John L
Well-known member
It was an interesting morning at the ramp yesterday.
I arrived at my usual time of 5:15am. My friend was running late so I got to see all the crazyness at the ramp.
It looked like a TDB convention with some real characters getting their boats in the water. As I waited for my friend I asked one of the guys if they were all part of a club or something. His answer was "no, they were just friends that hunt together". There looked to be six or seven TDB's and some additional aluminum boats mixed in. Now this is not a typical morning at this ramp. I never see that may guys launching.
While waiting on the dock a guy starts throwing bumpers for his dog into the water on the ramp. Trucks are backing down, boats are still launching, motors running and his dog is swimming around on the ramp. Not the brightest idea if you ask me, but hey, that's only my opinion. Loose dogs at the ramp in the dark with heavy fog swimming around just does not make sense to me.
Then I hear another guy yell. I thought he was yelling at his buddy for tossing the bumpers in the water but he was holding is face and he is covered in blood. Another guy asks if anyone has a fist aid kit in there boat. The replys from all were "no". Unbelievable!
Another guy pipes up and said he has one in his truck and ran back to get it as I was getting mine out of my boat. It appears the guy was pulling on something when it let loose and he gashed his face open on a nail or something.
Now, again, this is only my opinion but wouldn't it make more sense to have the first aid kit with you when your out hunting instead of back in your truck? Call me crazy but I would have thought everyone of them had a first aid kit in their boat. So, six or seven boats heading out and no first aid kit amoung them?
OK, now my friend shows up we launch his boat and as I'm sitting in my boat the guy infront of me starts his boat in gear and runs into my bow. Not a big deal, not much damage other than some paint chipped off. I tell my friend to speed it up and lets get out of here.
By now there had been several boats that have headed out. Did I mention it was foggy, real foggy. The kind of heavy fog that you can't see more than 50'. So anyway, we head out of the marina and proceed towards our first spot which is less than a 5 minute ride from the ramp. As we were heading out at idle speed I notice there are what appears to be small wakes hitting us from several directions. I think to my self that someone is out here running in circles but I can't see anything accept for my friends lights directly behind me. I call on the VHF to see if anyone answers, because we all have VHF radios, right? Well no replys, so we continue cautiously on our course and all of a sudden I'm closing in on another boats stern, I mean closing in from less than 50'. No stern light on the boat , not even a flash light to let someone else know he is there. WTF, out in the dark, supper heavy fog and no lights, no VHF radio or anything else on to let us know he is there. I slowly pass him on his port side some 20 feet away, maybe less and yell to him to turn on some lights. I get no reply. So we continue another 2 or three minutes to our spot.
We get to our spot and I set out my spread. Both our boats still running, nav lights on and I start to anchor up to the marsh island. I shut my motor down and hear another boat, close, very very close. Then, here he is again motoring through my spread. WTF again? He turns through the spread and is slowly heading right for us. I know he can see our lights because he is only 15 or 20' away and almost ran into us. He must have relized he was going to hit us and turned away heading back into my spread. Again, WTF!!! Never yelled out to us, no verbal comunication, no radio communication and no lights. If I was not already set up I think I would have headed back in and called it a day.
To sum things up:
- Make sure you have a good first aid kit in every boat and it's easily accessible
- Navigation light are no good if they are not turned on and in proper working order
- VHF radios are a good thing to have when on the water and keep them turned "on" especially when navigatiing in fog or in the dark.
- Dogs should not be swimming around on the ramp in the dark
Exercise caution when conditions are bad. If your boats are not 100% ready for a hunt in less than ideal conditions don't go. Instead go home and make the nessessary repairs and go another day and please use common sense.
I guess that ends my rant.
Thanks for reading and please be safe out there.
I arrived at my usual time of 5:15am. My friend was running late so I got to see all the crazyness at the ramp.
It looked like a TDB convention with some real characters getting their boats in the water. As I waited for my friend I asked one of the guys if they were all part of a club or something. His answer was "no, they were just friends that hunt together". There looked to be six or seven TDB's and some additional aluminum boats mixed in. Now this is not a typical morning at this ramp. I never see that may guys launching.
While waiting on the dock a guy starts throwing bumpers for his dog into the water on the ramp. Trucks are backing down, boats are still launching, motors running and his dog is swimming around on the ramp. Not the brightest idea if you ask me, but hey, that's only my opinion. Loose dogs at the ramp in the dark with heavy fog swimming around just does not make sense to me.
Then I hear another guy yell. I thought he was yelling at his buddy for tossing the bumpers in the water but he was holding is face and he is covered in blood. Another guy asks if anyone has a fist aid kit in there boat. The replys from all were "no". Unbelievable!
Another guy pipes up and said he has one in his truck and ran back to get it as I was getting mine out of my boat. It appears the guy was pulling on something when it let loose and he gashed his face open on a nail or something.
Now, again, this is only my opinion but wouldn't it make more sense to have the first aid kit with you when your out hunting instead of back in your truck? Call me crazy but I would have thought everyone of them had a first aid kit in their boat. So, six or seven boats heading out and no first aid kit amoung them?
OK, now my friend shows up we launch his boat and as I'm sitting in my boat the guy infront of me starts his boat in gear and runs into my bow. Not a big deal, not much damage other than some paint chipped off. I tell my friend to speed it up and lets get out of here.
By now there had been several boats that have headed out. Did I mention it was foggy, real foggy. The kind of heavy fog that you can't see more than 50'. So anyway, we head out of the marina and proceed towards our first spot which is less than a 5 minute ride from the ramp. As we were heading out at idle speed I notice there are what appears to be small wakes hitting us from several directions. I think to my self that someone is out here running in circles but I can't see anything accept for my friends lights directly behind me. I call on the VHF to see if anyone answers, because we all have VHF radios, right? Well no replys, so we continue cautiously on our course and all of a sudden I'm closing in on another boats stern, I mean closing in from less than 50'. No stern light on the boat , not even a flash light to let someone else know he is there. WTF, out in the dark, supper heavy fog and no lights, no VHF radio or anything else on to let us know he is there. I slowly pass him on his port side some 20 feet away, maybe less and yell to him to turn on some lights. I get no reply. So we continue another 2 or three minutes to our spot.
We get to our spot and I set out my spread. Both our boats still running, nav lights on and I start to anchor up to the marsh island. I shut my motor down and hear another boat, close, very very close. Then, here he is again motoring through my spread. WTF again? He turns through the spread and is slowly heading right for us. I know he can see our lights because he is only 15 or 20' away and almost ran into us. He must have relized he was going to hit us and turned away heading back into my spread. Again, WTF!!! Never yelled out to us, no verbal comunication, no radio communication and no lights. If I was not already set up I think I would have headed back in and called it a day.
To sum things up:
- Make sure you have a good first aid kit in every boat and it's easily accessible
- Navigation light are no good if they are not turned on and in proper working order
- VHF radios are a good thing to have when on the water and keep them turned "on" especially when navigatiing in fog or in the dark.
- Dogs should not be swimming around on the ramp in the dark
Exercise caution when conditions are bad. If your boats are not 100% ready for a hunt in less than ideal conditions don't go. Instead go home and make the nessessary repairs and go another day and please use common sense.
I guess that ends my rant.
Thanks for reading and please be safe out there.