In article
<f598971d-33c6-45e5-b062-d5531a333eb1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
KingOfTheApes <comandante.banana@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>On Aug 22, 3:58 pm, "Lee Bell" <pleeb...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> > do yourself a favor and carry a hand held uhf radio or something and
>> > if you see people, motorboat or not, acting like ***** call the
police/
>> > coast guard."
Why not have a VHF? You can listen in to the VTC, and be told about the
big boats arriving in good time. I have a lot of use for that when
sailing inside VTC zones.
>Some of them are real nice, real captains. Once one in Key Largo
>helped us recover a sunken kayak.
>
>It's like there's decent people driving SUVs, just that many of them
>are reckless and they have made the wrong vehicle choice.
>
>>
>> Here are a couple of clues. Power boaters have been picked on,
harassed,
>> limited, and taxed almost out of their activities. It takes hours for
them
>> to get where their fi****ng, diving, or other activities take place
because
>> they have to travel at idle speed to keep manatees never seen in the
area,
>> safe just in case they every happen to be there. They pay
substantially
>> more for the fuel that the use simply because they use it on the water.
>> They bought their very expensive boats either because that's what they
>> enjoy, because that's what it takes to do what they bought a boat for,
or
>> because they don't have the time to use slower, more economical
vessels. No
>> matter what the reason, they have a right and a right to expect to be
able
>> to use them to their maximum potential when and where the law allows.
The law abiding skippers sometimes have a pretty hard time with all the
other craft. Just listen to the commercial fi****ng skippers.
>Sometimes that law doesn't exist or is not enforced and they just
>follow the Law of the Jungle. If you talk about the channels their
>speeds are not terribly willd, but still you are a sitting duck.
>
>In certain spots of the intracostal and the beach, though, they just
>fly over the water with their cigarette boats. It's common sight there
>that they just fly by past the buoys, a few hundred feet from the
>beach. If you go there to relax, their roaring motors will remind you
>there's no place to hide. Well, try ear plugs perhaps. ;)
>
>C'mon, there's no control to this? Can't we have them stay at least 1
>mile from shore?
Zoning?
>> You guys, and I, for that matter, have chosen a slower, more sedate and
less
>> expensive mode of trans****tation for very different reasons. We don't
us
>> kayaks to do the things others do in power, or sail boats. We can get
closer
>> to nature, into places that power boats can and should not go, and
generally
>> relax in ways unique to us. Why not do that in places best suited to
what
>> we enjoy? Why encroach on the few places left that power boaters can
use
>> their trans****tation the way the want and ***** about them doing it?
>
>I've said the weekends belong to the predators. I even grant them the
>daylight because I don't want to see their garbage. But going past the
>buoys at the beach is reasonable, since staying within them would make
>me a danger to the swimmers, and I don't want to become the predator.
With sailboats, we can escape to the ocean. Very few bubbas and
incompetent
motorboat skippers there.
>> One more thing to keep in mind. It costs you nothing to wait a minute
for a
>> power boat to pass. It probably costs a boat 25 feet or more in
length, and
>> certainly the high speed monohulls you guys were complaining about,
anywhere
>> from $10 to $20 extra to slow down and return to a plane. Perhaps that
will
>> give you at least a little understanding of why they are so reluctant
to do
>> so.
>
>The thing with a motorboat is that you don't know if stopping puts you
>at lesser or greater danger. You just have to predictable, and
>hopefully they'll steer around you.
A word from some commercial captains I know.
Pleasure boaters are normally not aware of the traffic control and zone
separation in place; and even some quite experiencd amateur skippers are
clueless about how a large, commercial vessel stops. Hint: You don't want
to be in front of them.
They try to manouver as well as they can; but they really need the zone
space they are given in and out of ****ts. If you cross the separation
zones
please do so at a fixed course and speed at as sharp an angle to the lanes
as you can. The large ****ps have automatic anti-collision trackers that
are _extremely_ useful in such waters, but they tend to give lots of
false alarms on small craft that zigzag in and out of lanes.
I just cheched the Miami area on commercial charts. It is chock full
of separation sones and re****t requirements almost halfway to Bahamas.
If you are unaware of these zones you will make a lot of commercial ****ps
hate you intensely when you are there, even in a Kayak. Especially
in a kayak.
>> You want to cross the channel, no problem. Find someplace where speed
is
>> limited and go for it. God knows such places are all over the
Intracoastal
>> You want to share areas where boats go faster, great, do it out of the
>> channels, in shallower water where your vessel is designed to go and
power
>> boats aren't.
>
>There's no safe intersections in those channels, much less a signal
>light. ;)
Nope. But when you cross, do so in a way predictable to the large vessels.
They also need 5-7 knots of speed to be able to manouver properly. With
less than 3 knots they are dead in the water and need thrusters and/or
tugs to operate. You really DON'T want them to have to press the brake for
you.
>You just go for it and pray to come out alive.
>> You want consideration, so do the power boaters. You want
consideration
>> from them, try giving it to them.
>
>I do. The problem is NOT them actually. But the whole set up where we
>--kayakers and canoeists-- are exposed to uncessary dangers, and where
>they can speed, drink, get high, be reckless, and get away with it.
A few inquests has done away with that here. Suddenly the promising
salarymen were cons with drug&alcohol and violence crimes on their
records. Not what you would like on your CV.
Several of these inquests had other, experienced boaters who kept
their calm as witnesses.
>> Now, before you guys get all excited and tell everybody about the
>> occasionally jerk, ask yourself this. For every time a power boater
>> inconvenienced you, how many times do you suppose the power boater was
>> inconvenienced by you.
>>
>> Lee
>
>Some steering from them to avoid you is NOT an inconvenience. The
>ocean is full of different species, and we all must get along, or
>declare that the only law out there is the Law of the Jungle.
>
>Hey, people who got "money to burn" can try sailing, that is more
>rewarding and totally environmentally friendly. Motorboats which are
>needed for fi****ng are OK too since they serve a purpose. And then you
>can always choose the smaller motorboats out there.
Money to burn, indeed. I could buy a complete set of diving gear
for what a new Genua costs. And I have a 22 year old 36' boat.
-- mrr
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