Impressive - an enforcement officer whose concern was truely with the safety of the paddler and not with the enforcement of rules. And I have to say that most of the Canadian Coast Guard I've encountered over the years have been more concerned with practical safety than enforcement of the letter of the law. I hope this doesn't change with our new PFD infraction ticket system. That said, this incident reminded me of an encounter I had with the Toronto Harbour Police about ten years ago, when I lived there. The officer "pulled me over" with his Boston Whaler - flashing lights, siren and all. He then proceded to run down a checklist of items (some of which were actually not required of me, since I was in a non-commerical vessel). He looked increasingly chagrinned as I successfully produced each item; he could sense his prey slipping through his fingers. His eyes lit up with satistfaction as he bellowed out "Life raft?" This was a bluff on his part, as the kayak was below the size that required a life raft, but I decided to bluff back, and produced my Sea-Seat; with it folded up he coudln't tell it was not a full-on life raft. Finally, the most ridiculous question: "Life jackets for all onboard?" he demanded. I was sitting in front of him, wearing my PFD, obviously the sole occupant of the kayak. For a moment I was tempted to peel back the front of my sprayskirt and shout down into the cockpit "Pete, Mike, Joe, Mary, Cathy, Susan, Ernest? You all got life jackets?" but the officer obiviously had no sense of humour (not much sense at all really) and so I decided not to make waves, as it were. He finally departed but not before making it clear he just KNEW I was quilty of something and as soon as he figured out what it was, he'd be back. . > >as he started to take his kayak out of the water the officer asked, > 'what are you doing?' >well, it seems that i can't paddle without my PFD. > 'no problem, take one of ours' >but what will i do with it when i return/ > 'leave it by that building over there' >thanks a bunch and off he paddled. > N49°16' W123°08' ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com *************************************************************************** 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 Sat Apr 24 1999 - 13:26:39 PDT
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