At 08:24 PM 6/30/98 -0700, you wrote: Maybe christmas tree lights strung around the entire >>perimeter of your boat would do the trick. :-) >> >>It just shows how extra careful you need to be at night. >> >>best, >> >>ralph Movement is always helpful in spotting anything. Birds hidden in the trees suddenly become visible when they move. In daylight on choppy water, the ends of your paddle swinging through the air are visible way off while the rest of the boat is invisible. So at night a blinking light creates "movement" . . . but they're against regulations for some very good reasons: Blinking lights are reserved for buoys and emergencies --two things everyone on the water needs to see. Wearing light colors at night and carrying a hand held flashlight are fundamental safety precautions when walking or bicycling. This works for kayakers too. The hand held light has the built in capacity of movement which makes it visible. And you can aim it --although not blinding the other skipper seems just common sense. Navigators/rescuers note that the flashing strobe light used in emergencies is difficult to get a fix on for distance. A good hand held flashlight provides a steady beam for navigators to fix on --be they rescuers or just the tug captain on his/her way home for dinner. Wearing light colors helps other boaters see you with their flashlights. But you can also aim your own light at yourself and your boat to light it up for other boaters. Lighting yourself identifies you as a kayak even when the other boater is not trying to identify you with his/her flashlight. Other boaters need to give paddle craft--perhaps especially kayaks--ample room and also the benefit of a reduced wake. Letting the other boaters know that you're a kayak and not a bobbing jet-skier or a angler anchored in a large boat is a good precaution. Unfortunately, lots of power boaters merely slow down around kayaks--to the point that their wake becomes enormous. Too often the boater is not watching his/her wake, but merely slowing around paddle craft because "it's the rules." I had a sailboat skipper refer to the large power-boats as "Gin Barges." Indeed many of these large vessels are little more than a "wet bar" with an engine. It's never a mistake to assume that the skipper is dead-drunk or keeled over the wheel from a massive coronary. Assume that the skipper doesn't see you and/or is too incapacitated to look out for you. Many power-boaters are knowledgable about navigation rules and courtesy. But it takes only one drunk to mess up your whole day. Independence Day is here. . . July 1st. for Canadians and July 4th for us "yanks." Lots of drunken boaters out for this holiday. . . especially at night with the fireworks. Might be a good time to catch up with your email. Independently, Geo./Svenn ______________________________ George Bergeron, Secretary '99 Oswego Heritage Council www.europa.com/~heritage/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jul 01 1998 - 00:09:48 PDT
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