Onboard Safety and the Coast Guard

We live in a state surrounded by other states--no oceans within less than a hard day’s drive. We have plenty of lakes, most of them man-made. One is the reddish brown color of the soil here; most are just dark and deep.

We are policed differently also. Each town, no matter how small, has its own police force, sometimes a single officer on call most any time of any day. The State has a separate force, responsible for interstates and highways and lakes. The Wildlife Rangers also patrol the parks and lands around the lakes.

In Florida, we learned, most everything starts with the Sheriff’s departments. On the water, there are U. S. forces, especially near ports, as well as the Coast Guard. We worked our way through these in order to alert authorities to the potential harms and ascertain whether illegal activities were being committed aboard Miami Mermaid.

First, we tried to learn something about drinking on the water. Common sense told us that boating while impaired should be prohibited. We learned that the effect of wind and water exacerbates the effects of alcohol so any prudent individual would exercise great restraint and caution when consuming alcohol. We then called a national number for the Coast Guard and received a voice mail opportunity. We wanted more immediate results.

My husband then called the Dockmaster on duty Thursday morning, May 26, 2011 at Dania Beach Marina. He said that he really should keep that number handy as people asked for it all the time, that the number was around somewhere but he could not lay hands on it.

Next, we called the Sheriff's office and were connected to the Coast Guard without delay. The Coast Guard told us that Captain Brian had broken the law in many ways. He should not have been drinking before taking the helm to motor down the waterway, and he should not have been drinking while overseeing our instruction. In fact, Captain Brian should not have had an open container of anything beside him or in hand. The Coast Guard also promised to put the Miami Mermaid on its watch list and to board the boat as soon as possible.

We do not know what the length of the Coast Guard’s list is. We do not know how quickly the Guard is able to follow through. We do not know if Captain Brian has been stopped. We hope so because we reported him in order to protect future guest-students.

We wish we had called the Guard from the boat and not just because Captain Bob used that omission against us, saying that if we really thought we were in danger or that Captain Brian was a danger to the other passing boats and ships, then we would have called. Since we did not, Captain Bob seems to think we exaggerated the conditions or worse, made them up.

Again, it takes cajones for a man not to represent the condition of his boat truly and to breach his own contract by substituting a captain unspecified in that contract and one that seems unfit for the task, then call his guest-students’ truthfulness into question.

Caveat Emptor! Let the buyer beware!

We have alerted the Better Business Bureau, thanks to the advice of other Trawler Dreamers writing through the Living Aboard Forum. We plan to alert even more so that no one else is taken advantage of as we were.