At this point in the transit the current is running out of Atkins bay. So at this point it is an ebb tide. We got underway at Bath 15 minutes before high water to allow me to go over sand bars just north of Doubling Pt.
As to anchor it is a submarine type, that is it came out from beneath the hull which meant you needed at least 47’ of water for it to safely clear the pipe.
In three sea trials we never lost power. An interesting event, our first night out and in the vicinity of Mt .Desert Rock Light at 0300 I was awoken and asked to come to the bridge. My first officer,Capt. Mark Klopp a Portland Harbor Pilot had been listening to a May Day call from the fishing vessel Danny Boy some 63 miles to the southwest of us. I had told the Coast Guard that we cold be there in two hours. Our offer was declined as they said they had it covered with a helo out of Cape Cod. For some reason I answered back that we would be there. At this point in the trials we had not done our four hour endurance run to test the engines. I called the engineers and laid out the story. We arrived on scene as the helo arrived. Stood off Three miles until the helo asked for help. Moved up to the Danny Boy, and opened our stern door and launched our rib down the launch and recovery ramp. They were quickly alongside Danny Boy, the Captain jumped into the rib and she was on her way back to us. I swung my stern towards the rib so she could see the boat bay opening. It was a good coarse for recovery and she quickly had DB’s Captain in our sick bay for examination by our Doctor. The helo hovered over our deck and sent the swimmer and a basket down to our helo deck. He and the patient were lifted off and taken to Portland.
The engines purred like kittens making the 63 mile run in two hours and five minutes.the patient had two stents I’m told and two months later Capt. Klopp walked across the dock to inquire about the Captain. The Danny Boy ties up across the slip from our two Pilot Vessels.
As to being dead in the water. In my 37 years as an outside contractor,30 as River Pilot and trials Captain, I’ve been dead in the water only twice. Falcon Champion, a product tanker, due to misalignment of controls for a test and a DDG 51 class that I believe was the first to be computer controlled. I was never made aware prior to trials that a computer was running the engines. I don’t think the engineers were fully aware as they were as mystified as every one including the wiz kids until one just said let’s reboot the computer. Let there be light.
The photo above I think was taken on our first transit in December which had turned out to be a beautiful day. The Jan trial was also in good weather but later in the day. The March trial, we came and went in snow. I retired three months later and Capt. Klopp took over from me as he had done at Portland Pilots.
11 Likes