Stories from the Great Loop
Life on the Loop
Common Sense
When I think of common sense, I think of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s test for obscenity in 1964: “I know it when I see it.” With common sense, it gets flipped: you know it when you don’t see it.
Recreational boating took off in the United States after World War II. Fiberglass made boats less expensive and more durable. The Greatest Generation, the whole country, had earned some R&R. The war had introduced radar. The Space Program and Silicon Valley added bits of magic and by the mid 1990’s, GPS and early chart plotters were making recreational boating ever safer and easier.
You no longer had to have years of experience to be comfortable in unfamiliar waters or out of sight of land. With a chart plotter, you really have to try hard to get lost. Modern sonar almost makes fishing unfair. Modern radar teamed with AIS not only shows the boats near you, but gives you their name, size and direction at a glance. For the slow witted, the ‘target’ can be color coded for the amount of danger it represents. Satellites can pick up an emergency beacon, pinpoint your position and have help on the way in minutes.
None of it replaces Common Sense. Common sense can overcome gaps in electronics, equipment, and even knowledge. Equipment and knowledge have a harder time overcoming gaps in common sense. If that doesn’t make sense to you, you might want to spend more money on training, equipment and insurance. You may need it.
Park Bench in Charlevoix, Michigan
It starts with the most simple of commandments. Pay Attention. Any honest Captain will admit to something really stupid because they weren’t paying attention. On the Loop, there are reasons why, but none the Admiralty Court or your insurance company will be happy with:
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Many sections of the Loop are distractedly beautiful or interesting.
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Unfamiliar water take more focus. Loopers are almost always in unfamiliar waters.
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Being on the water for long and/or consecutive days is deceptively tiring.
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On any given day, parts of your boat may need more love than you have the energy for.
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The hardest chore of the day comes when you’re most tired: anchoring or docking.
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Chart plotters are all but mandatory but also distracting and/or overwhelming.
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Watching for snags and debris requires near impossible lengths of concentration.
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Navigating at night or in fog is hard, even in familiar water.
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Most Loopers are not in ‘the prime’ of their life.
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Auto pilots can make things too easy.
Pay attention! Come to terms with your body. If you need a nap, take it. If you need a day off, take it, or two or three. If you need to pee… The Loop will still be there. You’re not on a schedule, right?!?
If you think Safety Margins are for sissies, you probably need them more than most. If they seem frivolous, think of them as a constant cost/benefit analysis.
Some safety margins are obvious: only a fool gets close to a tug and barge or freighter - or even takes a chance of getting too close. Others are based on your boat’s design: fuel range, size, speed, maneuverability, air and water draft. Some are determined by weather, others by the Admiral or Coast Guard, or worse, your insurance company.
A Captain’s ego can make safety margins tricky to set and hard to follow. Be honest about how you handle the unexpected. Confidence is a good thing, but don’t let it saddle you with a slim safety margin. Too big a safety margin is just as bad. It may never be tested, and you’ll start ignoring it. Murphy’s Law will test your safety margins; you don’t have to go looking for trouble. Experience will change them. What’s important is that you follow them.
Early in my Loop I watched a bigger boat come into dock with the Captain and Admiral both wearing headsets, also known as marriage savers. I’m thinking “Well, that’s a bit much”. Later I saw another couple in a similar boat coming in with them yelling at each other and changed my mind. Communication is critical on the water. As a solo Looper on a small boat, I still think headsets are a bit dorky, but if they improve communication and reduce expletives, use them!
VHF radio makes some people sound like they’re talking with a wad of tobacco in their mouth. Never be afraid to ask for clarification. If you don’t want to offend an unfamiliar accent or don’t want to admit you need hearing aids, just lie: “You broke out, please repeat”. You probably have bigger sins to confess.
However brilliant you think you are, don’t assume that everyone thinks like you. Many docking incidents happen when someone trying to help puts a line on a different cleat or around a different piling than you thought they would. Communicate what you’re expecting and listen when someone else communicates!
Boating has its own vocabulary. It takes practice to get comfortable using it. ‘Port'. 'Starboard’. 'One side’. 'Two side’. 'Right of Way'. 'Red Right Return’. ‘Red Right Return to Brownsville’. I finally wrote out an explanation of the ones I stumbled over and taped it next to the VHF. Don’t be proud. Do whatever it takes to improve your communication – something most marriages would benefit from too.
All chart plotters, GPS, radar and even paper charts are not created equal, much less the Captains who use them. Occasionally, your instruments may show you navigating a narrow alley to McDonalds. That’s silly because the only McDonalds with a boat dock is in Madeira Beach, FL and it’s not on a narrow alley. Trust your Eyes over your Instruments. You’ll be surprised how hard that is when your chart plotter is wailing that you’re about to hit a boat that you can’t see.
Unlike driving a car, a Captain’s focus is usually at least ¼ to ½ mile ahead. At 6-9 mph trawler speed, and even at 20 or 25, it takes time for scenarios to develop. Don’t overreact before you know that you’re reacting properly. Yes, barge tows are big, but they're also slow. The answer usually becomes obvious with a bit of Patience.
A small boat and being solo gave me a lot of flexibility, but I learned the hard way that I couldn’t stop just anywhere, and gas was not available everywhere. I still wonder about those who feel a need for meticulous plans for weeks ahead, but a Daily Plan is a good idea. It should include alternatives for bad weather and Mr. Murphy.
Have you ever circled around the block back home to make sure you locked the door? Check Lists help avoid the really embarrassing things: forgetting an anchor, talking on a VHF that’s not turned on, running with your anchor light on all day, the head overflowing, wrapping a loose line around your prop, things blowing overboard or something, usually your bed, soaked because the hatch wasn’t locked down. Been there, done that, no need to do it again. Put it on the check list.
Leave the ego at home. Learn from Others. There’s lots of good knowledge traveling with you on the Loop. Don’t ask people to fix things for you - laziness is frowned upon. But virtually any boater will take time to offer suggestions or help diagnose a problem. I never met a Looper who wouldn’t share their experience from marinas, anchorages, routes or special places. The challenge was getting them to stop!
You can learn by watching too. Docking is a good example. If you’ve hit a dock a few times, you might improve by watching how others do it. Test yourself. Anticipate what a Captain is going to do, then watch. If they do something different, who had it right based on the results? Never stop learning.
I’m not even going to get into Drugs and Alcohol. If you haven’t figured that out yet, it’s hard to imagine that you’ve made enough money to do the Loop.
It's all Common Sense. But inevitably it takes a close call or two, or worse, to sink in (pun intended). Don’t be Potter Stewart’s obscene boater. Don’t leave your common sense on the dock.