whole time and did alter our course to stay clear of them but lucky for them they showed up as an echo. Gee wiz!

 

[psneeld]

The other guys to watch out for out there in fog (almost hit one the first year headed south without RADAR)....


The wooden deadrise oyster tongers....no lookout (looking down at water tonging), no lights, no horn, wooden boat with no reflector, not underway or capable of, no anchor ball or fishing gear dayshape....... and they are much bigger than the coneheads in walkarounds or CCs.

 

[boomerang]

Good point about the wooden boats oystering and not painting a good target on the screen. The oyster grounds locally are open one section at a time so it makes it easier to see the 30-50 boats all in one clump. I didn't notice any of those guys on this particular day. The only issue I really had was, when heading down the bay I normally cross Windmill point bar rather than go around the light. There's a slew half way in, 6-8' deep, that saves a couple of miles, which is a big deal in a slow boat like ours. Well on this day, when I was halfway through the slew, I got lucky and spotted a gill net flag that was going right across the slew! I'm not too good at math but I know that a 4' net sitting on the bottom in 6' of water will ruin your day in a 3' draft boat! I suppose it was my fault because I wasn't running the designated channel and they're trying to make a living but they could've called me on the radio and told me they had nets on the bar! I made a u-turn and when I was making my way around the bar to avoid the nets, I went right past the netter just laying to in the zero visibility. He had to have heard me coming down the bay. Oh well, no harm done and his nets were saved as was our day.