Captain School

[Sparky1]

As of this Saturday, I'll start on a journey that will end with y'all having to call me Captain Sparky.

Heck, I'm so into this thing that I've even reserved a floating cabin for studying purposes this week-end and next. Maybe I'll hook an outboard up to it and run out from the marina and back each night to add to my sea time. Seriously, the folks at the marina made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and it's only about 20 minutes away from where the school will be held. Too bad ole' Freebird is still all torn apart or I'd just stay onboard. The two hour drive back and forth to Chattanooga is going to be a pain next week as I'll be commuting back home since the classes run from 6PM to 10PM through the week vs 9AM to 6PM on Saturdays and Sundays. I'll be going for my 100 ton master and towing endorsement, all at the same time, just to get it out of the way while I'm at it.

These folks instructed us to do no prior studying for the course, so I've followed their instructions. It should be interesting, informative, and entertaining at the same time as I really am a boat junkie at heart. Maybe this is what I was meant to do all along. I'll keep y'all posted as things progress, but if I see I'm talking to myself, I'll shut up. Funny how some of you never quite figured out that concept before.

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

I think "Capt Dildo" would be a better fit for you, what with Capt Ron already being taken..... Who's putting the class on"?
I went thru Sea School when I got my capt/master capt license in the 80's.
But good luck.....

 

[Sparky1]

"Capt Dildo"?

Here's the info on the outfit who's running the school...

www.TrueCourses.com

 

[Traveler 45C]

Perhaps Capt Crunch would be better.

 

[yachtsmanbill]

I think "Capt Dildo" would be a better fit for you, what with Capt Ron already being taken..... Who's putting the class on"?
I went thru Sea School when I got my capt/master capt license in the 80's.
But good luck.....

You know who'll be putting the class on Charlie!! ws

 

[Blaine Thorpe]

Randy,

There will be a new USCG physical form that is to be used after the first of the year. If you submit for your license after 01JAN2010, you will need to use the new form.

I found out when I was talking to the USCG Exam Center in St. Louis about renewing my license.

Blaine

 

[Sparky1]

Hey! Good luck Sparky!

I also went through the Sea School course, I don't know how your school will be, all sea school taught us basically was the answers to the test questions, hope your teaches a bit more.

I hope you cruising days are outside the cool regs, for ocean operator, or maybe they changed that requirement.

Anyway good luck again.

Thanks Craig. I'm certainly not opposed to learning new info and look forward to that, but at the risk of sounding arrogant, if I could pay an extra $100 and just get the license without the school or test, I'd do it as I'm confident in my skills. Let's face it, short of knowing the rules of the road, navigation and nav aids etc., you'll never need most of what you have to memorize as I understand it.

Now if I planned to point my bow to the other side of an ocean, things would be different. My ocean experience (which started over 20 years ago) has been near coastal which is what the master will be assuming all goes well. Short of running the rivers (been doing that since I was 10), I don't see myself ever doing more than running the ICW or coastline with trips to the islands.

Randy,

There will be a new USCG physical form that is to be used after the first of the year. If you submit for your license after 01JAN2010, you will need to use the new form.

I found out when I was talking to the USCG Exam Center in St. Louis about renewing my license.

Blaine

Thanks Blaine, I'm assuming these folks are up on all the latest, but they will be taking care of the physical with their own doc and will be submitting all the forms. I just need to set up an appointment to get my TWIC card while I'm near that office in Chattanooga.

 

[Sparky1]

Nah man, I didn't take it as you raining on my parade, nor did I mean to come across as knowing everything there is to know. I've just seen some other people talk about how a lot of these questions are more a memory exercise than anything that they would ever put into practical use.

As for the towing endorsement, I just figured that would be one more feather in the ole' hat, and it doesn't take much more to get it. There's no doubt I'll have a lot to learn about plotting, but that in itself is a waste of time IMO. Given the fact I'll never find myself on a boat with less than two GPS units, I don't plan to use that knowledge. If both units crap out, it's just a matter of using the compass to get within sight of land again assuming I was out of sight in the first place. I might burn a few extra gallons of fuel by not plotting a more precise course, but that would be about the extent of it.

