Chapter 37

There's a pretty decent current flowing down the St. Clair River. Speed according to knot meter is different than the speed over the ground. Speed over the ground is the combination of knots on the water and mph over the ground. While it is possible to sail the St. Clair, it is much easier ... and more prudent ... to motor. (Hull speed is the designed speed that a displacement hull sailboat can go. It depends on several factors.

The author looked it up. Kings Knight has a hull speed of just under 13 knots.)

There's a lot more involved than just popping into the St. Clair River to travel from Port Huron to

Lake St. Clair. If your vessel weighs more than 300 gross tons, a Licensed Pilot is required. Calculating gross tonnage is pretty simple for a boat up to and including 79 feet. There's a simplified tonnage calculator.

Kings Knight is 87 feet so the simplified calculator can't be used ... unless the boat is a pleasure craft 'not for hire.' (Doesn't carry paying passengers or cargo for profit.)

Since Julie isn't paying the tonnage calculator can be used; The formula is based on the overall length, multiplied by the breadth, multiplied by the "depth" of the hull. That sum is then divided by 100 and then multiplied by a hull coefficient. For most vessels it's .67. Depth is not referring to the Draft. Depth is measured from the main deck to the top of the keel. Kings Knight is 87X30X6 divided by 100 and that result multiplied by .67. Kings Knight displaces 104 tons and is a long way from the 300 ton limit. It is still the best idea to stop at the USCG station at the mouth of the River.

To do that, the Knight has to retrace her steps from the Canadian Marina up the river and cross over to the Michigan shore. That was an entirely different Coast Guard station than the one that supplied the Chief who registered the boat. The station at the mouth of the river had a commissioned officer in charge.

Working the Lakes is a lot more fun than say ... Anchorage, Alaska ... or Cape Cod in the winter ... but it's not a plum ... like Catalina Island or Key West. Officers stationed on the lakes try very hard to become officers stationed in pleased places ... but not so hard as to be stationed where swift thinking and a grasp of command is required ... like Anchorage.

They stopped ... Julie wore her 1988 bikini ... scandalous in 1963 ... on deck. The paperwork was meticulously examined but eventually the Ensign had to pass them as a pleasure craft.

Regardless, the boat is classified as a vessel for use on inland and offshore waterways of the United States and is subject to the rules and regulations of said country. One of those regulations is satisfied by David holding a commercial Captains License. In 1963 David was qualified to 'examine and teach' crew members and 'to qualify and certify' students in their endeavors to be certified to 'operate and control ships up to 300 feet in length and 1,000 tons.'

The 13 knot hull speed and the 3.9 mph over the ground speed of the current of the river would normally be a total of 15 knots ... mostly ... but the River has a 'Slow-No Wake' speed 600 feet from 'piers, abutments, shoreline and other obstructions on either shore.' Plus, it is required of pleasure craft to maintain a safe distance from commercial vessels. Since the shipping lanes are just beyond the 600 foot mark, pleasure craft always exist in the 'No Wake' zone. That sucks.

By keeping just under five knots surface speed and adding the maximum current speed it still took almost five hours to leave the zoo of the St. Clair River and enter the circus referred to as Lake St. Clair. Clement Shipping still had 14 of 19 barges unrecovered.

Anderson Salvage was busy rounding them up as the USCG Authority had decided that Clement was a trifle too careless with their toys. Thus the problem: David was Anderson's principal salvor.

David was two. Two in the same time and in reasonable proximity.

One was riding around on one of Anderson's little tugs gathering up recalcitrant barges ... the other was on the Knight.

It is ... or should be ... a well known fact that two timers combine if they get too close to each other.

There is a little shimmy and David and David will combine. This problem was known by Wendy Too as she had met herself existing in two times. It was not known by other watch holders.

Lake St. Clair is pretty big ... but not THAT big and Murphy has Laws. It's been a long time since David (on the boat) was David (on the tug); 1988 minus 1963 is 25 years and memory plays tricks on older folks ... and David was unaware of the Dangers.

'Ignorance is no excuse' is one of Murphy's favorite sayings.