If the word dumbass comes to mind when thinking of something someone did on
the water this 4th of July weekend, they would probably fit the bill for a
4th of July "Darwin" award nomination. It's ok to nominate yourself if
you're strong enough to tell us what you did.

I've got two that come to mind so far (and the weekend is young). The
first, both while I'm towing my kids: 3 20-something males on one waverunner
(a pwc of some kind) come flying by on the diagonal moving from my stern
port quarter across my bow to my starboard side, except they stopped dead in
front of me for God knows what reason; I truly enjoyed the look on the
passenger's faces when they realized how close we were when they stopped!

The second event was the family boat towing little kids who also decided to
get to my right side by passing in front of me; at least they didn't stop in
front of me, but dangling those little kids out there like bait, you gotta
wonder. I had to make a small adjustment to port with reduced speed to
avoid their kids. I'm just real glad I wasn't screwing around with my soda
or the radio or answering a question with a turn of my head.

Ok, then there's my dumbass move: shutting down at the last second on the
approach to a no wake zone. Did I draw attention to myself? Youbetcha!
The Sherrif was on me in a flash for an impromptu inspection. Technically
it would have been a stretch to write me up and he didn't. He used me as a
teaching moment for his crew. We stopped at the on-the-water bathroom
before we left the no-wake zone and couldn't figure out why the Sherrif was
waiting for us to leave; turns out they needed the head and were just
waiting their turn! If we'd known that, we'd of stayed longer (just kidding
again).

Marty

"Marty" wrote in message
m...
If the word dumbass comes to mind when thinking of something someone did
on the water this 4th of July weekend, they would probably fit the bill
for a 4th of July "Darwin" award nomination. It's ok to nominate yourself
if you're strong enough to tell us what you did.

I've got two that come to mind so far (and the weekend is young). The
first, both while I'm towing my kids: 3 20-something males on one
waverunner (a pwc of some kind) come flying by on the diagonal moving from
my stern port quarter across my bow to my starboard side, except they
stopped dead in front of me for God knows what reason; I truly enjoyed the
look on the passenger's faces when they realized how close we were when
they stopped!

The second event was the family boat towing little kids who also decided
to get to my right side by passing in front of me; at least they didn't
stop in front of me, but dangling those little kids out there like bait,
you gotta wonder. I had to make a small adjustment to port with reduced
speed to avoid their kids. I'm just real glad I wasn't screwing around
with my soda or the radio or answering a question with a turn of my head.

Ok, then there's my dumbass move: shutting down at the last second on the
approach to a no wake zone. Did I draw attention to myself? Youbetcha!
The Sherrif was on me in a flash for an impromptu inspection. Technically
it would have been a stretch to write me up and he didn't. He used me as
a teaching moment for his crew. We stopped at the on-the-water bathroom
before we left the no-wake zone and couldn't figure out why the Sherrif
was waiting for us to leave; turns out they needed the head and were just
waiting their turn! If we'd known that, we'd of stayed longer (just
kidding again).

Marty


We went out today from about 1 pm till 9 pm. Observations:

1. A guy lights up a cigarette while gassing up next to us at the gas
docks. We yell at him and he reluctantly, with an attitude, puts it out by
throwing it the cigarette in the water.

2. 2 close calls with other boats failing to yield.....we finally slow in
each case and let the assholes pass in front of us (they were coming at us
from our port side).

3. We were passed at a fairly good rate of speed (leaving a nice wake) in
a 2 boat wide river channel and a no wake zone.

Considering that we spent most of the time anchored at 2 different swimming
spots (maybe spending 2 hours cruising) this was a high number of incidents.

The assholes are indeed out in full force.

Being new here, I reluctantly attempt to correct you in your statement
that "It's ok to nominate yourself if you're strong enough to tell us
what you did." Since the Darwin awards are for people who died doing
something stupid, nobody could submit their own entry

Anyhow, while monitoring the docks in an attempt to learn all that I
can before taking my boy out on our first run with his "new" '75
starcraft, we saw a PWC attempt to make a very sharp turn in order to
avoid a collision with a boat that they obviously were not paying
attention to - and the PWC passenger fell off during the turn!!
Luckily the boat passed the PWC passenger without giving him a trim (or
worse).

We also saw a pontoon boat loading onto it's trailer with a signficant
enough amount of "power assist" to send the passengers lurching forward
when the boat came to a complete stop atop the trailer. Good thing
nobody went head first over the front and onto the concrete (as there
were lots of people standing around on there).