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Originally Posted by The Big Kahuna
Horse Hockey! Not the point, who cares about the stupid speed limit, make it 5 mph for all I care. What I have a problem with is the one time I needed help from the Marine Patrol, I was told I couldn't get it. I had run out of gas, it was night time and I had a boat full of children and an elderly grandmother. If that happened to you how would you feel when they told you, sorry we can't help you that is not our job!
Well what is their job? Did I have to wait until someone broad-sided me and when my boat started to sink then they could have helped me. It's a degrace, it happened about 10 years ago and I can still remembered how I felt when I was told they wouldn't help me. I had to paddle a 27ft. boat full of people to shore, about 100 yrds. Do know how long that took, and how hard it was to do, and then once I got there had to walk about 3 miles to get some gas, and it was by act of chance that I was able to get some. I didn't get my family home until 2:00 AM. I still get upset when I think about it.
I know they save people, right time right place, but do you know how many people I have saved on this lake in the last 20 years. About 10, because there sail boat tipped over, or they ran out of gas and were drifting. And you know why it was me that saved them, because Marine Patrol was no were around!
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Were you offered a call to a tower and when you found out it might cost a couple of hundred bucks you declined, but wanted a freebie from MP? Did you expect the MP to tow you halfway across the lake to your slip but the officer said he would only tow you straight to shore?
Towing a vessel takes the Patrol unit out of service. Even in an emergency; boat going for the rocks, high winds and so forth, the MP unit would only be obligated to tow to safety. Maybe only twenty feet away, where you could drop your own anchor to prevent being blown into the rocks.
There are several towers on the lake and they make their living by towing for dollars. Every time an MP unit tows a vessel, some tower is going to call and complain. That is not a good way for MP to establish a working relationship with towers and marinas on the lake.