East Coast Views:
Paddling Like A Boater
February-March 2005
This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Adam Bolonsky
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BOSTON HARBOR HAZARDS Outer Boston Harbor has a growing and deserved reputation as a rugged body of water studded with islands that are wild, untrammeled, and great camping for adventurous kayakers. Negotiating its waters, however, requires close attention to the two shipping channels which run northeast/southwest through its outermost northern corner. The north channel (marked here by red bell #6, flashing red light buoy #8, quick red-flashing bell #10, and others, and green flashing buoys #7 and #9, and green-and-red flashing buoy PR) abuts lively shallows popular with roughwater enthusiasts. Similarly the south channel (marked by flashing red buoys #6, #10 and others, and green cans and green-flashing buoys #5, 7, 9, 11, and 13) runs past surly Devils Back, rough Aldridge Ledge, and a notorious submerged rock known simply as The Pounder. Although both channels are obvious on the chart, their red nuns, green cans and flashing buoys do not present such a clear byway on the water. Even if not obscured by fog or swell, the buoys tend to visually overlap, contradict, and sometimes even mask one another. Thus, paddlers who make the popular crossing from Ram Head to the Faun Bar must take great care when crossing this corner of the outer harbor. They must keep in mind the mnemonic ‘red right return’, reminding themselves that ships approaching Boston will leave those red buoys to starboard, and to port upon departure. |
Lobstermen along my homewaters off the eastcoast like to refer to kayaks as ‘speedbumps’, and when they do glance at us, it’s usually with no small measure of annoyance, especially if we are in the way. Kayaks are a distraction to them, and too easy to run down. As they circle, wheel and accelerate along their rows of pots, it’s obvious that these boatmen operate under many exigencies we kayakers do not, and that their seemingly erratic courses are in fact, purposeful and deliberate—a reflection of the nature of their work.
I’ve come to accept the nickname speedbump. Kayaks are narrow, round, low, and practically invisible to other boaters unless they are up close. And in fog, dusk or ocean swell, they’re even less likely to be seen. Kayaks are also invisible to radar, even if, as a local New England kayaking club and a Coast Guard station recently discovered, a paddler lines his kayak with mylar tape or ties a helium-filled mylar balloon off the stern.
Talk about ‘cruising with kayaks’—we ask other boaters to cruise with us every time we paddle! Here are a few pointers on how to reduce the likelihood of earning a more colorful nickname than speedbump, or worse, getting run down by a power or sailboat.
CHANNELS
When it comes to channels, we should not behave like other boats because channels were not made for us. Channels are for deep draft boats and are their only navigable inshore routes. Since kayaks draw six inches of water or less, we have no right to be in channels except to cross them as quickly as possible. For boaters, having to negotiate a channel studded with kayaks— inappropriately placed speedbumps—is akin to a truck driver having to navigate a narrow highway lane littered with fallen tree trunks.
Should you notice a red ‘nun’ or green can buoy (shaped respectively like pointed cones and ‘D’ cell batteries), you are either in a channel or about to encroach on one. In this case, help the boaters negotiating the channel by paddling close to shore and exiting the area as soon as possible. Keep in mind ‘red right return’, the mnemonic which cues boaters to leave a channel’s red nuns to starboard when returning home, and to port when departing.
Cross channels at right angles and in fast-moving, tightly-bunched, easy-to- see groups. ‘Right, quick and tight’ is the kayakers’ mnemonic. Just don’t get caught looking up-channel for boats returning home (red-right-return) when traffic might be steaming down-channel, leaving red nuns to port! Straggle across a channel or tarry too long in one, and you run the risk of getting hollered at, swamped, or run down.
UNMARKED TRAFFIC ROUTES
Among the complexities of power and sailboat use are the dozens of unmarked transit routes which crisscross bays and lakes like grapevines over trellises. It’s on these routes that we really need to think and act like other boaters.
How? First, learn the location of your area’s probably half-dozen or so informal boating transit routes. Often you can detect these routes just by being observant: you’ll detect a distinct traffic flow between two points. Alternatively, ask a local harbormaster or boat owner. Unmarked boating routes are used by local powerboating teenagers who know their waters well, commercial fishing boats following charts and depth contours as shown on their sounders, and charter captains on daily sportfishing trips. These routes are easy to negotiate so long as you paddle them defensively and behave like a knowledgeable boater.
For example, off Gloucester, Massachusetts, lies a well-buoyed transit route which runs from Halibut Point to Gloucester’s Eastern Point, a distance of roughly 14 miles. A wide-arcing, slightly offshore mariners’ route, this transit passes a large and obvious bell buoy and a ‘groaner’ buoy at its beginning and endpoints.
Most days or nights, however, no one but whale-watch captains or the occasional cruise ship master follows this prescribed route. Instead, local boaters travel from Halibut to Eastern Point along a complex web of unmarked inshore routes, all of which enter a narrows aptly named Straitsmouth. Straitsmouth places boaters practically in the living rooms of the homes which line the narrows’ western side. This pinch point has become a favored kayaking route, yet because its entrance and exit points are not aligned, the gap is ‘blind’.
Many’s the afternoon when fast-running powerboats burling through the gap’s right side (according to the rules of the road) have come upon wandering pods of kayaks dawdling in the narrows’ pinch point. Only local paddlers and guides who are aware that this pinch point is an informal powerboat route, know to pass through the gap quickly while hugging its sides. They are paddling as skilled boaters.
So next time you are out paddling, consider if you are paddling like a skilled and responsible boater—the kind who knows an area’s marked and unmarked routes, and who realizes how difficult kayaks are to see from other boats. Remember that red nuns and green cans indicate important details, as do red and green bow lights on bigger boats. Don’t forget the mnemonics ‘red, right, return’ and ‘quick, right and tight’, and remember too, that other boaters expect us to behave like mariners who know what we’re doing, not like uninformed riders of propelled logs laying just above the water’s surface.
So next time you are out paddling, consider if you are paddling like a skilled and responsible boater—the kind who knows an area’s marked and unmarked routes, and who realizes how difficult kayaks are to see from other boats. Remember that red nuns and green cans indicate important details, as do red and green bow lights on bigger boats. Don’t forget the mnemonics ‘red, right, return’ and ‘quick, right and tight’, and remember too, that other boaters expect us to behave like mariners who know what we’re doing, not like uninformed riders of propelled logs laying just above the water’s surface.
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© Adam Bolonsky is a native New England sea kayaking instructor and sea kayak fishing guide based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Adam@WaveLengthMagazine.com.
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