This is a great post but the "but/butt" part got all the attention. That's
fine, it's an important point but the real teaser in this is the part that
didn't get written yet and I think that will be the best part.

So let this thread deal with the wake stuff and start another one with the
stories. You must have few that we can chew on while our boats are filled
with antifreeze, fogged and shrink wrapped.

My God, I'm already going into withdrawls.



"QLW" wrote in message
...
We just returned to Texas yesterday after completing an entire summer of
boating, first on lake Summerville in W.Va. and then a 700+ mile circuit
starting at lock 6 of the Erie Canal then to Oswego, Thousand Islands,
Redeau Canal, Ottawa River, Lachine Canal, St. Lawrance to the Richlieu
Canal, Lake Champlain and finally the Champlain Canal back to lock 6 on
the
Erie. Over eight wonderful weeks spend on the water. Over 100 locks and
while the exact milage is hard to nail down (due to many side trips) I'd
guess over 900. After a few "teething" problems were worked out, both
boats
worked flawlessly. The weather was great , as were the vast majority of
the
people, both boaters and landlubbers, that we met. What a great way to
spend a summer. The only thing that I would change is to take more time
to
make the trip. We are allredy making plans to go back and do the Trent
Severn and Lake Champlain next summer.

BUT! (there's always a but/butt) there was a recurring problem with power
boaters that just sticks in my craw everytime I think about the trip. I
got
absolutely feed up with the discourtesy and poor boating skills of a high
percentage of the power boaters, both American and Canadian. I can cite
instance after instance where power craft should have slowed to no wake or
given more space and often created potentially dangerous conflicts where
none should have existed. Common courtesy seems to be left on the shore
by
many/most of these jerks. It got so bad in some of the narrow canals that
I
started taking video and was tempted to turn them in to the CG. I don't
know how it could be done by law, but there should be some way to hold
these
( mainly 30+ foot) planning hull boats to a set of rules that will stop
them. The damage to the shoreline and the discomfort caused to other
boaters has to be just as important as the right to run around creating 3
to
5 foot wakes.