 

[yachtsmanbill]

Yeah RIGHT! I'm glad I never need charts on the lake either... Just run a course long enough and youll hit dirt... yup...oops... head east outa Miami and youre bound to hit Bimini... yup...
I seem to recall you trying to get yer GPS chipped for that river trip... yup... now iffen ya'll only had a sextant and a good timepiece... yup...
C'mon Randy ! You really do need to take an advanced piloting class...yup...yup... yup ws

 

[hyperfishing]

It is never that simple when you are in a storm and it is blowing white so you can't see anything, your chart plotter shorted out in the salt spray, the coast guard is announcing on the radio "watch for floating body" (from a flipped over 21 foot boat), seriously injured coasties from trying to save the guy have to return to base, the compass is spinning wildly in the massive waves, and your wonderful wife is using a handheld etrex to perfectly navigate you into a narrow inlet invisible in the sea spray.

Tail end of Hurricane Kyle off East Rockaway Inlet, NY.

 

[Sparky1]

Yeah RIGHT! I'm glad I never need charts on the lake either... Just run a course long enough and youll hit dirt... yup...oops... head east outa Miami and youre bound to hit Bimini... yup...
I seem to recall you trying to get yer GPS chipped for that river trip... yup... now iffen ya'll only had a sextant and a good timepiece... yup...
C'mon Randy ! You really do need to take an advanced piloting class...yup...yup... yup ws

Yeah, I'll get me a sextant to run the river with. As for my chipping up for that river trip up the Tenn-Tom, I'd never done that trip before and everybody seemed to want to make a big deal of it being difficult. I ended up running it without so much as a paper chart as it was just a matter of watching the markers.

Like I said, running the coast is all I plan to do as I'm not into offshore fishing. If the day comes I find myself wanting to do that, I'll take advanced piloting more seriously.

 

[Sparky1]

It is never that simple when you are in a storm and it is blowing white so you can't see anything, your chart plotter shorted out in the salt spray, the coast guard is announcing on the radio "watch for floating body" (from a flipped over 21 foot boat), seriously injured coasties from trying to save the guy have to return to base, the compass is spinning wildly in the massive waves, and your wonderful wife is using a handheld etrex to perfectly navigate you into a narrow inlet invisible in the sea spray.

Tail end of Hurricane Kyle off East Rockaway Inlet, NY.

Well, if the conditions are that bad, why am I trying to hit a narrow inlet in the first place? This assumes I couldn't see that weather coming and take evasive action before I found myself in such shape. I'd be looking to ride out such a squall (assuming that's what it was) as opposed to running over those poor coasties who were trying to rescue the other idiot who didn't watch the weather.

I can't remember the name of the storm in '88, but I decided to go out and play in the Gulf as a hurricane was making its way across the keys. This was in a 22' go fast leaving Venice inlet in Florida. If those weren't twelve footers, they didn't miss it by more than a foot. It was fun until it came time to come into Big Sarasota Pass, then I realized I may have bitten off more than I could chew even in following seas. Those big waves were breaking over the shoals, and it was a real mess.

I ran further north to New Pass where the water was deeper, but I still had big breakers to contend with. With that, I just called on my younger days of surfing barge wakes with my 7' hydroplane, and I jumped on the back of them puppies until they started to break, then I darted off to climb the next one until I got past the breakers. It was a nice ride back to Venice on the ICW, but I had to wash my underwear twice that night... in hot water.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

What's our vector, Victor?

Randy, surely you've been boating long enough to have learned how to navigate without(before) GPS. You're just trying to stir the pot again aren't you?

If I'm wrong, then you've got alot to learn in that class.

 

[hyperfishing]

Ha ha, you would not want to ride out the squall in your 22 gofast right? We were in my 30 foot gofast, blue sky mother nature can turn pretty nasty sometimes, FAST.

It was "interesting" in swells similar to yours, and looking down twenty feet into the wave troughs.

One never plans to deliberately brave terrible weather. Like this summer, me having to tow three other boats tied to me, backwards at 5,000 RPM into a raging line squall with 50 MPH + winds, hail and four foot seas. Dropped on our 500 boat raft-up out of a clear blue sky and calm seas in about ten minutes.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention weaving around other boats and water toys strewn around the ocean, backwards at 5,000 RPM, with three other boats attached. I do not recall a class/chapter in captain's school for doing that. The other boat owners were pretty thankful though!<gg>

 

[OBXTucker]

Flying IFR is the same thing.....you really don't need to know everything on the VFR tests because you'll always have your instruments to get you where you need to go. Heck, you really need to just point the plane in the right direction and avoid the other guys flying around out there....

 

[yachtsmanbill]

What's our vector, Victor?

