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From: Capt. R. Metz
Location: Fl
email: dgmetz@aol.com
Remote Name: 152.163.100.201
Date: 03.31.06
Time: 08:31:25 AM
My sleepy deckhand came running into the pilot house scared out of his mind. The loud foghorn was right on top of us when the captain yelled he was altering his course hard to starboard! We really felt his wake this time as it slammed against the hull of the tug. I was expecting to see the large ships bow coming right for our little tug boat but it passed and we were both relieved. The captain proceeded to chew me out for not having radar aboard; like I never heard this before. “Don’t you know you are crossing one of the busiest shipping lanes in North America?” I knew he was right in getting darn mad but what could I say but to apologize and that didn’t hold any water with him at all. The other steamer was way up the lake when we started up the engine and got back on our course. The rest of the trip was uneventful till we started getting closer to the island. I didn’t dare ask that still-angry-captain what my position was after our last encounter. After about 12 hours out I didn’t have any idea where we were or how far from the island we were. I then made up my mind that I will not make another crossing until I had radar; this was unsafe to make crossings like this. No More! I would go back on the boats first before I made another trip. We ate the last of our food and we were getting hungry. I thought of the canned food that we had packed for the trip. Then I remembered a large can of beans that I had packed into the box. I asked the deckhand if he would put the can of beans on top of the tugs engine manifold in order to heat them up before we ate.