I travel to work by boat early morning (7:30 am or so) and park my boat in one of the marinas in Saunder's Cove. On several occasions the water has been flat calm, no other boats, not many distractions. Also on several occasions, I've not seen kayaks until I'm within about 100 yards or so. I train my eye now to look at the shoreline when entering Saunder's Bay to look for something moving. Again, this is a weekday, early morning, no other traffic. Are these kayakers nuts or what? They have dull, earth tone kayaks, they sit low in the water and provide nothing at all that gives them additional visibility to boaters. Oh, by the way, I travel at around 27 MPH, so I'm not going fast. In addition, I have 20/20 eyesight, so that's not a problem. The problem is that these kayakers seem to think that they are invincible and that they have inalienable rights to be on the lake, any place at any time. Now I have no problem with them out in Saunder's Bay early morning weekdays, but these kayakers that think they should be out in mid-day, heavy traffic on the weekends, need their heads examined. With heavy boat traffic and boat chop it's nearly impossible to see these kayakers. We should enact some kind of law that 1) mandates some device or color that enhances their visibility to other boaters, and 2) restrict the time and location where these kayaks can operate. In my opinion, the simple fact that any of these kayakers choose to operate in congested areas during heavy traffic, tells me they are only there to cause trouble. Time to call our state reps that are so concerned about everyone's safety and have them address this real safety issue. I'm sending a letter to the Governor about this today or tomorrow.
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