Randy, surely you've been boating long enough to have learned how to navigate without(before) GPS. You're just trying to stir the pot again aren't you?

If I'm wrong, then you've got alot to learn in that class.

"all right boys, lets grab some pictures. Check the radar range, Theyre flying on instruments, get every light available on the field " (well, jetty for Randy!!!) LOL You crack me up SKY!!
Captain School??? My semi driving school consisted of driving an 18 wheel dump truck to the test... A guy that I worked with that couldnt figure out left right left when walking went to Semi Driver school and got a job driving cross country... That ol' boy seriously wasted ALL of oxygen. LOL ws

 

[Sparky1]

What's our vector, Victor?

Randy, surely you've been boating long enough to have learned how to navigate without(before) GPS. You're just trying to stir the pot again aren't you?

If I'm wrong, then you've got alot to learn in that class.

What is this pot stirring you speak of?

Yes, I learned how to navigate without/before GPS/Loran/RADAR beginning with my duck hunting days when I had to find my way to my blind at 4AM in the fog. It was self-taught (like everything else I learned about boating) redneck navigation with only a watch and a compass, and no chart.

I'd go out during the day and record my course so I'd know how long to run in a particular direction and when to change course after running x amount of time at a pre-set speed. It wasn't pretty, but it got me there. I could do that using a chart today, but how many of you plot a course before or during a run?

Willie was funnin' me about "hitting dirt" if she ship hits the fan having lost all my electronics, but I'll stand behind my earlier statement. That trip across the Gulf was the farthest I've ever been offshore, but if I lost every piece of electronics I had on board, I would have just headed due north until I saw land. I wasn't keeping track of my position on a chart though I did have them for the areas I was traveling.

There were no fuel concerns, so it would have just been a matter of getting my bearings straight by looking at the chart and/or just yelling at somebody on my VHF to see where the hell I was. Either that or I'd use the Capt. Ron approach of just pulling over and asking directions.

Now if you're wondering why I'm up at 4AM, I had a dream y'all were talking about me.

 

[Sparky1]

"all right boys, lets grab some pictures. Check the radar range, Theyre flying on instruments, get every light available on the field " (well, jetty for Randy!!!) LOL You crack me up SKY!!
Captain School??? My semi driving school consisted of driving an 18 wheel dump truck to the test... A guy that I worked with that couldnt figure out left right left when walking went to Semi Driver school and got a job driving cross country... That ol' boy seriously wasted ALL of oxygen. LOL ws

I'm sure I've shared the story about repeating the same written test for my regular driver's license when I got a license to drive a tractor-trailer which was followed by a road test in my '72 Blazer to prove my skill.

Yep, I was a nervous wreck having to make a left turn out of the highway patrol parking lot, driving 100 yards, making a right into another parking lot followed by returning to the point I started from. I dang near forgot to use my turn signals.

I'd cut my teeth driving a IHC CO4070 with a DD 238 and a Fuller 13 speed used in my dad's excavation business, but they didn't even ask if I'd ever driven a big truck. At least all that has changed now with the advent of the CDL. It still tickles me that I don't have to prove I can handle a boat with this captain's license thing though. Lord knows we've all seen our share of classroom cowboys trying to put their boat into a slip.

 

[Sparky1]

Ha ha, you would not want to ride out the squall in your 22 gofast right? We were in my 30 foot gofast, blue sky mother nature can turn pretty nasty sometimes, FAST.

It was "interesting" in swells similar to yours, and looking down twenty feet into the wave troughs.

One never plans to deliberately brave terrible weather. Like this summer, me having to tow three other boats tied to me, backwards at 5,000 RPM into a raging line squall with 50 MPH + winds, hail and four foot seas. Dropped on our 500 boat raft-up out of a clear blue sky and calm seas in about ten minutes.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention weaving around other boats and water toys strewn around the ocean, backwards at 5,000 RPM, with three other boats attached. I do not recall a class/chapter in captain's school for doing that. The other boat owners were pretty thankful though!<gg>

I'd best not comment about weaving around other boats with other boats and water toys attached. Seems that got us into a bit of trouble at last month's CDR during a 3,000 boat raft-up. Good thing we didn't try that 5,000 RPM backwards thing or we'd all still be... never mind.

 

[34Hatt]

It still tickles me that I don't have to prove I can handle a boat with this captain's license thing though. Lord knows we've all seen our share of classroom cowboys trying to put their boat into a slip.

Yup I have said before that I know some with there ticket that are down right Scary running a boat!