Sea Adventures Chapter 8

In a recent Kaffeeklatch discussion of steering in a following sea, I was reminded of lessons learned when en route to Panama via Guantanamo Bay. My PT 4-boat division left Miami, overnighted in a bay on the north coast of Cuba, then rounded the eastern part of Cuba and went west to "Gitmo." On the last leg we were going downwind a a cruising speed of 35 knots with a following sea. At our speed we overtook the wave ahead, surfing down the face of a billow and pitching down into the trough, sometimes burying the bow. Green water swept over the boat and we had to clear the foredeck of crewmen. The 594 boat was cruising to port and on one occasion I looked over to see a wave sweep over that boat and a man swimming desperately to avoid being swept overboard. I later learned that a man had been lost from an earlier squadron. Experience taught us to steer to port or starboard and present a forward quarter to the wave rather than bury the bow.

The next lesson came when searching the flat coast of Columbia for the entrance to the Magdalena River to go upstream to Baranquilla. The lead boat suddenly turned right, radioing "hard right" because of apparent shoal water ahead. In fact we had found the river's muddy outflow when well offshore. With plenty of water under us we entered the muddy current and approached the entrance. The strong current was working against an onshore wind, setting up short, steep seas in the river mouth. Once again we had to take care not to bury the bow. I was reminded of this when reading the account of the French explorer, Lapeyrouse, and his 1782 catastrophe at Lituya Bay when 3 of his ships' boats were caught in a strong ebb tide working against an onshore wind and seas and two boats and their crews were lost.