Reviews: Delaware City Marina

WG Editor Comment:

Marina Response:

Thank you for the opportunity to expand on the Captain’s review. The Harbormaster and General Manager were acting as dock hands during the incident. The review does not match the recollections of the Harbormaster, General Manager or witnesses.

M/V WINER (the vessel's crew pronounces the word “wine” with an “R” at the end) arrived in the marina's fairway and desired to turn himself around prior to docking. However, the crew of M/V WINER also passed a bow line to the dock hands before executing their turn. The command “Captain, move ahead 15 feet,” was announced via VHF and voice by the General Manager. However, rather than placing the vessel in forward,
M/V WINER promptly went into reverse. Going into reverse effectively drove the vessel onto the opposite shore.
This incident had zero to do with the marina’s practice of warping vessels from a starboard landing to a port-side tie. Warping safely uses only the energy of the channel’s current. Warping is a practice that is thousands of years old. Warping in the marina's north-south oriented fairway with a north-south flowing current does not drive boats onto the opposite east shore. Only a very, very, very strong west wind or the use of reverse puts vessels on the opposite east shore. The current’s energy can only move things north or south in the channel.
This is a case of this captain who placed his vessel in reverse gear. The result was to propel the vessel onto opposite (east) shore. In the past eight years, the marina has warped about 4,280 visiting boats from starboard ties to port ties. None have landed on the far shore. Except for M/V WINER.
M/V WINER's captain elected to do his own docking maneuver. The captain’s idea didn’t work. And someone other than him must accept his failure. He attacks the guide for inaccurate information on the approach. Why would he ever return to the same port if the procedures employed were dangerous or the approach reporting inaccurate?
The bottom line is: If the dock hands had not fastened the dock line handed to them to the cleat prior to captains use of reverse, the damage would be substantially more.
Moral: A retired engineer does not a sea captain make.

WG Editor Comment:

Marina response: Waterway Guide! I apologize for not realizing you have a place for comments and reviews! I read with hysterics the review of the Delaware City Marina by Mr. Hutchins. Here's the whole story: Towed to the marina, the dock staff asked if they needed fuel as the boat approached the marina.. All the crew aboard the vessel, drinks in hand, roared, NO! "We know exactly what's wrong!!" After three days on the dock, and many fruitless DIY maintenance tasks, the crew decided it was time to add fuel to empty tanks. PRESTO! the engines roared back to life! (BTW, At no point did the crew desire to put in a work order but did all the tasks themselves.) The first night, they attempted to grill steaks with no less than 4' flames leaping into the air as the grill dripped flaming grease down the port stern quarter. The dock was crowded. The dock is ipa wood. What mariner cooks with reckless abandon in a crowded harbor? The captain was quick to point out that the boat could not burn as it was built as a patrol craft during Vietnam War. BTW, the next day a marina and vessel burned in the northern Chesapeake because of a captain's carelessness. Reviews always have two sides. Tim Konkus