The long arms of the law

Read the entire press release here

Now let's get this party started.....

What you boaters need to know

Here's some advice for the 2009 Canal Day from Lt. Joshua N. Blocker of the U.S. Coast Guard. Lt. Blocker runs the show for the USCG on the water in the Chesapeake City basin on Canal Day and the days leading up to it:

1. Do everyone a favor if you're planning on indulging in some adult beverages ... hide the keys to your boat!!! Of all boating fatalities in the U.S. Last year, 21% were attributed to alcohol which means 100% of those deaths were needless and totally preventable.
2. Be mindful of carbon monoxide poisoning, especially if your're running a portable generator on your boat, when you pull into the basin and "set up shop" for the weekend. Overnight, the winds have a tendency to shift and that could blow the fumes back into your boat.
3. Water balloons and water guns are fine by me...what makes the hair on our neck stand up are the guys with the three-man slingshot firing frozen water balloons into the crowd at the Chesapeake Inn...not only is it NOT funny, but expect a visit from the Coast Guard, DNR and Cecil County Sheriffs deputies (remember - "bad things come in threes")...
4. If you need emergency assistance and call 911, please identify your location as the Chesapeake City Basin...we had a couple of calls last year where the callers said they were in the C&D Canal, when they were actually within earshot of us. Misidentification of your location will cause needless delay for the responders.
5. Basin closure... I get a lot of these questions...there is no fixed number when we decide to close the basin. It's based on the existing capacity at the time, ease of movement for response vessels should an incident (search and rescue, fire fighting, medevac) occur, etc. The last two years I was there, closure occurred right around 2 pm. Also, closure of the basin does not affect personal watercraft (PWCs), which by their design do not have navigation lights and have to be gone before sunset anyways...and they're small too.
6. PFDs...While there is a legal requirement for their to be enough serviceable CG-approved life jackets for every person on a boat while underway, there isn't really a legal requirement to wear one while swimming in the basin...but here's our advice - wear one anyways and here's why...as the number of boats flooding into the basin increases Friday and Saturday, your going to want all the help you can get to make yourself more visible to the inbound boat drivers. Put yourself in their shoes for a 'sec...they're trying to enter the basin, find a spot to tie off, dodging other boats in the process, etc...talk about task saturation. Now enter into the mix a swimmer (no PFD) who all you can see is their head. A life jacket does two things...It makes the swimmer more buoyant, keeping the wearer higher in the water and life jackets usually have color schemes and patterns that also make the wearer more visible. For us, it seems like a win-win situation...
7. While the Army Corps boat ramp will be blocked off, the small floating pier/dock will be open. Fact, we'd rather see people use that than walking over the slippery rocks that line the back basin.
8. No...we're not going to be "stopping every boat entering the basin to confiscate all your beer and liquor" as was erroneously reported last year. I would need a 200-person crew and would have to start boarding boats a week before Canal Days even starts...and I seem to recall Prohibition ended over 80 years ago.
9. Be extremely careful if you're going to be cooking on your boat.
10. Make sure you take care of the Inn dockmaster and dock crew, bartenders and waitresses...the crew at the Inn does one hell of a job, so show some appreciation.
11. Get into town! Although the water-side festivities tend to take center stage, you'd be missing out if you didn't get into town and help yourself to the wares being sold by the vendors.
12. HAVE FUN! If you're not, then you're doing something wrong.

If the above tips don't answer your basin boating questions, Lt. Blocker offers his e-mail for questions.

"I have absolutely no issues with folks emailing me directly in order to obtain correct info...Canal Days is too fun an event to lose out on because someone got some bad info."
Lt. Blocker at Joshua.N.Blocker@uscg.mil

LT Joshua N. Blocker
Chief, Incident Management Division
U.S. Coast Guard Sector Baltimore

It's time to get serious .....

Canal Day is just over a month away.

Are you making party plans yet?

Hmmmmm

Not sure what to say about this one ....

Don't worry... we won't tell anyone :-)

You and I know this is all harmless, adult fun. But just to be on the safe side, I added a little warning pop up before you can come to this blog.

