[partsman]

Well here is a new scenario! Time: 3:00 pm Sunday 8/9/09; Location: 800 yards south of Shep Brown's right in the travel lane between Meredith Neck and Bear Island. Situation: running 37 mph south toward Govenors Island, my boat quits.

I am dead in the water in the middle of the travel lane. Boats come by toward the south about 100 feet from me. Boats zoom by to the north toward the end of Bear Island and 3 mile island and beyond, all within 100 -150 feet of me.

The reason, I was broken down and I was right in the travel lane. A Marine Patrol boat at full rest 400 yards from me to the west between me and Bear Island. I could not see any one on the boat, just the big Marine Patrol sign on the side of his old Century.

I knew I had a serious problem, so instead of trying to fix my engine, I called upon the great services of Shep Brown's Boat Basin for a tow. Being in the boat business, I knew they offered great towing if needed and they responded right away.

While waiting for the tow boat, I counted no less than 40 boats that blew by me within 100 fee doing upwards of 30 to 40 mph in both directions. TheMarine Patrol boat in question did not move an inch. It appeared as if he was at anchor.

Between the time I broke down and the time I was hooked up to the tow boat (about 25 minutes) no less than 40 boats broke laws going by me. All the while, this Marine Patrol boat was no more than 400 yards from me.

I guess my questions to this scenario are:

1. Was this boat justat mooring with no one in it to slow down traffic?
2. if so, what does this accomplish?
3. was this boat occupied by a marine patrol officer?
4. if so, was he blind, and did not see my disabled boat?
5. If it was occupied and the Marine Patrol officer saw a disabled boat, why did he not come to its aid (I know that I have dealer plates, but I am still disabled.)
6. Lastly and most importantly to me, does the State park boats near high traffic areas with no one in them just to try to slow traffic? If this is the case there is something wrong with this picture.

This Marine Patrol boat should have immediately came over to see if I had a problem. I was 150 yards from him when my boat shut down. I was drifting toward him with the wind conditions, he should have seen me open my engine hatch to check out my engine. He should have seen me on the cell phone calling for a tow. I know these guys have binoculars, they can track speeding boats at night by simple vectoring at 55 mph, he should have known there was an issue here. Either he was in the cabin taking a nap, or this boat was unoccupied!

George Makris, Owner, M&M Marine Salvage, Meredith, NH