The Wake.....
A Boat's Wake and How It is Created
Aboat wakei s the area of recirculating water behind a vessel under power. Depending on hull design, speed, vessel weight, and power supply, the wake of a boat can produce anywhere from a minimal flow of water and rippling chop to swelling waves of significant size.
Source: https://www.getmyboat.com/resources/boating-safety/384/how-to-handle-a-boats-wake/
It was September 19th, a regular sunny afternoon on Indy 7 and we had left the dock and driven into the harbor. It had been the first day of sea scouts and we were practicing drills like man overboard. Man overboard is a drill we practice to know how to take someone who has fallen into the water out as fast as possible. When we were deep into Buttermilk Channel, we started preparing to throw Oscar who’s a dummy we use to practice drills overboard. Captain Anderson was on the wheel and had given us a thumbs up to throw Oscar over. When Oscar hit the water, a sophomore named Josie and I yelled “ MAN OVERBOARD”. Most students on the boat repeated it to alert the captain and anyone else who didn’t hear it the first time.
One student grabbed the life ring and tossed it towards Oscar while another was the spotter which is someone who never takes their eyes off of the person in the water and tells the captain the distance between the person in the water and the boat as they get closer. I was setting up the ladder and a junior named Margorie helped another junior named Dayanara set up the harness. Sometimes I get anxious doing this drill because everything happens so fast in a matter of seconds and we have to be fast enough to get Oscar into the boat in less than 3 minutes. Once Oscar got close to Indy, Melody (also a junior) grabbed the boat hook and scooped up Oscar in port bow(left side in the front of the boat) and passed it aft (towards the back of the boat) to me. I was nervous because I didn’t want to let go of Oscar and lose him. So I pulled up Oscar high enough for Dayanara to grab him and put the harness on him. I was relieved after that because now he’s attached to the boat and isn’t going anywhere. Now all that was left was to do was to pull Oscar up and out. Everybody came to help and once we were all leaning on the port side to grab Oscar, a big wake hit from starboard side. A wake which is waves caused by another boat passing by caused us to almost fall into the water. We grabbed onto line, the rails behind the captain, cleats and onto each other’s PFD (personal floatation device). Indy was rocking side to side causing port side to get very close to the water. Our faces were literally inches away from the water and all I could think about was that I did not want to fall into the water and I didn’t want to do a man overboard with an actual person.
It was a humorous and nerve- racking experience because we all didn’t want to fall into the water and we were all struggling to pick up Oscar but we were all laughing at each other. Twenty seconds later, Oscar is still in the water and we’re determined to get him out so we all hold onto him tight and we pulled him up with all our strengths with our faces still inches away from the water but Oscar was almost in the boat. One last pull and Oscar was out. We were finally done with the man overboard drill. Our teamwork and effort paid off even though we were all soaking wet, we got Oscar out of the water as efficiently as we could and that was our goal.
