Night Boating PSA

[Potomacbassin’]

Late-night rescue on Potomac River saves 11 from two boat accidents

A boat on the Piscataway Creek hit an unlit buoy, and another vessel crashed as it stopped to help.

wjla.com

My and one other family loaded up the old tin family room and headed up to Washington DC to see the fireworks which has become a little bit of a tradition. While the fireworks were a pretty pathetic affair, the food - shrimp tacos and pulled pork BBQ quesadillas - and friends were top notch! On the way back around 11pm which is ALWAYS a sketchy endeavor on waterways across the U.S. on the 4th we were passed by 8-10 rescue and police boats, lights flashing and clearly in a hurry to get somewhere downriver. There was even a police helo that was weaving in a search pattern spotlighting boats as it went, trying desperately to find someone or something.

We finally caught up to the emergency response where they had formed a wide circle around a boat (turns out there were two) that was in a state of distress right in the main channel. I had no clue what the problem was until reading the article above.

A couple of takeaways for me:

1) While I purposely do not drink any alcoholic beverage while captaining the boat, the intent was always to make sure I kept my passengers as safe as possible. The article is a reminder that you should also have all of your faculties available should you need to render aid to other boaters which may present a completely different set of circumstances than what you've originally planned for in your head at trip start.

2) The boat that struck the channel marker (which are huge - probably 6' in diameter and rises 6-8 feet above the water surface) was able to radio for help using their VHF. There are some areas on the river where cell service is sketchy, so a VHF is a critical backup. I only bring my portable VHF for long trips or ones where I dock at City marinas, but now I'm thinking of getting a fixed mount VHF for the helm so there's never a question.

Likely there are many stories from this past Thursday that serve as a good reminder for us boaters, just sharing my local (and personal) one.

Happy Safe boating!

 

[Vikingstaff]

You bring up a good point about having one’s faculties both for yourself or for an unforeseen situations. For instance, the second boater in the article above that stopped to render assistance and then became tangled and their boat became incapacitated due to the original boat accident.

 

[Bobby Bass]

That’s a scary article. I follow all the rules but have seen too much dangerous behavior by other boaters who either don’t know the rules of navigation, don’t care or both. 4th of July fireworks is the worse night of the year for traffic and unsafe navigation. It’s one of the reasons I stopped boating at night. We can see the fireworks fine from our dock fortunately. My youngest just took a safe boating course and she is amazed at the clueless behavior she sees. I can’t believe that a state as highly regulated on just about everything else has no requirements for boating training.

 

[BigKahuna]

Couple things..... I am familiar with Piscataway Creek. That's near Fort Washington if I remember correctly?!? And.... the fireworks were pathetic?!? Used to love those in DC! Must have gone downhill eh? Potomac how long does it take to travel from DC to Woodbridge after the show ends?!?

 

[BigKahuna]

Forgot to add that Nautical invited us on their boat to see the fireworks at Trump National on the 3rd. They live about 10 mins from Cocktail cove where they shoot them off. We were anchored across the channel where we could clearly see the fireworks but away from the hundreds and hundreds of boats that were there! Nautical did a great job navigating our way back to his house....

 

[Potomacbassin’]

Couple things..... I am familiar with Piscataway Creek. That's near Fort Washington if I remember correctly?!? And.... the fireworks were pathetic?!? Used to love those in DC! Must have gone downhill eh? Potomac how long does it take to travel from DC to Woodbridge after the show ends?!?

Correct about Ft Washington, the ol grey matter still works I see! The actual location of the accident was a little further down towards Mt Vernon on the Virginia side but Piscataway gives a good general description of the area.

Without getting political, let's just say depending on the administration there can either be a frugal fireworks budget or one that screams YOLO. This past one was a whopping 17 minutes long, which is shorter than many neighborhood shows! Heading back to Woodbridge took over 1.5 hours since 1) DC was enforcing a new navigation rule for the 4th where the no-wake extended from the 14th street bridge all the way down to the Wilson Bridge, and 2) because it was a fairly moonless night I was averaging about 28mph to avoid hitting things. Total trip is 31 miles one way. With the amount of time and fuel invested, not to mention the risks, the U.S. Dept of Fireworks really need to up their game!

 

[BigKahuna]

Correct about Ft Washington, the ol grey matter still works I see! The actual location of the accident was a little further down towards Mt Vernon on the Virginia side but Piscataway gives a good general description of the area.

Without getting political, let's just say depending on the administration there can either be a frugal fireworks budget or one that screams YOLO. This past one was a whopping 17 minutes long, which is shorter than many neighborhood shows! Heading back to Woodbridge took over 1.5 hours since 1) DC was enforcing a new navigation rule for the 4th where the no-wake extended from the 14th street bridge all the way down to the Wilson Bridge, and 2) because it was a fairly moonless night I was averaging about 28mph to avoid hitting things. Total trip is 31 miles one way. With the amount of time and fuel invested, not to mention the risks, the U.S. Dept of Fireworks really need to up their game!

Wow! Just a 17 minute show?!? What in the world?!? 28mph is a good speed on a moonless night! But I know you have some serious experience on the Potomac! That's a pretty long No Wake zone!

 

[Potomacbassin’]

Wow! Just a 17 minute show?!? What in the world?!? 28mph is a good speed on a moonless night! But I know you have some serious experience on the Potomac! That's a pretty long No Wake zone!

I know a lot of the river like the back of my hand but still have to keep my situational awareness due to things like new deadheads and floaters. Not to mention other boats which is always the wild card around here. Only takes one time to end up as a floating yard sale and have a lot of hurt people!