Collision At Sea

February 19, 2011

I wasn’t doing anything officer, really. Bear needed me to get off the boat for a bit and go play. I decided to take the dinghy around the headland to see around the corner. I heard there is a really cool reef that one can snorkel and a bit of reconnaissance was in order. The sea state was good for the ride. In fact, I had old Daubin up to flank speed. With just me in the dinghy it will scoot very fast and basically just hit the tops of any wavelets. Now the trick is to see the swell or boat wakes before hitting them at 25 knots or so. A fast moving glorified air mattress is unstable in anything over minimum planeing speed and any waves. For the life of me, I cannot believe I wanted a 15 horsepower motor for the thing.
There I was on the edge of the envelope with visions of a hydrofoil accident where the bow rises up, then the stern, motor whining at top speed, passes below the bow on the way to injecting a jet of water past my eyes into the empty cavity where most humans have a brain when it happened. The collision was beyond reflex. It was traumatic for the other guy, but I felt nothing. I did not see it coming but I think I had the right of way. At least, I had tonnage on the other mariner. It might have been avoided had the other “guy” been a little more observant. In the blink of an eye, his or mine not sure which, it was done. It was technically a hit and run. No attempt was made on either side to avert the crash. Actually, it was more like a thump. You see, that flying fish hardly knew what hit him. More precisely, I hardly knew what hit the dink just forward of my position until Rocky did a triple flip after ricocheting off the tube. He did manage to recover nicely and continue the flight. At least he was low enough to stay out of my face.