BUT IT IS PRETTY DAMN HARD TO PASS A BOAT WITH NO WAKE WHEN THAT WAKEE IS GOING 7 KNOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IF YOU EVER SEE A LARGE POWERBOAT SLOW DOWN IN AN EFFORT TO PROVIDE YOU A COURTEOUS PASS, PLEASE RETURN THE FAVOR BY REDUCING YOUR POWER TO MINIMUM STEERAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey there Captain Baker - That's some pretty good coffee you must be drinkin' there - know where I could get a pound?
Here in Eastern NC, the captains are pretty good about radioing and slowing down. We get a good bit of sport-fisherman travel up and down the ICW. Most boats are the Hatteras and Buddy Davis variety, about 45-58 foot with twin 600HP+ Cats and a big butt.
So they can throw a tsunami if they want to. But the times I have seen disregard for passing courtesy, I check the hailing ports and will more often see RI, MA, and CT in higher frequency. Something about that short season makes those guys in a helluva hurry. We just slow down, turn into the wake and bob it out.
You hear the VHF going pretty hard on holiday weekends with "Hey 'Nauti-Time' <insert boat name of your choice> thanks for the slow pass <sarcastic>", followed by some passing reference to their parentage...
But for the most part, I am hailed by the big boys requesting a slow pass more often than not, and if not hailed, they slow anyway, and I slow and it works that way 90% of the time. The bass boats pretty much zoom by at 50 knots, but their wakes are pretty minor most days.
California sounds like the wild, wild, west. Oh, wait.