Conference vicki::boats

Amazing coincidence. My friend (in the 17' Whaler Montauk I sold him)
called the CG, told him he was closest to the reported location, and
headed over there. He told me the guy never described his boat, and was
completely wigged out. I wonder if I would be... don't know til I'm
there, I guess... anyway, my friend somehow found him and was the first
boat on the scene.

The guy asked for an extinguisher; he had one, but it was inoperable. My
friend handed his across, but by that time the fire was out. My friend
reclaimed his extinguisher, and split.

Another interesting thing is that the guy SHOULD have been contacted by
Bristol CG, but it was Castle Island that answered him. Bristol never
even came on the air. The CG never answered my friend (whose boat is the
SHELLBACK).

Art

    
    
    The Bristol Cg station is not a rescue station- they run a tug and a
    buoy tender out of there- they may not have been manned on the weekend.
    I'm not sure it was Castle Hill or Newport that he was in contact with.
     Castle Hill had to keep telling the idiots to get off the air who were 
    trying to call
    each other on the Channel .  Some Kid (or a sick Joker) kept getting on
    the air and babbling too. Lots of Hysteria and idiocy were taking
    place.
    It seemed to me that the CG had two different voices - The
    Voice that came on and identified as Castle Hill seemed weaker.
    
     Later on that day, I saw an old Cruiser, about 25/26'- plywood hull 
    tied up at the Bristol town Dock- disabled. If that was the boat- It
    should have sunk! Gunwales rotted out, hadn't been painted in years and 
    lokked like tobacco road- I'm surprised it floated! I can't believe
    what some people will set out in.
    
     Thanks for the update
    
    Dic
    

    Castle Hill is the Coast Guard station at Newport.  (Located just
    South of Newport, on a little North-facing cove on the point, and
    a beautiful view of Butterball Rocks  out the South windows....)
    Their radio antenna they usually use is a remote, on top of one
    of the towers of the Newport Bridge.  They have a backup, with the
    antenna on their lawn.  Last I knew the remote antenna was 
    "shared" with the Point Judith station -- it's possible that
    Point Judith needed the remote antenna, and Castle Hill used
    their backup unit (which would come in weaker).  
    
    I spent four years with the Coast Guard.... including a memorable
    summer (1974) at Castle Hill.  I can relate to the entire story
    here.....  "panic", "confusion", and "mixups" included.  Mostly,
    I have a hard time NOT remembering some of the consistent idiots
    I tangled with back then.  The two-masted sailboat that needed
    a tow (his engine was broken down) on a breezy day.....  the boat
    with the "stuck" compass (can opener, complete with magnet, stuck
    to the compass!), the "little old lady" voice that phoned every
    time the local kids capsized their Sunfish (they did it more on
    HOT days....), the slurred voices about sundown.....   that summer
    was as close as I've ever come to having ulcers!!
    
    				- Ed Bourgault -

    
    
    Re:.3-  I don't know waht I was thinking about- I knew that Castle
    Hill= Newport CG, don't know aht I was thinking about , other than some
    "logical" reason for the two different vioces. 
    
     I also found out that the Buoy tender out of brtistol was working in
    the Bay on Sat morning, so the  voice  coordinating the "rescue"
    that was much strone ger may have been from the tender(it was on the
    south side of Hog Island-very close to my location.
    
     You stories about all the stuff that goes on out there and the
    "crazies" reminds me of wehen I came back from Europe in the early
    60's.
    
     I had put a Becker radio in my car that had all kinds of bands that I
    could receive . One of the bands had the radio telephone frequencies.
    I sat listening one night to a slurred voice (guy was fishing with his
    buddies for the weekend) call his lady friend- then proceed to get
    pretty graphic about what he had in mind when he returned to port.
    The operator had to cut him off as it was  a pretty raunchy
    conversation (from both sides)- I'll bet there must have been 200
    guys trying to remember the phone # that was called. The airwaves were
    really buzzing after that one!
    
                                          

Okay, I got the straight scoop from my buddy. He had just launched at the
State Street launch ramp, and wanted to head down to the Newport Bridge.
He no sooner got out of Bristol Harbor when the mayday came in. He laughs
now about the jerks on channel 16.

Anyway, he heard the mayday, called CG Castle Hill and told them he was
in the vicinity and would look for the boat. The mayday did not describe
his boat. My friend found him about 25 yards off #5 off Poppasquaush. A
~21 foot white over black inboard or I/O runabout. He broke an oil line,
which sprayed on the hot engine and made lots of smoke. No flames. The
O/O was ~45, had a kid ~15 on board. They had no lifejackets, and did not
anchor.

The CG called the Bristol Harbormaster, who called the Warren
Harbormaster, and that's who eventually came.

Overall, it sounds like a circus to me.

Art