No good captain is in favor of pushing their boat to the extremes, particularly so for a seasoned submariner enjoying their Ranger Tug through retirement. Alas, when you're chasing friends in much larger Grand Banks - the old rule the Harbormaster's father repeated over and over again rings aloud:
One boy equals one brain. Two boys equal half a brain. Three boy's equals a quarter brain, four or more - the whole group is operating on less than zero brainpower at all!
It's hard to imagine crossing the more than 30 nautical miles
to reach Silver Lake and the beautiful harbor of Ocracoke in the conditions of Monday, June 8th 2026. With winds gusting from 15-20, a small craft advisory was in effect calling for increasing seas growing from 2-3ft into what the Harbormaster witnessed on the Swan Quarter to Ocracoke ferry crossing during the Ranger's crossing window. By midway across the Pamlico Sound, waves of 6-8ft were crashing up onto the middle lane's of North Carolina's TK TON GOES HERE Sound Class Ferry, hauling around 40 vehicles, several commercial trucks and EMS, along with three RV's. The over TK ft. long ferry was testing the limits of the chalks laid down against the larger loads on deck as it heaved and turned into the waves. By a wide margin, it was the most turbulent ferry ride this author had ever encountered. The Ranger 27 departed TK place at 9:30am, and encountered 15ft-30ft depth readings for the majority of the crossing.
"I don't like abusing the boat, that was the main mistake I made - although I never felt like I pushed it further than the Ranger was capable of"
This is the rest of the edit we will finish the article here later TK.