I'm just shaking my head at all the Captain Bonehead stories. But it's only a couple more weeks before they all start heading home. May and October are the most wonderful months to be on the Lake... Although I do enjoy the July and August swims.
I read the stories about near-collisions while folks are under way, but we were almost run over
while anchored! A 30+ foot cruiser at ~20 MPH and maximum wake potential went 30 feet off our bow and I could have sworn he didn't see us. But I could see both he and his passenger, so they clearly had to be able to see me. I was on the horn for 15 seconds as they were approaching and finally the passenger turns and... the wave. Yeah, I just wanted to throw out a friendly hello before you swamped me. Did he get his boating certificate online?
And to cross threads a little bit, I'm not in favor of more buoys, larger navaids for the visually impaired or giant floating rings around the witches. Sure, on dark days or in glaring sun they can be hard to spot. But that's why the throttle control includes Neutral. In my opinion, the pursuit of safer navigation is why charts were created. If you can't read a chart, you're at a disadvantage. I don't want the lake to change into some forest of oversized "colored sticks" in some ill-advised attempt to try and fill the gap created by folks lacking the personal responsibility to navigate the lake safely.
What next? Those big orange crash barriers like they use on the highway in the event you blow by the buoys, run over the yellow ring, and still hit the witches?
About 20 years ago we were on the water and moving along quickly on a calm but overcast day when we missed the southern-most buoy on the witches. BANG!!!! We all jump, the outboard hinges all the way forward and we see the buoy about 75 yards to our left. Scared the cr*p out of me as someone exclaimed, "We're in the witches!" But that was our bad. We didn't need more buoys. We needed to keep better track of where we were. Luckily there was no major damage and no one got hurt. But being in an area of what appears to be clear and deep water with the primary and visible witches far far off to our right, and not knowing what else is hiding right below the surface is an ugly feeling that still sticks with me today.
I keep waiting for someone to ask why we don't blast all the shoals that impede our ability to boat with reckless abandon... And why hasn't Marine Patrol already started doing that?
