Saturday, June 6, 2009

Theory of codes

Kayakers to the rescue. Looks like the fisher- man is helping us but looks are deceiving in this case.

There are codes for everything. Building codes, code of ethics for professionals and, aptly today a code for conduct at sea. As we paddled out of Bay Bulls this morning we came upon two fishermen whose boat was disabled by rope around the propeller. We stopped to ask if we could help but they only asked us to ask a zodiac, out by the berg we were going to, to come in and give him a tow. When we got out to the berg the guy in the zodiac took off so we had to double back to see what we could do again. Stan tried a call on the VHF radio and then a try with the cell phone. Eventually, someone did come out from Bay Bulls to give a tow and we went on our way.

Stan and myself were amazed that these guys weren't wearing PFDs and didn't have anyway to communicate with land if they had to. Not even a spare set of oars. We were in much smaller boats but much better prepared.

In any case, we did what we could and there's always something that can be done to help. Stan wondered if we could have towed him ourselves. I didn't think so but we lived up to the code of conduct at sea and we resumed our paddle.

Tony :-)

Stan paddling past the iceberg in Bay Bulls. He's further away from the berg than he looks. The berg has been around for a while and has been melting so its a candidate to roll. This was our third berg for the year, will we bag anymore?


Stan in happy salute to being on the water.

Making our way along the south side of Bay Bulls with the iceberg in the distance.

Stan exploring the south side of Bay Bulls. There were a lot of sea gulls perched on the cliffs behind him.

Stan paddling at South Head, the headland between Bay Bulls and Witless Bay. The rocks here are mainly red sandstones of the Signal Hill Formation. These rocks outcrop at Signal Hill (couldn't see that coming huh?) the type location for the Formation.

Stan at South Head with numerous sea stacks that makes it very scenic and a great place to paddle through.

Sea stack at South Head, a safe refuge always for birds of any species.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking at the size of boat a pfd was maybe not req by law.I know most fishermen out our way do not wear them either.Gets in the way working.

Tony said...

Maybe not required Lee but there are lots of stories about fishermen falling out of their boats that turn out to be news stories. I hope I didn't sound like I was preaching as I feel everyone is responsible for their own safety and they can make their own decisions on these kinds of things.

Tony :-)