Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
Not too many places on earth like Columbia Bar
There’s a great article about the Coast Guard training program down there in today’s paper.
QUOTE
One of the first lessons the instructors impart is that piloting a rescue boat here means thinking like a chess player. Every block of space has energy and wave conditions that are unique to that space and time, which means that getting from point A to point B involves thinking three to four moves ahead, reading the wave conditions and often zigzagging around the worst threats.
But sometimes, when a wave hits with a force or from a direction that a pilot cannot avoid, the boat can turn over and capsize, pulling everyone onboard completely underwater, or the vessel can fall over to one side in what surfman instructors call a “knockdown.”
Students are prepared for that possibility — and told that their boats are engineered to right themselves in as little as 10 seconds, said one of the instructors, Chief Petty Officer Cameron Katelnikoff. He said he warned students that time itself seems different, though, when you are underwater and locked onto the boat by your belt clips.
“It can feel a lot longer,” he said.
There’s a great article about the Coast Guard training program down there in today’s paper.
QUOTE
One of the first lessons the instructors impart is that piloting a rescue boat here means thinking like a chess player. Every block of space has energy and wave conditions that are unique to that space and time, which means that getting from point A to point B involves thinking three to four moves ahead, reading the wave conditions and often zigzagging around the worst threats.
But sometimes, when a wave hits with a force or from a direction that a pilot cannot avoid, the boat can turn over and capsize, pulling everyone onboard completely underwater, or the vessel can fall over to one side in what surfman instructors call a “knockdown.”
Students are prepared for that possibility — and told that their boats are engineered to right themselves in as little as 10 seconds, said one of the instructors, Chief Petty Officer Cameron Katelnikoff. He said he warned students that time itself seems different, though, when you are underwater and locked onto the boat by your belt clips.
“It can feel a lot longer,” he said.
