Manatee Rams a Destroyer

Gordon (hlg@pacbell.net)
Sat, 21 Nov 1998 21:41:20 -0800


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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I got up earlier than usual this morning and was more or less ready when my
son, Jeff, arrived at 0700 to go sailing with me. Our plan was to join the
Potter Yachter sail out of Richmond if the forecast looked better than it
had for the past few days. But the morning forecast still indicated
likelihood of rain in the afternoon. We decided to head up to Redwood City
instead, just a short drive from Mountain View, and do some serious testing
of the new 70-lbf-thrust MinnKota before the rains came. I had just
finished building in battery mounts and tiedowns last night.

As we hooked up Manatee's trailer to Jeff's Ranger, I took a look skyward,
and whattayaknow, not a cloud anywhere. Okay, back to Plan A, we would head
for Richmond, even though it was now too late to make the scheduled 0900
launch time. But we had only gone a few miles up the Bayshore Freeway when
I noticed there were now low gray clouds scattered all over the previously
clear sky, so we cruised on past the Dumbarton bridge exit and proceeded to
Redwood City and Plan B.

Jeff, who loves Navy ships, mentioned a ship he had heard about - a Navy
destroyer that had been used for target practice by planes from Alameda NAS
and was resting in the shallow waters off Redwood City with large pieces of
twisted and shredded structure still above water. I had sailed Manatee out
to the wreck many years ago but hadn't visited the derelict recently.
Anyway, Jeff wanted to see it, but I had reservations about going that far
out with only an electric motor, little wind, and the possibility of rain.

We launched and headed up Redwood Creek, running mainly at 50% power while
trying to monitor speed with our Garmin GPS II Plus. But the speed varied
too much, from around 1.5 to 3.4 kn, to get a definitive speed to be
expected at that setting, probably due to varying currents. Changing course
180 degrees didn't make the readings any more meaningful. (I'll have to
make my speed checks another day on a quiet lake with no currents or wind.)

A breeze came up and we sailed for a while with the motor off and watched
the channel markers go by until we had emerged from Redwood Creek into the
broad southern San Francisco Bay. The San Mateo bridge was visible to the
west and the Dumbarton bridge to the east. The sea was smooth and the
breeze gentle. It was open Bay on both sides, but we continued to stay
between the red and green markers for awhile although the high tide would
probably have allowed us to leave the channel without running aground. I
clicked a waypoint into the GPS at one of the markers.

Off to the east we spotted a large power boat and near the boat was an
unidentifiable shape on the water that we agreed must be the remains of
the destroyer, since there was nothing else in sight anywhere, and it
seemed to be about where I remembered it to be from my one previous visit,
possibly 20 years ago. So we left the channel and struck off on a close
reach toward the object, now motor sailing with the MinnKota at 50% power
in order to make better time in the light breeze, still considering the
possibility of rain. The close reach suggested we would have a favorable
wind for the return and would not be dependent on the batteries. The boat
we had seen was moving off to the west.

The wreck was about 3 nmi from where we left the channel. As we grew closer
the wind was light so I released the sheet (we were lateen rigged) and
motored up fairly close to take a good look and then circled around to the
far side. Not knowing what might be just below the surface, I avoided
getting too close.

The ship had been so thoroughly torn up that it was difficult to recognize
what we were seeing and it's impossible to describe clearly. There was a
large piece that appeared to be part of the forward structure near the bow,
and there was an upper deck, still well above the water level, and then,
runnning aft, was a long lower deck awash at water level. Everything was
twisted and shredded. There was a row of portholes on one side, and inside
the forward structure we identified an internal doorway (hatch). There were
some chocks visible along the deck, the big iron kind that large ships have
to lead their mooring lines. Separate from the main visible wreckage, but
close by were two objects just barely breaking water, which we decided
later was probably the two knobs of another chock. I was still concerned
about the unknown duration of our batteries and the possibility of rain, so
we decided to head back to the channel, agreeing that we should come back
sometime at low tide when we could see more of the wreckage.

