"New Year's Day Bifurcated Sunrise"
Picture of the Day: 1/2/11
While the newly risen sun is the focus of this image, the thin, dark line of land visible just below the horizon line is Goose Island - the locus of the following true story.
"Grounded off Goose Island
I didn't have to be at work yesterday until 3 PM in Manhattan, for Fox 5's local news broadcasts at 6 and 10 PM; I nearly became a news item myself. I had woken up early, as I usually do, to a glorious sunrise - the first of the new year. After shooting a few exposures, and finishing editing and posting yesterday's Picture of the Day, I still had plenty of time left before I'd have to leave for work. So, I decided to take my boat - a small Boston Whaler Dauntless center console - out for a ride.
This isn't anything I haven't done before. I've had it out many times during the off season, as I leave it in the water year-round. My house-barge is on a side channel of the bay, and the tides move swiftly through, twice a day in each direction - ebbing out during low tide, and flooding in during the high tide. Because of this nearly-constant movement, the bay never freezes (at least as far as I know) on this particuar stretch of water.
I keep my boat tied up to the floating dock I have, which is a staircase away from and below my back deck. It's very convenient; and it permits me to avoid the yearly hauling-out and winter storage that most boat owners undergo. Here's a Google Maps satellite view of my house barge:
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My house barge, back deck, floating dock and boat.
Last winter, my first as a boat-owner, Sally and I went out about a dozen times; we were either visiting nearby bay houses, or out on seal-watching trips over to the west, closer to Jones Inlet. One of the potential hazards to winter boating, at least in the south shore bays off Long Island, is the fact that the majority of navigation buoys - which delineate the channels through the vast areas of shallow-bottomed bay - are removed early each winter. That had never been a problem for me before; until yesterday, at least.
It was very warm, for a change - in the low 40's, after weeks of barely making it above freezing; and the sun was out, strong and relatively warm. As the channel markers had just recently been pulled for the winter, I decided to play it safe and make it a short ride - just to the second Wantagh State Parkway bridge and back.
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That's the second Wantagh bridge location, on the top map; where I live is on the bottom one.
The problem was that I didn't make it back, unscathed. I was less than a half mile from my home when I first ran into shallow water. Immediately I shut down the motor, raised it up, and poled my way a short distance back into deeper waters - with the southwest wind helping me along. Feeling as if I'd dodged a bullet, I lowered the motor, fired it back up, and proceeded post-haste towards home. I believed that I was off the south shore of the island that separates my home port from the open bay; and that in a minute, or maybe two, I'd spot Seaman's Neck Park and be safely back in my neighborhood. Suddenly, I was in even shallower water than the first time. Again I raised the motor and keyed it off. Scanning the waters around me, which were about 6 inches deep, I could not see any nearby deeper channels. To attempt to pole back from whence I came - into the wind - was fruitless, but I gave it a try anyway.
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Where I grounded, just off the southern tip of Goose Island.
By this time it was nearly 11 AM, and I was less than a mile from home. I had to be at work by 3 PM; but if I didn't get help - and soon - I was going to have a problem. As I would have to take the 1:17 PM train into Manhattan to be on time, I decided to call for a BoatU.S. Towing. I've had towing insurance for two years now, but this is the first time I have had to use it. The first gentleman I spoke to said - after I assured him that I was ok, affirmed that I was the only one on the boat and assured him that I was dressed warmly enough (and giving him my location as best I could, with a chart and compass, but without GPS coordinates) - that a boat should be there in about an hour, but maybe sooner.
Within 20 minutes I received a call back from Paul, the captain of the Reynolds Channel towboat. He ascertained my location and also asked if I was ok. Paul mentioned that the tide would still be falling for another two hours, which is about what I thought. After discussing my situation and my location, he suggested that I could call Nassau County Police 911. They would probably be able to send a helicopter to lift me off from nearby Goose Island, if I could walk through the water to get to the island. There was, according to Paul, a deeper pool of water between where I was and Goose Island. He said that, as I was likely to get thoroughly soaked during the crossing, I would have to leave my knapsack, with my camera inside, on the boat. He could return later and tow my boat home. My other choice, if he couldn't get close enough with his boat during the unusally low tides we'd been having, was to wait two-plus hours for the tide to come back in. I decided that I was not going to call for a copter and have to leave my camera behind; I would rather be late for work, first. (Later on he told me that they would have charged me an exorbitant amount for such a rescue.)
Fortunately, Paul soon showed up off the west side of the island, and said he was going to see how close he could get. We ended the call so that he could concentrate on manuvering in the shallow waters. After a little while, and without getting very close at all, I saw him motor away and circle around the north side of the island. I watched him approaching slowly from the northwest and, as there was no longer any land between where he was and where I was (except for a very low sandbar directly in front of my boat) I was hopeful that he'd be able to get close enough to tow me out of there. Unfortunately, the closest he was able to approach was about a quarter mile off my bow.
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Where Paul anchored the tow boat. I was about a quarter mile south, and only about a mile from home - just barely visible in the upper left corner here.
After a while, as I stood in my bow watching, I saw somebody enter the water, with a coil of rope over their right shoulder. Eventually (it seemed to take forever, but was probably only 15 minutes) Paul reached the north side of the sandbar that I was grounded behind. He called to tell me he was out of line. I volunteered that I had 100' of 3/8" line, but he said that wouldn't hold. He next asked for me jump out and give him a hand, as there was a large belly in the 1,300 feet of floating rope he had dragged behind him. Failing to gain much line that way, Paul asked if I wanted to wade out to his boat for a ride home: He'd come back later, when the tide had turned, to bring it home. After being assured that I could bring my knapsack, I set an anchor, tightened my boots and started walking.
While I was dressed adequately in terms of warmth, the boots and Carhartt overalls I was wearing were not at all water-proof. Within a few minutes I was wet to the knees, and my feet were already going numb. The water was soon up to my crotch, and my legs were getting heavy - and nearly as numb as my feet. Slogging through the mucky bay bottom is hard enough, but when you're wearing water-logged, heavily insulated boots and overalls it makes it all that more difficult. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath, when I found some semi-solid footing, and thoughts of having a heart attack briefly entered - and were quickly banished from my mind; but eventually we made it to the boat.
To bring this long saga to an end, Paul and his partner got me home with enough time to take a quick bath in my Jacuzzi tub and get to work on time - albeit by car, not train. I am truly indebted to them for going above and beyond the call of duty; and so glad that I have towing insurance, especially with the good folks at BoatU.S.
Links:
"New Year's Day Bifurcated Sunrise" customizable prints, matting and framing.
Boston Whaler 13' Dauntless
BoatU.S. Towing Services
P.S. While I am very pleased that I figured out how to embed Google Maps into the body of this post, I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to delineate more than one point on any given map. I had hoped to be able to indicate all of the locations pertinent to this story on one map, but it's either not possible or beyond my limited capabilities in dealing with HTML.
Camera Data
Canon
Canon EOS 5D
1/256 second
F/6.3
105 mm
50
Jan 1, 2011, 7:19:05 AM
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
66mm
Canon EOS 5D
1/256 second
F/6.3
105 mm
50
Jan 1, 2011, 7:19:05 AM
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
66mm
