Sailing Photo of The Day – Abandon(ed) Ship!

Seems to me like we’re thirty seconds from the net result. Not good!

In a place as huge as MDR — with thousands of boats, mostly sail — there will always be some owners without the wherewithal to keep up boat maintenance or slip fees. And, on most summer days, waves aren’t too rough out on Santa Monica Bay, which derives a bit of protection from the bay’s shape and the offlying channel islands. Some boats even moor to the south of the south jetty, which gives them a smidge of protection from the prevailing breezes. If a close watch can be kept on actual and predicted conditions, mooring out could be okay.
But, an unloved, unwatched boat, is especially vulnerable. A bit of chafe in the mooring tackle and a boat is at the mercy of wind and current. Such boats often end of washed ashore. To a cash-strapped owner, a boat may not be worth the cost of salvage, so local authorities have to deal with it as a hazard.
And, winter storms can be powerful enough to blow boats off moorings. Waves travel for thousands of miles across the vast Pacific, slowing and cresting as they come into soundings and the shallow water just off the jetties. Up they rise and crest — sometimes quite suddenly and sometimes in the absence of obvious stormy weather — and there goes another boat.