I know Chesapeake City's Canal Day is much more than beer, boobs and beads. But let's be honest, as fun as walking among the crafters and food vendors on the town's historic streets can be, the pictures from those strolls just aren't as good. I suspect most of you who come here understand the spirit behind it all and aren't offended.

But ... I want to give people searching for "day by the canal in chesapeake city" fair warning that this may not be exactly what they are looking for.

You never know. Sometimes great things are discovered quite by accident.

More photos... these are safe for work

Click the thumbnail collection above to check out the Canal Day 2008 photo album from jode1126 on Webshots or you can see the photos here in a slideshow.

Got some photos today

Thanks for the contributions, anonymous.

Don't forget to share your photos of Canal Day, past or present.
Photos of beads, boobs, bands, crafters, boats and people watchers are all accepted. We don't discriminate here.

Send them to canalday@rocketmail.com and I'll post a couple here and all of them on the Canal Day flickr site with a link from here.
The flickr site is started but needs your photos. A link is over to the right.

Want to see these photos BIGGER? Just click on them.

Spark Canal Day 2008 photos

Check out the Canal Day 2008 photos from Spark magazine.

Aerial photos from Canal Day

Here are a couple of pictures of the basin on Canal Day courtesy of The Chesapeake Inn.

Go here to see more photos from the Chesapeake Inn.

Received this from the USCG

Direct from an e-mail I received:

Now that this year's event is over we're already planning for the next one...there is however, one item I'd like to pass to all prospective Canal Days 2009 attendees in order to get out in front of any rumors that may start up relating to 09's event...

There were a lot of bad rumors flying in the local papers regarding the Coast Guard and our patrol intentions. .... For now, allow me to dispel them:

1. First off, there was never any "magic number" that the Coast Guard established for max capacity of the basin. It's a judgment call made by the Coast Guard personnel on-scene. In talking with many of the boaters, I kept hearing 150, etc...The reality is you cannot quantify basin capacity - when we decided to finally close the basin, we factored in the number and size of boats already rafted, swimmers, forecasted weather, medical response capability, search and rescue response capability, and the overall "behavior" of the crowd, and a couple other factors.

2. Unfortunately, the other half of this rumor I heard while chatting with some of the early arrivals was the claim that the "Coast Guard was going to stop and board every boat entering the basin to look for and confiscate alcohol and drugs." When I heard that, I nearly fell to the deck laughing...Here's the deal - drugs are a no-brainer - illegal - and there are the obvious repercussions for possession, distribution, etc. Alcohol...as long as you're not operating (driving, navigating or otherwise responsible for the vessel's operation) under the influence (.08 BAC - just like a vehicle), it's no problem for passengers to drink and it certainly isn't illegal to transport alcohol in a recreational vessel...the other funny twist to this rumor is the sheer amount of resources it would take to actually board every vessel coming into the basin...we'd have to bring in 300 additional Coasties, work around the clock, and we still might not get it done in time for Canal Days. Besides, having all those boats stacked up in the Canal is a disaster waiting to happen (think about it - a 700ft commercial vessel bearing down on a cluster of 200 boats...you get my point).

So...my advice for next year...unless the information is coming from someone wearing a blue Coast Guard uniform, I would consider the information suspect. Just like this year, I will make myself available to answer any question the boating public may have...Why? These rumors actually make my job and the job of my crew harder. The Coast Guard crews (Active Duty, Reserves AND Auxiliary), the Maryland National Guard 32nd CST, the various Fire Company boats, Cecil County Sheriffs, and Maryland Natural Resource Police worked around the clock to ensure the safety of all waterborne attendees - a daunting task without the "assistance" of bad information.

So again - Next year, if anyone has any questions regarding the basin Canal Days spin-off festivities, do not hesitate to contact Coast Guard Sector Baltimore and ask for me by name.

In the meantime, on behalf of the entire multi-agency Maritime Safety & Security Detachment - Chesapeake City, it was a privilege to once again serve during this year's event...and the crews already looking forward to next year!

LT Joshua Blocker, USCG
CG Sector Baltimore
joshua.n.blocker@uscg.mil

Find out more about the USCG Sector Baltimore here.