Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Thanks Sarge

I've been so focused on my parents offshore saga that I've plumb neglected the larger sailing arena...not sure how "large" this is but here's a link to a "cautionary tale" in the Delmarva Daily news - David Maliniak, of Gilbert, PA cheerfully motored his 36' Hunter Twin Mast up the Indian River Inlet thinking he had a 100-foot clearance in a channel 30-feet wide — it’s actually 30 feet of clearance in a 100-foot channel. As the brief says, by the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. All who have taken their sailboats under bridges with dubious clearance will recognize this as not the feeling you're generally looking for. So the mast struck the Indian River Inlet Bridge. Sgt. Gregory Rhodes of the Fish & Wildlife noted, "Check your navigation charts before entering an inlet that you are unfamiliar with...all the information you need to make a safe entry is on that chart.” Which translates as, "David Maliniak, of Gilbert, PA you publicly humiliated yourself much to the amusment of local fishermen and other assorted on-lookers who are, if they're sailors, are secretly glad it was you and not them."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You would think that the difference between 100' of clearance and 30' of clearance would be obvious to anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention. What was he doing?