Re: QE2 grounding
Subject: Re: QE2 grounding
From: Richard B. Emerson (navsys@XXX.XXX)
Date: Thu Aug 30 2001 - 08:36:04 EDT
Thanks, Russell, for the article. Looking at chart 13218 "Martha's
Vinyard to Block Island" (1:80000), venturing in as close 2.5 miles of
Cuttyhunk seems like a problem looking to happen even if Rude Rock
wasn't known. Sow and Pigs Reef (extending roughly SW from Cuttyhunk)
and an area up to about 3 miles south of there is marked as "Rk" and
"Blds" and further marked by a bell off Sow and Pigs and a whistle
SSE of that light (near rocks marked as 31 and 33 feet). Not a place
to bet the boat on...
For those who don't know the area, much of the terrain off the
mainland from at least New York Harbor north to Cape Cod is the
product of glacial morraines left in the last ice age. In effect,
Long Island, Block Island, Cape Cod and the islands are rock piles,
made of all the material swept up by the glacial sheet and deposited
at the face of the glaciers. Two of the best places to see this are
the sandy cliffs near Southwest Light on Block Island or Gay Head on
Martha's Vinyard. Anyway, the point is that in adition to the general
rock bottom, there is a lot of debris, for want of a better term,
scattered around on the bottom.
Rick
S/V One With The Wind, Baba 35
