Boating Preparedness can save your Ass!

Unprepared Boating is Worrisome?

SEE FUNNY VIDEO AT END OF BLOG

Just over 700 ppl died while boating last year. Not bad compared to the number who died on the roads. Alcohol is blamed in many of these deaths. So boating is safer than driving?

Now that Run-aground Ralph and several other members of the 'Dead End Canal Yacht Club' have joined one or another Boat Clubs', I'm worried about the seamanship required and learned while belonging to those boat club. Seamanship doesn't require years of experience, it can be learned from taking classes from the coast guard auxiliary. 

Or acquired while working on a boat. But the boat clubs members don't wash the boat they use, change the oil, lube the steering cable nor launch or retrieve that boat. All they really are required to do is bring back the boat full of fuel! That may be okay for the lazy experienced boater but what does it teach the novice?

I never worried while boating when I was young. In fact, I've been called reckless on occasion for going out into a storm or delivering an unknown boat through a unfamiliar route. I always chalked those comments up to over cautious individuals but now, after my 70^th birthday, I'm rethinking some of my more risky exploits.

For example; The time, 25 years ago, we brought the 16 foot 'Offshore' Tunnel Hull outboard boat from Ramrod Key to Fort Myers Beach. If you follow my ramblings, you've read about this adventure before but it's worth revisiting this trip. It is cataloged in the “I'd never try that” category by friends and readers who really should never try that. Would I do it again, with better preparation, MAYBE!

Two of us retraced our friends route from Fort Myers Beach

through the Everglades to Ramrod Key during Florida Lobster mini-season. If he could do it, so could we. During our friends diving/fishing vacation, he re-injured his inner ear and became more imbalanced than than normal, sorry Bob!

Scott Nice and I rented a car at our airport and dropped it off at the Marathon Key airport. The next day proved to be a near perfect weather window so instead of laying over waiting for a better day, we left for Fort Myers Beach. Not as early as I would have liked but that's another story. Anyway it was a perfect summer morning, low wind and no rain.

Weighing the pros and cons was easy. (Pro) I knew the route because I'd been over it many times before but never in that size or style boat. (Con) We couldn't carry enough gasoline for the entire trip so we had to stop at least once in Flamingo at the bottom of the peninsula. The perfect excuse for running up the Everglades rivers and bays back to the Gulf of Mexico. The second stop should have been Goodland at the south end of Marco Island.

Neither of us had ever been through the real Everglades and we

wanted to do it then. Since Scott was an expert mechanic I was confident that we'd have a better than 50/50 chance to make FMB. The boat was the LEAST prepared but we crossed the Everglades, ran out of gas, broke down near at the entrance to Big Carlos Pass, Scott fixed the problem and eventually met the Coast Guard coming up the back bay as the engine ran on fumes. Yes, they were looking for us. Our wives knew we were overdue and our route.

So what is the moral of this story? Answer; Over confidence and poor boat preparation can get you dead. Can a boat club teach their members about preparation? Or should they? Most clubs demand the boat back after 8 hours?

VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k-GlT0yPAg

This blog/column is meant for educational purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All images are merely for humor and not meant to comment on subject. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. Do not read while operating a vehicle or heavy machinery. Keep sending those great questions and comments! (Contact) boatguied@aol.com