The following piece is published in this month’s Put-in-Bay Gazette. The Gazette has been producing incredible independent Put-in-Bay island news for over 40 years. If you have any interest at all in what is happening on South Bass Island, we urge you strongly to subscribe to the Put-in-Bay Gazette. One-year online subscriptions are only $15, and print subscriptions are available as well. To subscribe please click here.
Senior Center News By Chris Joyce
Another month has come and gone. It’s hard to believe the holidays will quickly be upon us. At the time of this writing, we are still not sure when the Senior Center will reopen. As most of you know, the Ottawa County Commissioners signed a resolution in October to keep the senior centers closed until further notice due to the ongoing pandemic.
The mandates and guidelines for the re-opening of the senior centers are still being fine-tuned and I would like to reiterate that when we do reopen, it will be different than in the past, but we will make it through. I will be calling you to see if you are interested in coming back to the center. Due to guidelines set forth by the Ohio Department of Aging and the Ohio Department of Health, we will need reservations and pre-screening of all participants completed prior to all visits. This will be done by phone a call prior to the activity and then a health survey upon entering the Senior Center. In addition, all Ohio Senior Centers must have their staff and volunteers tested for Covid-19 prior to reopening and then every two weeks ongoing. We must also have a program in place for strategic testing of participants. During the initial phase of reopening masks will be required for all participants, no exceptions. We will all have to be patient and work together to facilitate a smooth transition to a new way of using the Senior Center while following the mandated guidelines. While these guidelines might be overwhelming for many of us, they are set up to protect all of us. We are looking forward to the day when we can return to normal, but as we work toward that end, we want to make sure everyone is safe and gets to join in.
So, with social distancing, masks on our faces and sanitizer on our hands, we will hopefully be ready to once again exercise and socialize with our friends when we get the ok.
My wish is for everyone to enjoy this month of Thanksgiving and take time to give thanks for all the people and moments in our lives that mean so much to us. I miss everyone and hope to see you all soon!
Vice Commander…Ahoy!
By Paul Bolden, Vice Commander of the 9th Coast Guard District, Central Region, Division 16
Put-in-Bay Maritime Academy Begins!
November brings the first installment of our annual PIB Maritime Academy. We like to use the off season to brush up on our boating skills and hopefully learn (or relearn) a few new things. The focus is always sea conditions in the waters around PIB and developing the skills needed to navigate them safely.
Last Month’s Assignment
Last month’s class assignment was to review several YouTube boating clips and identify the issues or problems therein. Most of the clips were at Haulover Inlet in Florida but the sea conditions and boater issues are identical to those that I have seen here on occasion. Boating is great fun but one distracted moment or having sub-par boating skills can have disastrous consequences. People die each and every year on Erie while most of which were preventable. If you didn’t read last month’s issue or view the video clips you are going to be a little lost here. The list of video clips are in September’s issue.
Answers:
Clip #1 A) No life jackets, vessel too small for conditions. B) Dingy unsafe for conditions, skipper in bikini distracted and showboating for camera. Rough sea conditions break vessel’s bimini top.
Clip #2 A) Boat was over crowded (I counted 15 people crammed on board. None had life jackets). B) Excessive speed resulting in a large wake in a no wake zone. No life jackets.
Clip #3 Passengers showboating for the camera. No life jackets. Man ejected from vessel. No person nor body recovered in clip.
Clip #4 This is the Boater Clip of the Month for September. A man going fishing in a dingy in a storm. Unbelievable!
The big takeaway is that 99.9% of the boaters are not wearing life jackets including children (yikes). Sea conditions exceed the skill level of many of the boaters on this inlet (in my opinion). Several of the vessels are ill suited for these waters. I can’t stress enough the importance of wearing life jackets while underway. In a sudden ejection from the boat it may be the only thing capable of saving your life.
Boater Clip of The Month
Go to YouTube and enter this clip title into the YouTube search bar: Warning: “Girl Goes Overboard At Overhaul Inlet.” Then proceed to index 00:40. We will discuss the clip in next month’s class.
Buoys Around Put-in-Bay
In our first lesson of the off-season we are going to focus on those “Aids to Navigation” encountered in and around South Bass Island. This is not a complete list of aids, rather common ones seen in the waters around the island. There are literally hundreds of navigation aids (atons), but in our waters 6 or so stand out as most common. I can’t over stress the importance of understanding their meaning. Many of these atons can save your life or the life of someone in the water! PLEASE LEARN THEM!
Again, this was not intended to cover every aton, rather to test your awareness of some of the most common Aids to Navigation around PIB. What’s more, the explanations for these 6 atons was very basic. Please take the off season to study and sharpen your boating knowledge. In our often crowded and relatively shallow waters it is important to understand what these aids mean and in our the PIB Mariner Academy classes we barely scratch the surface. If you didn’t recognize most of these, that should serve as a clue that you need further education. Safe boating classes are taught by the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary and are available to nearly everyone. You just have to be willing.
PIB Ice Fishing
Reminder: If we have weather supportive of ice fishing, we will preempt the Maritime Academy and install our annual “Ice Fishing” edition.
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