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Why the Law of the Sea has to be the Law of the Jungle?
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 |
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