In my formative years, I learned how to drive a boat. First, the rowboat - learning to row with oars, facing backwards from the direction you're headed. Moving up to a 10-12' aluminum skiff, with a 10-horse outboard motor. And at long last, a 15' foot wooden boat with a 50-horse Mercury. The most important way to learn seemed to be whatever reaction came from my parents....putting the motor on the fourth notch never failed to bring them out of the house, waving their arms at me as I pounded down the bay, bow bouncing up and down. (for the
uninitiated, putting the motor up a notch makes a boat go faster, but not necessarily safer). The ultimate punishment was banishment from the boat, restriction of that freedom of moving across the water was a certain tool to keep us from rude or unsafe behavior.
ON BOATS:
"Slow down, you move too fast..."
Boating behavior has changed, just as highway rage and/or rudeness has become part of the American landscape, I see it now on the waterways. Perhaps it's because the majority of people skimming along the water never had their parents screaming at them from the shore, shaking fists and arms -- knowing that if you didn't shape up, the boat would be on the buoy for the next two weeks.
As we made our journey around Lake Tahoe, we had plenty of opportunities to observe bad boat behavior. Powerful 20' cruisers going across our bow, sometimes so close you could see their gleaming white smiles. Often times, the people would wave, totally oblivious to the mayhem created by the wake of their boat. Seems to me that the average cruiser boat is getting larger and larger - looming transoms, sleek Italian design, speakers blaring.... it's about the water, folks, not about your boat.
Boat Safety Rules include RIGHT OF WAY for non-motorized crafts (that includes paddleboards, kayaks, canoes) If you have a motor on your boat.... PLEASE stay about 30 feet away from us! And if you need to come closer.... SLOW DOWN! Please don't cut between the shore and the paddler...it creates double waves. We're happy to talk with you about our paddleboards, just SLOW DOWN!
ON BUTTS
We were amazed at the amount of cigarette butts found on the beach. Tobacco People...Your butts take ONE to FIVE years to dissolve! Pick them up, or better yet, slap on a patch and give it up!
ON MORE BUTTS
The US Forest Service (or at least one bureaucrat, that I'll leave nameless...) decided that we must be up to something sneaky. We were even cautioned that our "behavior" would be monitored. Nothing more menacing than two people on a paddleboard, cleaning up litter and raising money for the Washoe Language Program. Much more menacing than 4-wheeling through the Sierras. More later on that....