I circled on around what we took to be the forward end of the ship and
shortly thereafter the centerboard struck something and started to retract.
(Because of the smooth sea and light breeze, the CB was not tied down.) I
quickly hauled up the CB, which passed over the object and then dropped
back all the way down when I released it, but the motor, still running at
50% power, then struck solidly. Just as MinnKota advertises, the motor's
plastic shaft flexed, but did not break. I quickly shut off the motor and
pushed the tilt-up button, at the same time looking down in the water and
seeing the front of the motor was nestled up against what looked like a
round gray stone, maybe 10 inches in diameter. In my haste to get free, it
didn't occur to me to identify the object. I lifted the motor over the
object and Manatee was free once again. Later we decided the submerged
round object was one knob of another chock, covered with barnacles, parts
of which were deposited on the bottom of our motor. The propeller had not
struck anything and was undamaged.

I turned the motor back on, and as we passed around the shore side of the
wreck for the last time, Jeff spotted a strange sight. Near the wreckage
was something bubbling up. We couldn't tell if it was from a large stream
of bubbles or was an actual liquid flow, but the outflow appeared clear -
no oil slick or any other sign of foreign matter in the water. it was a
vigorous flow and continued at the same rate as long as it remained in our
view. We hadn't seen it before our collision, so we can only wonder if our
collision had disturbed something, causing a release of trapped air from
the wreckage. i would expect that shipwrecks would intermittently release
trapped air as portions of the wreckage rust through, but to witness such
an event during our brief visit seems unlikely. Perhaps we struck the final
blow to the poor old ship, and it will soon roll over and disappear beneath
the cold water.

Now I had a new concern. There was no following wind to take us back to the
channel. There was no wind at all. In addition the Bay had taken on a misty
look, but not foggy, we could still landmarks on the distant shore, but
visibility had declined, and there were more clouds. We had neither chart
nor tide table, since we had made a last minute decision to go to Redwood
City, and I hadn't really expected to leave Redwood Creek. We would now
have to rely on the batteries to get us back to the channel. This was only
my second time out with the MinnKota so I had not established what kind of
duration I could expect. It had appeared to be near high tide when we were
outward bound, so I was also concerned that we might be bucking an ebb
current in the channel.

We were about 3 nmi from the channel leading into Redwood Creek, and the
markers were not visible, so I used the GPS to put us on a course to the
marker where I had set a waypoint, and I watched the distance slowly
decline on the GPS as we motored in at 50% power. The motor maintained its
silent push, and as we approached the channel the breeze returned. The
wind picked up some more when we were in the channel, and I switched off
the MinnKota, without retracting it, and we continued to make good
progress. As the channel changed direction we found we had to tack up the
channel, so I switched the motor back on and motor sailed, still tacking,
but picking up an additional knot with the motor at 50%. The tide appeared
to be at the upper waterline on the shore, apparently still in the flood
phase, so we didn't have to buck an ebb current. The breeze continued so
when we reached the inner harbor, we dropped the sails and went to 100%
power on the MinnKota, just to see how much we could expect from the
motor-battery combination, confident that we could raise the sails and sail
into the ramp if the batteries died. But there was no apparent decline in
power as we detoured around two dinghy racing fleets and made our way to
the launch ramp.

I estimate we ran the MinnKota for almost 4 hours today, most of that at
50%. After Manatee was back in my driveway in Mountain View I checked the
specific gravity of one of the battery cells, which was a little below 1.2,
which was in the red discharged area on the gauge, and indicated the
batteries were discharged to less than 50 percent capacity. When I hooked
up the 10 amp charger the initial charge rate was 12 amps, also indicating
the batteries were pretty low. But I was pleased with the day's sail and
the performance of the motor and batteries (two 95 amp-hour deep-cycle wet
cells in series, purchased for about $40 apiece at Costco). The MinnKota
Riptide RT-70S motor seems to be as tough as MinnKota claims it is. On my
first launch with the new motor, the boat collided with the dock, motor
first, with no damage. Today, on my second outing, I rammed a destroyer
with my MinnKota, again with no damage to the motor, although I'm not too
sure about the destroyer.

Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA