Race to make the Bay catch

By John Howell
Posted 6/21/16

The chase was on.

Lt. Joseph Poccia eased the throttles forward. The twin Mercury outboards accelerated, throwing white wash from the stern of the Department of Environmental Management vessel. …

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Race to make the Bay catch

Posted

The chase was on.

Lt. Joseph Poccia eased the throttles forward. The twin Mercury outboards accelerated, throwing white wash from the stern of the Department of Environmental Management vessel. The bow lifted. Poccia adjusted the trim tabs. The vessel settled down. Conditions couldn’t be better for speed.

The bay was flat, barely a ripple, a stark contrast to only a few days earlier when consistent 30 to 35 mile-an-hour winds churned it to a froth.

“It can do 45, 50; we’ll catch ’em,” Poccia said over the hum of the engines and the splash of spray.

But that didn’t seem possible. Oakland Beach quahogger Jody King had already rounded Warwick Neck. The boat was a speck on the steel gray waters off Aldrich Mansion. The gap didn’t seem to be closing, although it was difficult to tell.

King had some unusual cargo aboard – the governor and her family, DEM director Janet Coit and Mayor Scott Avedisian.

Poccia and Dean Hoxsie, chief of the DEM enforcement division, were transporting representatives of the news media along with personnel from both the DEM and governor’s offices.

This had been King’s idea. He had suggested the governor not only get a look at the shellfishing industry but try pulling a bull rake and see what she would catch. His plan grew from there. If the governor was going, he wanted to be sure to include Coit. When he told the mayor, he made sure to invite him. King made calls to the state’s congressional delegation, although fitting all of these people on his boat would have been problematic.

Naturally, if all of these public officials would be on the water and shellfishing, the news media would catch wind of it and want to tell the story. Coit’s crew figured that out. DEM’s enforcement division had the boats. They would coordinate that end of the excursion.

The weather cooperated and now for King’s plan to work he needed time and for everyone to show up.

The governor’s schedule was tight. Initially, her introduction to quahogging from a skiff – although she is no stranger to clamming – was part of an extended visit to Oakland Beach, including lunch at Iggy’s Boardwalk. But state business and the budget cut into her day. The morning of shellfishing, King was being told, had to be squeezed into an hour, maybe 90 minutes at max.

The plan was to leave the Oakland Beach boat ramp at 9 a.m. and be back by 10:15 for a press briefing overlooking Greenwich Bay. King not only wanted to meet the schedule, but have Raimondo and her family leave with a haul of little necks. He’d done his scouting and found a spot off Barrington Beach that would insure the governor wouldn’t come up with an empty rake.

Barrington Beach is not exactly a stone, or quahog’s throw, from Warwick Cove. King timed it. At top speed, on calm waters, he could do it in eight minutes.

So when the governor and her family arrived at 9:30, it was suggested King drop anchor off Warwick Neck and slide the bull rake over the side there.

He wouldn’t hear of it. As he put it, why would you dig for lead at the bottom of the mountain when you knew gold was at the top?

So once everyone was aboard and fitted with lifejackets, speed was essential.

King and his vessel and another DEM boat with Officer Charles Jackman at the helm and Officer Michael Stach as crew were well in the lead, dots on the horizon.

Poccia was confident of catching them. The boat was cruising at 45, maybe faster. The gap was closing.

Then it happened. The whine of the engines changed sending vibrations through the hull. Poccia immediately pulled back the throttles. The speed dropped to 20. The boat rocked. The tone of the two engines became more pronounced.

“Did we pick something up?” Hoxsie questioned. Poccia stopped the engines, raising them out of the water. Both props were clear. Then Hoxsie spotted the problem. The blade of one propeller had sheered off.

“We didn’t hit anything. It looks to be a bad casting,” he said.

Poccia shutdown the engine and lowered the good one. Now the vessel was doing 7 knots, and to have pushed it would have strained the engine.

It was time to put out a call. Jackman and his boat were alongside in minutes to pick up the passengers and leave Poccia and Hoxsie to limp back to Warwick Cove.

By the time it reached King, he and his passengers were sorting through the first haul.

“This is how I make my paycheck,” King was saying to the governor’s son, Tom, as he separated the hard shell clams from an assortment of rocks, snails, and other critters from the deep.

“These are the baby ones. Two years from now, I’ll be back to get them.” He explained how to tell the age of a quahog by counting its rings and dividing by four. He said it takes a quahog seven years to mature to a size where it is harvestable. He suggested they sample some of the catch, but the consensus was it was still too early for clams casino.

He dropped the rake back into the water and handed it over to First Gentleman Andy Moffit.

“Push back…push the boat away,” King advised. “Now pull it toward you.”

Moffit followed directions, pulling the rake.

“This isn’t easy,” he said.

“If you don’t hear that noise, you aren’t catching clams,” said King. Moffit was smiling. Thompson joined him on the rake. His sister, Cecilia would try it, too. The governor gave it a try. In another couple of minutes, King was shaking the mud from the rake and swishing it clean before hoisting it aboard. They all joined in picking through the catch.

By 10:20, they were back at Warwick Cove. The crippled vessel was at the dock. Hoxsie had called ahead and their local supplier was already on site with another propeller. The governor and her family were in no rush, but her schedulers were pushing her along.

The media was digging for answers on the state budget; was she happy with what the House had passed the night before?

But it seemed that clams of a different sort were on Raimondo’s mind. She looked cut out for summer in her slacks and sneakers, a lot closer to the Rhode Island she recalled as a kid. But the State House beckoned.

Comments

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  • richardcorrente

    Great public interest story putting Warwick in a positive light. We need more like it.

    Richard Corrente

    Democrat for Mayor

    Tuesday, June 21, 2016 Report this

  • JohnStark

    Eerily similar to Mike Dukakis in a tank.

    Tuesday, June 21, 2016 Report this

  • richardcorrente

    Dear JohnStark,

    Mike Dukakis in a tank? Gina Riamondo in a boat? Similar? Similar? HOW ?

    John! HOW IS THAT SIMILAR??

    Tuesday, June 21, 2016 Report this