Rude Boating/Skiing
 

This morning I had to take a customers boat over to a dealer to get some warranty work done on it. I left the Black Island area about 7:45 am and had a very peaceful & calm trip over until I reached the Paugus Bay area when out of knowwhere a large boat towing 2 water skiers crossed right in front of me (less than 150'). I took proper action (made an evasive manuever) to avoid them. When I then collected my thought passed by them (at a safe distance, at headway speed) the people in the boat made rude and obscene gestures to me. What did I do to derseve this? I feel that this was uncalled for. I feel that lake is no longer welcome to locals like myself.

Were you able to get the bow number and report it to the Marine Patrol? I know that they probably couldn't do anything about it at that point, but if they respond in the same manner as my local police department does to complaints on the water, they might make a trip over to Captain bonehead's place, or at least make a phone call to let them know a complaint was filed and they'll be watching.

I was not able to get a number because the way that they had stopped the boat. I feel that the careless boating is going to only get worse as summer winds down.

Always Expect The Unexpected.........
 

A few years ago, I was enjoying an early morning, flat water blast across Paugus Bay heading towards the channel. As I rounded the small island halfway between the island and shore, I didn't see a boat anywhere not even an early morning fisherman but I spotted what appeared to be a floating beach ball.

As I drew closer, I realized that it was a person! Holy smokes !!!! I slowed down to headway speed and stopped as I came along side the person. He looked to be in his early teens and had black hair, a black ski vest, and one black ski with a red stripe. He couldn't speak a word of English and seemed frightened when I asked him where his boat was. He just kept pointing to the other side of the bay. Try as I might, I couldn't convince him to get in the boat and I sure as heck wasn't going to leave him there!

It was at least THREE minutes before a boat came directly towards us. The people in the boat, especially the operator, started yelling and cursing at ME for interfering with the person in the water and scaring him. When I asked why they left someone in the water unattended, they said that they had to go back to their dock slip at South Down Shores to get the other skis since the fellow in the water was having trouble staying up on a single ski.

I told them how dangerous it was to leave someone just floating in the water unattended and why didn't they just take the skier with them when they went back to the dock. I was met with a blank stare followed by more cursing and threats. I tried to reach MP to no avail. To this day, I firmly believe that the operator and the other people in the boat saw absolutely nothing wrong with leaving the skier in the water while they went for the other skis!

It's not just on the Lake
 

The attitude described is getting more common as time goes by. It's not just on the lake but pretty much in every other aspect of public life. I don't know if it's the "Me Generation" (with all that that implies) or whether we're raising people to be less thoughtful ("What ... me think ?! Why, everything is already out for me") than was done in times gone by. I do take some solace in knowing the human animal hasn't changed much in 20,000 years so it's all training and not genetic. Thus perhaps someday the trend can be reversed.

White Rook...you probably have a law suit coming your way for causing distress to an illegal immigrant.You WILL pick up the tab for a court interpreter....you will be accused of racism.

Mee,

I have to agree with your statement about the trend. I have lived here my entire life (29 years) and I have seen major changes in the past 10 years.

The Trend
 

I agree, and it's not a positive trend. We just need to read the accounts on this forum to see more incidents of unsafe passage, the one-finger salute, the two word companion to the one finger salute, etc... As an example, we were docked in Meredith last night when the shouting match and gesturing erupted over who got to an empty dock space first. There were four spots open -- do you really need to be fighting over the same one?

I don't know why it's so hard to just relax, be courteous to one another and have fun. It's the attitude that, "I'm on vacation, to hell with you rest of you!" that I think summarizes it well.

try it
 

You should try teaching in a public high school. Talk about shoveling sand against the tide:(
I still know alot of great young people and the ones who have the "attitude" usually have parents that match:rolleye2:
No one seems to understand the concept of " Oops... sorry... I made a mistake, anything I can do to fix it?". Everyone makes mistakes it's how you behave afterward that determines the kind of person you are.

Were they going left to right or right to left?

Wow - Now there's a loaded question, and a good one at that. :cool:

I think Daves was trying to find out who the stand-on boat was.

I was the stand on boat at the time the boat & skier crossed the bow

I knew that and thats why I said it was a loaded question depending on dmjr's answer, which has since been made.

It was an important detail and a very good question by Dave. ;)