Beefer
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,737
As a boater keeps his boat in a wet slip, I sometimes feel that I'm missing out when it comes to the boat ramp follies. But every once in a while, I get to see boaters in action doing ridiculous things. Take today for example;
We decided to take a nice short cruise after we closed the chop today. Nowhere in particular, just a leisurely cruise around for a couple of hours. It was about dead low tide when we got to the boat and left the dock. We headed north on the ICW, up to Honeymoon Island, and I figured we turn back from there. Just south of the Dunedin/Honeymoon Island Bridge, the channel is really crazy narrow at a couple of points, and even though St Joseph Sound is relatively huge, the water is shallow, and the channel gets down at one point to maybe 75' wide at best. This point is also on a curve, and on the east side is a spoil island, and you can see birds walking out the the channel marker (even at high tide it's shallow to the east side there.
As I said, we were not in a rush to get anywhere, and were just taking in the sights, and most of the way back, I stayed at minimum wake speed to catch the awesome sunset. We were approaching this narrow section of the channel, and there was a rental pontoon boat ahead of me. The skipper seemed to have the skills of a typical tourist, and was running a bit slower then I was, and hugging the west side of the channel. I decided I would pass him long before we got to the narrow section, and sped up. I was pretty sure we would have been sharing the channel at the worst point if I didn't, and that wasn't a situation I wanted to be in. I was aware of the guy in the 17-19' (guesstimation) green runabout who was coming at us WOT, but figured either he would slow down during the narrow, or the pontoon and I would clear the narrow before he got there. He decided he was in an incredible rush to be somewhere, and left the channel on the east side, never slowing down. I watched as the birds that were walking around chose their escape routes (up) away from this guy. Didn't phase him. At all. Not a bit. Next thing I get to see is him coming to a dead stop, he and his buddy thrown forward (didn't look like they hit the windshield, and appeared to be ok), and a geyser of mud get thrown up into the air as their lower end dug in. Lots and lots of mud. And the more throttle he gave it, the more mud was kicked up. I chuckled to myself, cut the throttle back to minimum wake, and watched until I couldn't see them any more.
Nope, I didn't go try and help them. Nope, I didn't think they were in danger. Nope, I don't feel bad for him/them. Nope, I won't forget that anytime soon.
IMO, this is just another yahoo with a boat, who thinks channel markers are for wusses. Channel markers are there for a reason. Birds can't walk on water. Low tide means shallow water...everywhere.
I never saw his boat catch up with us. My guess is he damaged something and had to limp back to the ramp, or he may still be there. Dunno. I watched him for about 30 minutes, and never saw him move from where he was grounded.
Yep. I got to chuckle at someone else's foolishness. For once.
For visual aid to the area, the below is from Google Maps. I marked the channel (approx.), where my boat "B", the pontoon "P", were, at the time of his grounding "X".
Dang, I write books...!
We decided to take a nice short cruise after we closed the chop today. Nowhere in particular, just a leisurely cruise around for a couple of hours. It was about dead low tide when we got to the boat and left the dock. We headed north on the ICW, up to Honeymoon Island, and I figured we turn back from there. Just south of the Dunedin/Honeymoon Island Bridge, the channel is really crazy narrow at a couple of points, and even though St Joseph Sound is relatively huge, the water is shallow, and the channel gets down at one point to maybe 75' wide at best. This point is also on a curve, and on the east side is a spoil island, and you can see birds walking out the the channel marker (even at high tide it's shallow to the east side there.
As I said, we were not in a rush to get anywhere, and were just taking in the sights, and most of the way back, I stayed at minimum wake speed to catch the awesome sunset. We were approaching this narrow section of the channel, and there was a rental pontoon boat ahead of me. The skipper seemed to have the skills of a typical tourist, and was running a bit slower then I was, and hugging the west side of the channel. I decided I would pass him long before we got to the narrow section, and sped up. I was pretty sure we would have been sharing the channel at the worst point if I didn't, and that wasn't a situation I wanted to be in. I was aware of the guy in the 17-19' (guesstimation) green runabout who was coming at us WOT, but figured either he would slow down during the narrow, or the pontoon and I would clear the narrow before he got there. He decided he was in an incredible rush to be somewhere, and left the channel on the east side, never slowing down. I watched as the birds that were walking around chose their escape routes (up) away from this guy. Didn't phase him. At all. Not a bit. Next thing I get to see is him coming to a dead stop, he and his buddy thrown forward (didn't look like they hit the windshield, and appeared to be ok), and a geyser of mud get thrown up into the air as their lower end dug in. Lots and lots of mud. And the more throttle he gave it, the more mud was kicked up. I chuckled to myself, cut the throttle back to minimum wake, and watched until I couldn't see them any more.
Nope, I didn't go try and help them. Nope, I didn't think they were in danger. Nope, I don't feel bad for him/them. Nope, I won't forget that anytime soon.
IMO, this is just another yahoo with a boat, who thinks channel markers are for wusses. Channel markers are there for a reason. Birds can't walk on water. Low tide means shallow water...everywhere.
I never saw his boat catch up with us. My guess is he damaged something and had to limp back to the ramp, or he may still be there. Dunno. I watched him for about 30 minutes, and never saw him move from where he was grounded.
Yep. I got to chuckle at someone else's foolishness. For once.
For visual aid to the area, the below is from Google Maps. I marked the channel (approx.), where my boat "B", the pontoon "P", were, at the time of his grounding "X".
Dang, I write books...!
