4th of July Fireworks Set To Music- Mesmerizing! Electrifying! Magnificent!

The Fourth of July on the water is the best place to be when the fireworks start; the reflections on the water, the expanse of sky and the way sound carries makes for a pyrotechnic palette of exploding reds, yellows, greens, silver and gold shimmering into crackling contrails followed by a delayed sonic boom echoing across the water as if trying to catch the speed of light.

If you've been there, I'm sure you had your favorites, and cheered, whooped or blew your horn in jubilant approval. The cacophony of different pitched boat "whistles" from air horns to car horns adds to the excitement. Here I share a majestic display set to music to get you in the mood for one of our most treasured boating holidays: Independence Day!

Introduction by William L. Gills aka Bos'n Bill

William L. Gills aka Bos'n Bill is the author of the book, Lubber's Log published by Llumina Press; a boating primer and adventure story about a couples experiences in moving up to a bigger boat.  

You can visit his website here.

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http://www.lubberslog.com

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning.

Introduction by William L. Gills aka Bos'n Bill
I don't like to dwell on tragedy, especially as it relates to time on the water; it's our high time as boaters.  But experience will reveal in some small cases, that there are times when drowning is a specter looking for a victim. If we, as observers of someone in trouble in the water misinterpret their signals, choose to ignore them, or think them pantomiming a pretend victim,  life can be lost simply because we're only casually  interested in the panicky behavior, taken as a pranky call to us for help.  I think we need to be more vigilant, know the signs of the drowning distress signals and pay attention to them.. This article by Mario Vittone brings all this to light.  Thank you Mario for your insightful advice...   Please read this post! You and I may be there to save a life thanks to his counsel!

Article By Mario Vittone

The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

How did this captain know – from fifty feet away – what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.

2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.

3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.

4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.

5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:

 Head low in the water, mouth at water level

 Head tilted back with mouth open

 Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus

 Eyes closed

 Hair over forehead or eyes

 Not using legs – Vertical

 Hyperventilating or gasping

 Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway

 Trying to roll over on the back

 Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder.

So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

William L. Gills aka Bos'n Bill is the author of the book, Lubber's Log published by Llumina Press; a boating primer and adventure story about a couples experiences in moving up to a bigger boat.  

You can visit his website here.

Morning on the Water - Best Time of the Day?

Introduction by William L. Gills aka Bos'n Bill

One of the best times to be "on the hook" is in the morning when the sun is coming up, in the evening when the sun is going down and all the times in between! But, all things being equal, I think morning wins the prize for being the most peaceful time of the day, when the boating community sleeps in and nature begins to stir; the world wakes slowly from its slumber as you revel in the peace and calm and beauty of it all before the pace quickens.

I discovered an article by Robert Beringer entitled Peace Of The Morning" I'd like to share with all the larks, loons and terns of the world.
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PEACE OF THE MORNING

Robert Beringer

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." Marcus Aurelius Roman emperor and philosopher A.D. 121-180

There can be no doubt. For boaters, the best place in the world is on the water first thing in the morning. For a few fleeting moments every day, it’s when angels sigh; when all the world, but for the drift of the tide from stem to stern, is still. My eyes open with the gull’s first cry and I crawl out from the cramped aft cabin, careful not to hit my head. In the saloon, motion is barely detectable, just enough to feel the swing of the rode, and the crackle of shrimp around the hull the only noise. On deck the air is heavy. Dew covers all exposed surfaces. I extinguish and stow the anchor light, as the waning moon smiles down from a lavender sky. The water is glass. Spiders, knowing that light converts them to prey, abandon their webs to seek solace within the many confines of the bimini. Something nips at the water’s surface; a small fish jumps. Our anchorage, so boisterous last evening, is now the picture of equanimity.

Private conversations are telegraphed from the distant shore. A baby cries, a motorcycle races, a dog barks. Prop-fouling crab pots that can be so hard to spot underway are now cleanly laid out in a long dotted line, awaiting their waterman. Dolphins and manatees are visible from great distances.

The sun cracks the treetops; its rays kiss the wind indicator, then slide down the mast. When they strike the deck, the boat comes to life: the vent fan begins to spin, the solar panel clicks, a faint mist forms above the deck.

A distant tug’s wake bumps the hull and the halyards rattle. A line of brown pelicans glides a foot above the water. The crew, too, comes to life. I hear the pump of the head, the clank of the coffee pot. Soon a delicious smell will waft up from the galley.

The still, cool of the morning belies the forecast of a hot and humid day; thunderstorms are coming. In the cockpit, I consider the day’s options and review the chart. Can we make the mouth of the St. Johns before the storms hit? How long will we have a favorable tide? We’re upwind of today’s destination; cat’s paws claw the river upstream. I’ll set the mainsail and pull the anchor, eschewing the engine. I’ll surprise late risers when they stumble on deck to find that we’re far from our anchorage.

Soon our floating world will be a beehive of activity: a meal, a destination, a course, a repair. It will be a busy day with a hundred tasks to perform. But for a few halcyon moments, I have the morning.

By Robert Beringer

Originally a Great Lakes sailor, college administrator Robert Beringer splits his time between the Chesapeake and Florida’s St. Johns River. Since buying Ukiyo (Japanese for “the floating world”) in 1998, he’s logged 22,000 coastal and ocean miles.

William L. Gills aka Bos'n Bill is the author of the book, Lubber's Log published by Llumina Press; a boating primer and adventure story about a couples experiences in moving up to a bigger boat.  

You can visit his website here.