Too many boaters create etiquette turbulence
It seems that each and every year I find the need to devote one column to a prickly subject — boating etiquette. So what better time to touch on this subject than the good, old Fourth of July when it seems everyone, and I mean everyone, with a boat is out on the water.
So here goes nothing.
As much as I am out on the water, along with living a block or so from the Alljoy boat landing and being part owner of a brand new dock (thanks to Hurricane Mathew), I see it all. During the summer months, I never fish on weekends unless it is far offshore simply because it’s downright dangerous on the inshore waters.
Between hordes of watercraft of ever type and size, I simply can’t take it. If I were to leave my boat in the water at my dock on any given weekend, come Monday morning there would be little if anything left. With the entire May River at their disposal, for some reason, 90 percent of the boaters come within 30 yards of my dock and, to make matters worse, they go at a speed that puts up the largest possible wake.
When I signal for them to slow down, the most common reply is the captain waving to me with a big grin as he continues on to the next dock and the next dock and on down the line. My floating dock rocks so violently that I have had guests get seasick after two or three boats have passed. I am not making that up, either.
I am a pretty chilled-out person and realize the only reason so many boaters adhere to this practice is obvious — they simply don’t know any better. Since I part-time guide people fishing or simply wanting to learn our waters in their boats, many of them new boat owners, I see them making these same mistakes from the get-go. It usually takes a few outings with them before they finally get the hang of courteous boating.
Even when I see them about to make a mistake, I usually let them do it and then call their attention to the results. A couple of examples might be a paddle boarder struggling against the tide or a small boat anchored near the shoreline with two guys peacefully fishing.
Since my charge never bothers to look behind our boat to see the four-foot waves he is creating, I let him pass these poor souls, then reach over, pull the throttles to neutral and tell him to look at the paddle boarder getting knocked off his board or the anchored boat of fishermen nearly thrown up in the marsh.
I know that sounds cruel to the recipients of our wake but, by witnessing what he has just done, the technique seems to be more effective and the boat owner usually doesn’t make that mistake again.
In the case of the docks in the May River, a lot of boaters have no idea that the water on the other side of the river is plenty deep enough to navigate and any wake they make has time to dissipate before it reaches the docks.
With the amazing electronics these days, especially GPS units, there is no excuse for poor boating. If you zoom in the GPS, it gives you more detailed depths, shows sandbars and oyster rakes, and any boater worth his or her salt should be in the habit of looking forward, left, right, behind and down at the GPS every few seconds.
On weekends, especially during an outgoing tide, I watch boat after boat heading across the May River toward Bull Creek obviously unaware of the large sandbar at the mouth of Bull Creek. To me, it’s almost like a video game as I count down — 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 — and, wham, they are high and dry.
If they would have taken just a second to glance at their GPS, they wouldn’t have to sit on that sandbar for four hours waiting on the tide to float them off.
As I said, the boat landing is only a block from my house. Talk about road rage, or in the case, ramp rage, is nonstop. The culprits are usually weekend boaters or newbies to boating that wait until they are backing down the ramp to launch their boat to put all their junk in the boat.
Coolers, fishing rods, food and anything else you plan to take on your boating excursion should be put into the boat before you ever get near the ramp. I have seen flair-ups even to the point of fisticuffs when prepared boaters are made to wait 10 minutes to launch their boat while someone stops mid-ramp to load provisions. There are barely enough boat ramps to handle the weekend flow so, if you want to avoid being called every name in the book, load your boat before you launch.
Lastly, here are two more things that drive me nuts.
The first is letting small children ride on the front of a boat with their legs dangling. If you were to hit something, those kids would be thrown forward and the boat would run right over them.
The second happens when docking as the person with the bow line stands on the front ready to jump. Bad move — have them sit, not stand.
If the boat hits the dock, even at slow speeds, that person is going airborne.
I hope I have given you food for thought, so be safe this Fourth of July and every other day of the year.
This story was originally published July 1, 2017 at 1:49 PM with the headline "Too many boaters create etiquette turbulence."