Lake Ontario was doing its best to erase a few boaters today. Got a call
from a friend who got back to the boat launch 45 minutes ahead of a storm.
He was sitting in a nearby restaurant watching "Best of Darwin", and said
"Get down here - the circus is in town". We decide to eat dinner out
tonight.

- We passed the boat launch on the way to the restaurant and saw (as
expected) about 50 boats floating around waiting to haul out. Not expected:
2 police cars. You know the boaters who dock and pretend not to notice that
there are boats still in the water, also waiting to haul out, so they take
their sweet time stowing their fishing gear and making sure their hair's
lookin' good before going to get their trailers? Gets interesting when a
storm's 5 minutes away, with lightnining included at no extra cost. So,
there were apparently a half dozen fist fights. What a waste of police time.

- We got to the restaurant, which overlooks the beach, and watch a guy who
probably beached his boat to come to the restaurant and get drunk at their
beach. (It's a custom here, so don't ask "How can you be so sure?").
Unfortunately, nobody taught him how to set an anchor so the boat would stay
far enough out to not get his lower unit wedged in the sand. The boat's in a
foot of water, the waves are doing their best to push him the last 20 feet
onto the beach, and he's gunning the engine, kicking up a mix that looked
like 80% sand. The boat's going nowhere. The best part: He's got 3 people
standing behind the boat, in the water, pushing. They're all within a foot
or two of the prop. An hour and a half later, they were still going at it.

- On the way home, we passed an undeveloped launch and pulled over to see
what was going on there. Although not right on Lake Ontario, this bay was
pretty rough, and the weather radio's still saying "Small craft warnings -
Don't even think about it". There's a group with a trailer two and jet skis,
but they're going into the water, not out. It gets better: We see a guy in a
wheelchair, no life vest, and his two friends are wheeling him halfway into
the water and helping him onto one of the jet skis.

Wheelchair. No vest. Jet ski. Storm. We wondered if Bam Margera was making
another sequel to the "Jackass" movie series, but we saw no cameras....

I guess that's why they call them Crazy Canucks ( assuming you were on
the Cannadian side )
In Quebec they amended the boating laws where if you BUI (boating
under the influence) and your alcohol level is higher than .08 It will
directly impact your Car drivers license also.
DUI is an automatic arrest, lost of permit(s) for one year and severe
fines (up to $1000 in some cases).
So no more sitting on a lake anchored and drinking a cold one here
Sorry !

The law is being reviewed again here and if passed, the tolerance
level for DUI will be .05 for any motor vehicle (car, boat or mini
bike or snowmobile)

Sheeeesh !

"quizno mouse" wrote in message
oups.com...
I guess that's why they call them Crazy Canucks ( assuming you were on
the Cannadian side )
In Quebec they amended the boating laws where if you BUI (boating
under the influence) and your alcohol level is higher than .08 It will
directly impact your Car drivers license also.
DUI is an automatic arrest, lost of permit(s) for one year and severe
fines (up to $1000 in some cases).
So no more sitting on a lake anchored and drinking a cold one here
Sorry !

The law is being reviewed again here and if passed, the tolerance
level for DUI will be .05 for any motor vehicle (car, boat or mini
bike or snowmobile)

Sheeeesh !


Rochester NY, not Canada.

Power boaters should have to take a special 'common sense' test.
Too many yahoos think they can operate a boat simply because they somehow
passed an automobile drivers exam.

On Aug 13, 8:07 am, "Don White" wrote:
Power boaters should have to take a special 'common sense' test.
Too many yahoos think they can operate a boat simply because they somehow
passed an automobile drivers exam.

Looks like you guys will just have to smoke a little more.. Oh,
nevermind..

Anyway, Took the future son in law fishing to the mouth of the CT
river yesterday. Launching at the state launch at the Baldwin bridge.
Pulled up and it was pandamonium, or so I thought. There were trucks
and trailers up and down the road, and the parking lot must hold 60
rigs alone. My first thought was holy crap, I will never get in, much
less park. Fortunately, it was around 3pm and a lot of full trailers
were coming out so there were spaces. I got up to just before the que,
and as I always do, pulled aside to get the stuff in the boat. The
ramp is 4 wide and paved, plenty of dockage to tie to so it was not
bad. One guy in a huge trailer boat was in the que, getting all his
suff loaded but otherwise others were moving pretty fast. Once I got
my boat ready I pulled in the que and waited about 4 minutes to back
in. One guy had slipped past me while getting ready, don't know if he
had his stuff ready to launch or not. The biggest thing that ****es me
off it those guys who back in, then start loading the boat, setting up
fuel lines, getting the kids and dog set up (yes, my dog has it's
leash on before I even start to back in). I really hate being the one
to hold folks up at the launch, n If you are one of those people who
jump in line, just to set up in front of someone you are an a**hole,
period. Anyway, the launch went well.

Out, to the channel, my sil is not a boater at all but he is "up to
it" for most challenges. When I left the house the weather indicated
winds from the north at 5, which would mean the winds would be coming
of shore, into long island sound for us,. Brockways (http://
www.yaimkool.com) were built for this water, but with flat sides, and
little rake, they can get a lot of spray in. No problem though, it was
warm. Headed for just south of the RR Bridge and set in some chunks of
bait, sat back, and waited. Something big hooked up on one of the boat
poles so I grabbed it and hooked it up and handed it to my sil, he was
amazed at the pull, and started to bring it in as I pulled the other
lines in. Unfortunately, the thing ran straight to the boat, took off
to the right, and snapped off 40 pound mono, so I didn't even see it,
but it was enough for him, he wants to go back. I don't know what he
got around, maybe the engine foot, maybe a rock but there is not many
there, but the line was frayed pretty good a few inches above the
break. My daughter has of course been telling him about blue and bass
for years, now at least he felt one, sort of.

Sat there another hour and decided to motor out to Hatchetts Point.
Worked my way through the flats by Old Lyme and over to sound view,
then straight out to the bouy. Hung around there for a while, but had
to go back cause I could see we were going to be out late. I am pretty
equipt for night fishing but he had to be up early this morning so we
wanted to pull by 9pm. It was a cool ride, the first time I have had
the Brockway out to the sound, and of course it was a great weather
day. No surf at all basically, I would say waves 0 feet.

All in all it was a cool day, maybe would have gotten some more
strikes if we stayed in the river, that was always a hot spot for me
when I had even smaller boats and used to watch my buds run out wild
crazy in the rentals, heading to the shoals. I usually did better than
them The only thing that sucks now is the hour drive just to get
there, our other place is a 10 minute drive from there, and about 3
from the Essex launch. I was pretty tired driving home,

All in all, it was a good day on the water, not ruined by any idiots
at the launch. although the guy in the big boat would have been a
problem if there was not 4 stalls. Everyone else pretty much was ready
when they backed in.

wrote in message
ups.com...
On Aug 13, 8:07 am, "Don White" wrote:
Power boaters should have to take a special 'common sense' test.
Too many yahoos think they can operate a boat simply because they somehow
passed an automobile drivers exam.

Looks like you guys will just have to smoke a little more.. Oh,
nevermind..

Non sequitur. Are you having booze with breakfast or something?