The course, which is approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and meets state boating safety education requirements, can be taken at the student’s own pace. After passing the exam, they can print their own certificate of completion for immediate use and will receive a lifetime card from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The course provides video demonstrations and sample common boating situations for students to interact with to better understand how to evaluate real-world instances. The learning experience includes storylines where the student “boats” to various places and includes interactive learning tools like flashcards and drag-and-drop features to enhance learning and retention. Course-takers will be able to design and name the virtual boat that takes them through the course and map how far they’ve “traveled” within it.
In the state of Florida, anyone born on or after January 1, 1988, who operates a vessel powered by 10 horsepower or more must pass an approved boating safety course and have in his/her possession photographic identification and proof of boating safety education completion issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The online BoatUS Foundation boating safety course and exam are approved by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) and recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard as exceeding the minimum requirements for the National Recreational Boating Safety Program.
“NASBLA approval of our Florida Boating Safety Course is a meaningful investment in boater safety, said Lynne O’Hearn, Program Manager at BoatUS Foundation. “Boater education is one of the most effective ways to prevent accidents, and this course gives Florida boaters the opportunity to build their skills to better enjoy Florida waterways safely.”
About BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water:
The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water is a national leader promoting safe, clean and responsible boating. Funded primarily by donations from the more than 740,000 members of Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS), the nonprofit provides innovative educational outreach directly to boaters and anglers with the aim of reducing accidents and fatalities, increasing stewardship of America’s waterways, and keeping boating safe for all. A range of safe and clean boating courses – including the nation’s only free online boating safety course – can be found at BoatUS.org/Courses.
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Spiral of Life lies trapped on a beach in Portugal in early December.
We’re not supposed to call ’em attacks because that, I guess, would be prejudicial. “Interactions” is better, we are told.
So, let’s just say it: Orcas are the ones that have been doing the interacting and withextreme prejudice, as they continue to ram sailboats off Iberia’s Atlantic coast. There have been a reported 700 of these non-attacks since 2020.
The latest interaction was a doozy. The headline-writer hadn’t gotten the memo: “Scary Moment as 30 Killer Whales Attack Family’s Yacht.”
Can you imagine? Thirty of them!
Except, it’s likely untrue. Most of the Orca incidents have involved a half dozen or so of the animals, dubbed the “Gladiator Pod,” but six or seven is bad enough.
The headline-writer must have been including every orca in a 500-mile radius in that interaction, because there is no record of Michael and Laura of Spiral of Life Sailing (yes, a YouTube channel) asserting that number.
Gladiators have been credited with sinking six or seven vessels, but without killing or injuring any humans (after which must be added the obligatory) —yet. Most of the sinkings appear to have happened from heavy blows to spade rudders typical on modern cruising craft.
According to a December 30 article in the Independent, the Dutch couple was sailing between Porto and Lisbon “when their vessel was ‘violently’ buffeted by orcas at around 5 a.m.”
“I disengaged the autopilot and grabbed the wheel and then we got hit again. The hit ripped the wheel out of my hands for a moment,” Michael said in a video about the incident. “I grabbed it back as fast as I could, and then I heard it—right next tothe boat—splashing and that heavy breathing you never forget once you’ve heard.”
(You can watch the episode below.)
Having heard that orcas prefer deep water, they steered the Bavaria 46 toward the Portuguese coast. In the terror and chaos of the moment, however, they forgot how close to shore they were to begin with. Spiral of Life ran up onto the beach and flopped on her side, having been herded aground by swimming animals said to have the thought processing abilities of a human ninth-grader.
With the help of locals, Michael and Laura were able to recover their boat and are having repairs made.
Boom! Just Like That
Meanwhile, a growing number of European sailors are adopting what you might say are teenage tactics to deal with a teenage threat. They are throwing firecrackers at the whales—the kind that will explode underwater.
Think 1943: Destroyers versus Uboats.
As EuropaSur has reported:
Frequent orca attacks in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cádiz have led to a surge in sales of water fireworks in shops like those in Algeciras, despite the fact that it is forbidden to carry them and even more so to use them to scare away these or other marine animals.
Consumer fireworks are generally illegal in Portugal, so cruisers are stocking up in the Galicia region of Spain in the north or Andalusia in the south. Petardos, as they are called, are even sold at nautical chandleries.¹
Confronted by orcas, sailors have tried dumping sand or diesel fuel, activating pingers or motoring in reverse. No joy.
According to yet another YouTube sailor, a sensible sounding guy who goes by the handle Reversing Entropy, fireworks are the only “anectdotally proven” countermeasure.²
Every report you hear about people using this, you know, mouth to mouth, people are not putting this on the internet because, you know, it’s illegal. But everyone’s story seems to end the same way. They deploy the firecracker inside of the water and the orcas just swim away.
We don’t want to hurt them. We don’t want anything bad to happen to them. We just want them not to sink our boat. This practice seems to be so effective that I hear from reliable sources that you can now buy in Spain in chandleries a kit that comes with the firecrackers and a big pole. You attach the firecracker to the front of the pole and you immerse them into water, let it explode, and then, you know, get it back.
As it happens, orcas are extremely sensitive to sound and rely on it for hunting, communication and navigation using echolocation. And sound travels very efficiently underwater.
A January 19 story in the U.K.’s Daily Mail quoted a study of the orca pod in question (lead by a female that scientists call White Gladys), which noted that the Gladiator Pod is an unusually quiet bunch:
Orca pods are typically very vocal, especially when they are hunting or playing, but White Gladis and her team pulled apart stranded yachts in eerie silence.
