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.
One of these days....
