Safe Boating

Do your charting homework before setting sail

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Rainy day? Put your down time to good use. First of all, how well do you all know Narragansett Bay? It’s fun to try to draw it from memory - Prudence, Patience, Newport, Goddard Park, Greenwich Bay, Warwick Light, Mt. Hope Bridge, Quonset, etc. Now unroll your chart and see how you did. Next, find your marina and help the kids plot a course to Potter Cove for an overnight, and from there over to a restaurant. Choose one that your whole family can enjoy after a day on the water. Just drawing a straight line gets you in trouble.

The crew should know how much water your boat draws and where the rocks are. Also, plan for unexpected low visibility and chart your course from buoy to buoy so you will have checkpoints along the way. Also look for landmarks you can use. What about Warwick Light? The chart shows Warwick Light on Warwick Neck. How far away is it? If you are going 10 knots, when will you be there? Sneak in some math. A real, practical problem is the best “summer school” you can do. Offer prizes for correct answers - candy etc. (broccoli doesn’t do it.) And figuring out a course and your ETA on a chart spread out on the kitchen table with no pressure is better than suddenly having to do it in a fog. The numbering of the buoys increases as you return from sea. When the channel branches off, the numbering starts again, so you may see the same numbered buoy in fairly close proximity if there is a branch of a major channel in the bay, but always odd numbers for the green can buoys and even numbers for the red cone shaped buoys.

What about some night navigation? Whether you plan it or not, sometimes you will find yourself still out when it gets dark. If you are heading back at night, what signal are you looking for? Lights are there to guide you home. Warwick Light is marked “Oc G 4s.” This means it is an occulting light – one which is on more than it is off, the opposite of flashing. The light is green, and repeats the light pattern every four seconds. That helps you identify it at night. There is also a horn. To the southeast of the light is a buoy marked “R8 Fl R 8s.” That is a red nun (cone-shaped) buoy No. 8, which has a light that flashes red every eight seconds. To the southwest of Warwick Light is a buoy marked “G1 Fl G 5s.” This is a green can buoy No. 1 with a green light flashing every five seconds. This is an important one marking Round Rock, at the entrance to Greenwich Bay. Beware, the rock is close to the buoy, so make sure you keep to the correct side of the buoy.

There are lit landmarks on shore as well. Toll Gate High School sits high on a hill. If you line up the bright lights in the parking lot at Toll Gate High School with the R8 lit buoy and stay on that line, with the R8 on your stern and the Toll Gate lights on your bow, it will take you from south of Warwick Light to Brewer’s Cowesett Marina, near Apponaug.

Find your own ranges when you are out on the bay, and have your whole crew practice charting before you need to use it.

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  • richardcorrente

    Dear Roz,

    Your article is spot-on!

    I read it twice and I think it should be required reading for everyone before they venture out on Narragansett Bay and especially if they make it into the Atlantic. Your focus on "beacons" is an important reminder for all. There is one that has bothered me since I was a kid (and that was a long time ago). It's called "The Spindle", a rock between Patience Island, the Green River and the Warwick Neck Lighthouse. I have spoken to a man named Chuck from the Coast Guard and several people from "Safe Sea". They all have confirmed the deadly danger this rock represents. Roz, when I am Mayor this rock will have to go. At low tide it sticks out of the water and is barely visible but at high tide it is dangerously just under the water. The cost of pile driving it into smaller pieces that would become home to the many kinds of fish that breed in that area, is very inexpensive and might even be donated costing the taxpayer NOTHING. (lots of us fisherman hate that rock!). Also, Chuck says he has the materials to re-assemble the spindle that marked it originally and that it would "only cost a few hundred dollars". So we have 2 ways to make this danger go away. Naturally the DEM and CRMC has to be involved, but one way or the other Roz, that damn rock and the inherent danger it represents is going to be history. I will invite you to the celebration party. We can call it "Roz's Rock Removal".

    Enjoy the rest of your Summer.

    Richard Corrente

    Endorsed Democrat for Mayor

    Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Report this