"The Marine Patrol do nothing on this lake to make the lake a safer place."
This is a joke right? What about the 3 drunks who crashed their boats into land this summer (Eagle Island, Light 80, Hurricane Island)? The MP was there to rescue their butts and make sure they got what they deserved (all charged with BWI). Surely there were numerous other intoxicated skippers who got stopped and arrested before something happend. Not to mention that there had to have been others who were deterred from driving their boats home after a hard night at the bar thanks to the MPs presence on the lake.
One night I was caught admiring one of the "AMBAR" patrol boats at the docks and had the pleasure of talking to a MP officer about the lake. He told me that the "night shift" on Winni is comprised of some of the Depts. best officers and are selected based on their performance only after working a number of years on the day shift. They train for an entire summer on patrol with other night officers and are required to know the location of every light buoy, point, cove, island, and summer camp on the lake before they are allowed to patrol alone. They are out there 7 nights a week for the entire summer responding to accidents, escorting lost boaters home or boats without proper lights.
It is a shame they don't publish a Marine Patrol Arrest Log because I am sure we would all be surprised by the number of drunk driving arrests that are made every weekend. Its definitly not the wild west, but no open container law sure makes it easy to have "one too many".
And I bet these guys were happy the MP was there...
From
www.nhmarinepatrol.com