You didn't read my last travelogue on the Barber's Pole NWZ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SIKSUKR
Well I spent an hour from about 12 or 12:30 on Saturday in the BP zone just to watch the mayhem.Guess what?I saw just the opposite.5-6 times I watched as numerous boats approached each other and every time all parties came to headway speed when appropriate.Everything looked very orderly to me.
Found HN's camp and lingered out front for a minute but no boats were present so I moved on.Wanted to introduce myself HN,maybe next time.
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We're describing the same place, but we're describing different times.
The
four hours I spent between 8-AM to 10-AM appeared differently from the
one hour you spent between 12 to 12:30.
If you had called-out "Toby", I expect your PWC would've had doggie company very shortly. You didn't see a Boston Whaler—I'd put money on that! If you didn't hear The Beatles being played loudly, there wasn't a 27' Chapparal there to play it.
The "Big Sandy II" wasn't the only boat at headway speed—most were southbound, anyway. It wasn't the "big camp boat" passengers that were smelly. I was only referring to the diesel engine powering it.
One huge Fountain passed through at legal speed—not that anybody could think-of-any-thing-else-at-the-time.
His wake was not outrageous, but the wakes of heavy-laden boats
were. I had to "time" my approach to the Islands' shallows, so as not to beat the bottom repeatedly when a wake would be striking the shoreline.
Among other small boats along that stretch, one resident has
six wind-surfers raised several feet above high-water. How do they manage to go sailing at all?
Do they need a tow to secure waters?
How could they
not want a NWZ in front of their launch point?
The BP residents throwing rocks from their docking spaces—I now realize—were "manually dredging" the shallows under their boats. This was keep their boats from striking-bottom, after wakes had roughed-up their boats.
Leaving, I had this
feeling I should put on my PFD as I entered the waters south of Barber's Pole.
On my southbound return trip, I realize that some boaters just don't care.
I have to "hide" on the wrong side of markers, because too many have this need to "clip" the markers.
Not giving 150-feet of safe passage to small boats that wouldn't damage their gelcoat is just wrong.
I made a point to wave at considerate boaters, even as my boat had contact with the surface at only one or two places along its keel at any one moment.
I support the NWZ at Barber's Pole, even as my own needs for wake protection can never be provided: a breakwater wasn't granted a permit—and neither would a NWZ
ever happen here.
I enjoy watching folks playing on the waters: it's a shame that those with oversized boats can't go tubing in The Broads—a scant ½-mile away. They disrupt enjoyments of everyone else in front of my location—tossing our boats and shallows into a roiled mayhem. The anarchy of wake damage occurs within their eyesight, though they choose
not to see it first-hand, behind them.
A friend from Camp Wyanoke days visited me on Sunday: we watched as the wakes hammered in. Imagine getting wet 10-feet above the lake!
Though he lives in sight across our shared harbor, he was impressed by the forces that were unleashed along my shoreline.
From Port Wedeln he can clearly see boats rafting in Johnson's Cove. He is
not affected by the oversized boats that "commute" to Johnson's Cove on weekends. His location is less "waked", as he is on the "outside" of wakes—our side gets hammered, as we're on "the inside".
It is no different at Barber's Pole.
We both remarked that a 22' outboard "lobster-boat style" boat that is manufactured locally, leaves a very modest wake—indeed. It appears to be the perfect Lake Winnipesaukee boat for all reasons—barring the weather extremes that can sink a Cobalt. ('Though maybe it was actually a better boat in that circumstance—even given its smaller size.)
Even boats of "only" 24-feet can throw a wake that can overturn the unsuspecting jon-boat or canoe. We can suspect an oversized boat damaged a seaplane last week. The two recorded 2010 hypothermia fatalities could have oversized boats to blame.
'Sorry this reply is late, by a day: I managed
seven posts on Sunday—for whatever reason that was permitted. All day long on Monday, I never lost the error-message that said "You have exceeded five posts in a 24-hour period".
I'm not a "numbers person" at all. I don't understand the algorithm that controls my replies intermittantly—then blocks them.
At bottom,
I support the NWZ at Barber's Pole. Any reasonable person would, as well. Residents who fund this state through property taxes should have this slightest of courtesies extended.
I viewed the clatter, barking, and banging at Cow Island as a peculiar form of noise-pollution, but any headline that could follow misadventure, is worth two minutes of delay when transiting the narrows at Barber's Pole.
IMHO.