| Subject: Satisfying a demanding charter guest. |
Author:
Bob
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Date Posted: 11:47:54 05/01/02 Wed
A few years ago, when I was in the boating business as mate/engineer on a 126’ Palmer Johnson powerboat, we chartered the boat to a wealthy New Yorker for a 2-week bone fishing adventure in the Bahamas. The trip started in Ft. Lauderdale.
The charter guest and the captain worked out an itinerary ahead of time and arranged short stops at the best bone fishing areas at various islands in the Bahamas. The last stop on this trip was a 4-day visit to a fishing camp on the west side of Andros. According to the chart the waters in this area of Andros are very shallow and gradually get deeper a long distance from shore. No problem, we will just anchor a good distance from shore.
The captain called the manager of the camp the day before we arrived and asked where he wanted us to drop the hook. The manager told him we would need to look for a pole (stuck in the soft sand bottom) with a red flag tied to the top about half a mile off shore, straight out from the camp, and gave us the lat/lon of the camp. We found the red flagged pole and anchored about 50 yards away from it in 5’ of water (this Palmer Johnson jet boat has a draft of 4’5”), and settled in for 4 easy days while the charter guest went off bone fishing all day long. The pole is between us and the shore, about 100 yards away.
After the first day the demanding charter guest complains that the long dinghy ride into shore is taking up too much of his precious fishing time. On the 2nd day he finishes breakfast, tells the captain to move the boat closer to shore and then leaves for the day with a local bone-fishing guide.
The captain starts grumbling to me about having to go to the trouble of; checking the engine oil; cranking up the engines; hoisting the 2 anchors; moving the boat a little closer to shore and dropping the 2 anchors, just to shorten the guest’s twice daily trip by a few minutes.
I have a better idea. I get into our dinghy, motor over to the pole, pull it out and motor about 100 yards further out from the big boat in (slightly) deeper water (still shallow way out there), stick the pole in the soft sand bottom and motor back to the boat. Moving the flagpole is a whole lot easier than moving the boat, and this far out from shore, with no reference point, how will the guest know the difference?
The charter guest comes back at the end of the day, sees the boat between the flag and shore and thanks us for granting his wish, making his trip to shore shorter!
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