ComandanteBanana wrote

Well, I'm not going to speak in defense of the sardine in their
eternal quest to survive the big fish...

Glad to hear it since you do not appear to be competent to defend your
position on the issues you did address.

The issue here is, WHY A KAYAK OR CANOE MUST GIVE THE RIGHT OF
WAY TO THE MOTORBOATS?

Here is is in a nutshell. It's called "The Rule of Tonage." I outweigh you
by . . . well, by a lot of times. In an encounter between my boat and
yours, yours, and you, will be crushed. If you aren't, you'll be turned
into hamburger, or fish chum if you prefer, by the propellers on the back,
that are turned, slow or fast, by more than 300 horsepower each. It's call
survival. Ignoring it is commonly referred to as testing Darwin's theory.
They have awards, issued poshumously, for thost that do.

Other than that, here's another anwer. You don't have to give right of way.
Generally speaking, non powered vessels, operated with a bit of common
sense, have the right of way over powered ones.

Every weekend the intracostal waterway of Miami becomes a parade of
motorboats of all sorts, from the very big (the owners of this town)
to the very small (the noisy jet skis), often driven by intoxicated
drivers (I guess you call them "drivers," though seldom they are
accountable to the standards as vehicle drivers, like DUI), and almost
always running (or should I say "flying"?) up and down (again, with no
speed limit restrictions like regular drivers). So the task of
crossing these sea highways by paddle becomes something like a duck
crossing the hunting grounds, and you are the sitting duck...

They're called Captains or pilots, not drivers. If they intoxicated, report
them. There are, in fact, laws controlling that very much like those for
automobile driers. There are speed limits posted all over the place and
quite a few that apply even when not posted. On top of it all, there are
maximum wake and other requirements you've not bothered to notice.

Crossing the channel, whether by paddle or by motorboat, is a lot like
crossing any other highway. You would be ill advised to pull out right in
front of a boat operated by a captain with more knowledge and experience
than your appear to have, operating at a legal speed, not intoxicated, just
like you would be ill advised to push your skateboard out in front of
traffic traveling at the speed limit on I-95. You're the one entering the
channel. You're the one responsible for doing it safely. Imagine that.

But the ocean is also hunting ground. The other day (it was weekday,
hardly any boats out there), I went to out in my tandem kayak, which I
chose as bright as it could be (sunrise) with the paddles to match
(they could be more visible than the kayak itself), and out of nowhere
came this boat that passed us right in front, so much so that my
partner stopped paddling. The ocean was absolutely flat and it was a
nice sunny day, so the driver must have chosen to make it a close
call...

You don't know that at all. There are rules for who has the right of way on
the ocean as well. Have you bothered to research them?

While it is possible that the boater chose to make it a close call, that's
not certain at all, particularly if he did not change course. For all you
know, he would have been on autopilot or, possibly, following a GPS course
from one point to the next. Your assumption that he chose to bother you is
a bit off the mark.

I will grant you that it would have been nice for him to give you a bit more
room. I make a habit of doing that for vessels small enough that going
behind them, through their wake, is not a problem while forcing them to go
through mine might be. On the other hand, if you were paddling into his
path, you also had the option to give yourself more room.

Mostly, I think you think you should have equal rights and you're not happy
that you weren't able to impose your will on those bigger than you are. I
have the same problems with cops. You'll get over it. I did.

Lee