Tips Tricks or Mistakes

[MeredithMan]

1) Be super-vigilant. Motoboats/kayaks & canoes/swimmers, etc, all coming at you from in front, behind, and both sides. As the "captain", you need to constantly be paying attention.

2) Don't assume that the people in the other crafts know the rules of the road and will give way, etc. A fair number of folks have no clue what they're doing.

3) Although I like to indulge in "social lubricants" as much as anyone, I never drink before or while driving the boat. Way too much going on all around you, as indicated in #s 1 and 2 above.

4) Never go out without your map, boating certificate, cell phone, life jackets, anchor, etc.

5) My preference is to keep my dock lines tied on my dock and just detach the lines from the cleats on the boat when I go out. When I return, it's then very simple to run the loops through the cleats and I am perfectly tied up in seconds. I keep another set of dock lines and bumpers on the boat if I need to tie up somewhere while out on the lake, (e.g., at a gas dock)

6) When docking, you have momentum on your side. I have found that unless there is a cross wind / head wind or a lot of boat churn, you don't need to approach the dock under power. I prefer to go in and out of gear intermittently when docking.

7) Related to #6, account for any cross / head wind or boat churn when docking. I typically have a lot of right-to-left cross wind and boat churn at my dock. I dock on the left hand side of my dock, but I actually aim for the right hand side in my approach to allow for the wind and waves.

Hope you have a great boating season!