I’m happy to see this thread because I was just about to vent my frustration. I normally don’t get too worked up over things, but we saw a lot of crazy things today.
We went into Paugus Bay around 12:30-1:30 and passed the broken pipe. It was right in front of the new docks near North Water Marine. It was right level with the surface and had no warning indicator on it or anything. I have a video of it but haven’t taken it off my GoPro yet.
And speaking of rude behavior, we witnessed people driving like crazy and totally ignoring the rules…people not yielding to those who had the right of way when crossing under the Governor’s Island Bridge and things like that. The person who had the right away yelled at the multiple boats that went out of turn, and one of them turned around, like they wanted to fight, and was yelling and swearing, and making all kinds of hand gestures at the person who had the right of way. It’s like those road rage videos on YouTube.
We saw two or three boats on the northern side of Eagle Island clearly having no idea how to navigate the buoy system. They slowed down, looked around for a minute and then zoomed ahead on the south side of the black buoys, right through the danger zone.
Saw another boat, literally about 30 seconds later, heading towards Spindle Point. They didn’t stop but continued full speed between the lighthouse and the red buoy marking the rocks.
To me, they all looked like rental boats, and the people on board looked like they had no idea what they were doing. This, to me, is the problem with the temporary boating certificate people can get before renting a boat. It doesn’t replace a full course, and Lake Winnepesaukee isn’t a great lake to boat on for first time boaters.
We got gas today at a place that rents pontoons, and the gas attendant said they were sold out for the entire weekend. We watched as one of the workers explained to a group of renters – probably 20 people on the boat - how to navigate the buoy system, but the renters clearly looked lost. As we were leaving the channel, we saw one rental boat yell to another rental boat that this was their first time ever being on a boat.
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