However, scientists have now discovered that this is merely a tactical choice. Like most pods, the orcas that live around Ibera and the Strait of Gibraltar specialise in hunting a single type of prey.
Because these killer whales are experts in tackling the alert and flighty tuna, they have learned to hunt in silence and avoid any noise that might startle the fish.
Naturally, the depth-charging of whales is driving environmentalists and animal rights groups crazy. Some sailors are against it, too, arguing that Gladys and crew will treat it as an escalation and respond by increasing the ferocity of their interactions.
Which is giving orcas a lot of credit, but hey…who knows?
“All you firecracker supporters are doing is making the attacks increasingly ferocious, and you’ll be justifying the use of more powerful explosives. Sadly, it’s already happening,” a Norwegian sailor wrote on an online forum.
Did he say attacks?
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Having been “killed” in a mortar attack (in training with military flash-bangs), I can attest to the disorientation and fear that these can induce in a human being.
Here is an informative newsletter to which you may subscribe. Its abundant harbor information will be useful as you travel the East Coast this fall, by boat or by car.
Harbour Town Yacht Basin, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, is ready for your reservation with newly renovated docks, upgraded electrical service and onSpot WiFi, also a CRUISERS NET SPONSOR. And, as always, numerous activities at the Sea Pines Resort are offered for your enjoyment, as you will see in the Event Schedule below. Hilton Head Island is absolutely marvelous any time of year.
Harbour Town Yacht Basin, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, is ready for your reservation with newly renovated docks, upgraded electrical service and onSpot WiFi, also a CRUISERS NET SPONSOR. And, as always, numerous activities at the Sea Pines Resort are offered for your enjoyment, as you will see in the Event Schedule below. Hilton Head Island is absolutely marvelous any time of year.
There is always plenty to do around Charlotte Harbor. While berthed at Fishermen’s Village Marina, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, you are certain to enjoy visiting Western Florida’s beautiful Charlotte Harbor/Peace River.
Fishermen’s Village February Calendars of Entertainment/Events
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A powerful winter storm, forecast to intensify into a “bomb cyclone,” is expected to create dangerous marine conditions along the US East Coast and Western Atlantic from Saturday through Monday…
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A snowstorm is likely to affect South Carolina Friday night through Saturday night. A Winter Storm Watch is in effect for the entire state.
Many areas may see light rain at the onset, and parts of the Coastal Plain may see up to a few hours of sleet and freezing rain. However, the risk for power outages will be low because significant ice buildup is unlikely, and the snow will be dry and fluffy.
Snow will start Friday evening in the Upstate and spread over the state through the night, reaching I-20 by around midnight and the Lowcountry around daybreak.
There remains uncertainty about how much snow will fall. However, the Catawba Region, the Pee Dee, and perhaps the Grand Strand will likely see the heaviest snowfall.
Snow will taper off from west to east on Sunday, ending by daybreak in the Upstate and by midday along the Grand Strand.
Winds will increase during the storm with peak gusts of 35-40 mph along the coast and around 30 mph elsewhere on Sunday. The wind will cause blowing and drifting snow where we see a substantial accumulation. The winds will also drive wind chills down to the single digits and teens over most of the state on Saturday through Sunday.
Roads will become slippery for a few days where substantial snow falls because it will remain cold behind the storm, resulting in slow daytime melting and nighttime refreezing. The extent and duration of potential travel problems are uncertain; it will depend on how much snow falls.
It’s gonna snow this weekend, y’all, with impacts from the storm lingering into early next week. The only questions are how much, and who gets the heaviest.
In the meantime:
A moisture-starved front in the area through tonight brings us some high clouds, but no rain or snow. Probably would have been snow with a better supply of moisture.
Clouds will increase on Friday into Friday night ahead of the approaching storm. Highs on Friday will range from the low 40s in the Upstate to the upper 50s in the far south.
Uncertainty remains in the forecast, but there is more confidence than before. We can provide you with an accumulation forecast now; here’s what the National Weather Service (NWS) is calling for:
The current questions are about where the heaviest snow falls and how much we all see. The heaviest snow may fall over tomato-and-vinegar country instead of here, though it’s most likely that some of the heavy snow will affect the northern part of the state. The greatest uncertainty for snow amounts is over the Grand Strand and lower Pee Dee region; the ceiling is pretty high there, but the most likely scenario is relatively low. I just did a quick check before sending this out; it looks like the NWS is in the process of increasing the forecast snow for the Pee Dee region, so don’t be surprised to see the forecast for that area being bumped up.
Storms like these sometimes cause oddities, such as a large difference in snowfall over a relatively short distance, due to small bands of heavy snow that often form. Don’t be surprised if what falls in your backyard varies a lot from what a buddy of yours 15 miles away sees.
The primary impact will be slippery travel, since it’s going to be mainly dry, fluffy snow (parts of the coastal Plain might see a brief period of freezing rain that would make elevated roads slick like a muddy pig). Snow-covered roads will be a problem Saturday through Monday morning, and it’s going to remain cold behind this storm, so the roads could remain slick for a while. How hard it will become to get around and how long the roads remain bad will depend on how much snow falls. If you’re in an area that could see over three inches, start planning to avoid travel from Saturday through at least Monday. Areas to the south are likely to see lower impacts, but travel will be hazardous at least through Saturday and Sunday morning.
Bundle up if you go out to play in the snow or if you must be out for work or an emergency; this is among the coldest snow events we’ve seen. The frigid winds will bring a bite, so layer up! Do check your pipes if you didn’t before the last storm to ensure that they’re properly insulated, because it will be at least as cold behind this storm as it was after the last one.
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