Dangerous Weekend Warrior Boating

[Gerry Zagorski]

Email him this article

http://www.njfishing.com/NJ_Fishing_Safety.php

[stevelikes2fish]

Was out couple weeks ago, off about 10 miles or so on a six pack charter. Anchored up, no one in sight. Low and behold, up comes a local dive boat. So they wanted to get on the piece we were on. I'm like really, the entire ocean, this is the only piece worth diving on. After donuting the spot for like 20 minutes, they cross ever so close to our bow, mind you we are clearly anchored up. Captain starts calling on radio to be careful, your right over our anchor line. No responese. Next thing ya know, they drop anchor right along side of us. Mind you, we are swaying left to right with the breeze and current. I'm saying to myself, this should be interesting. We continue to catch fish, and at one one point captain of boat I was on yells over to warn the captain of the dive boat to inform his divers about our anchor line, which is tightening and slacking up due to the currents. Other captain says it's ok. Suddenly, we look down, and to our amazement, there are bubbles coming up all around the boat! Port side, starboard side, stern and bow. They are litterally swimming directly under the boat. All fishing suddenly stopped(womder why). After witnessing this for like 20 minutes or so, we evr so cautiously pulled up on the anchor and left the area.
My point is, there is a lot of stupid people around today and I think common sense and curtosity(or lack of) contributes more and more to this. Youy see it everyday, all around, on land, inshore, offshore and yes, up in the air.
I am not a diver, however I've always had a great interest in the hobby. One thing I do know for sure. That is if I was on a dive charter, the last thing I would want other than the main dive line I am descending down upon, would be to swin under an anchored fishing boat with six fisherman bouncing 10 oz. sinkers and an anchor rope become taugh and slack. I snapped a few photos of the boat as well as the bubbles from all around the boat. However, out of respect towards the captain whose boat I was aboard as well as not embarrasing the other boat, I'll keep those pics to myself, filed away in the stupid folder and joining a few other wild acts I've encountered in the last several years.
STUPID, don't attempt to fix it, trust me, I've tried.

[tautog]

The Point Pleasant RR Bridge is idiot central. I don't know how many times a kayaker, jetski or skiff has cut in front of a 100 ft steel boat immediately in front of that narrow passage.

[broken bobber]

NJSP can put a permanent station between the gas docks on the Shrewsbury River and write enough tickets to pay for the department budget for the year...

[HDMarc]

Originally Posted by tautog

The Point Pleasant RR Bridge is idiot central. I don't know how many times a kayaker, jetski or skiff has cut in front of a 100 ft steel boat immediately in front of that narrow passage.

It was horrible on Sunday when that bridge opened back up, but when the Paramount returned from their trip, captain blew his horn and steamed right through all of the idiots that were screwing around, was a good sight to see them all scatter to get out of his way.

[tautog]

Glad Frances got through them. There have been some close calls the part few years, especially with yaks.

[skate king]

Originally Posted by Capt. Kevin

I did!!!

Called him out and it was the right thing to do! Maybe he will come away with something positive for future trips!

[Reel Class]

Originally Posted by JBird

Being on the water every day you get to see a lot of crazy stuff that people do, especially on summer weekends. People cutting across your bow by a narrow margin while you're underway when it would be safer to cross your stern, children riding on the bow of the boat with their legs dangling over the water as their father speeds along, giant sport boats throwing a massive wake through a dense fleet of smaller boats drifting for fluke. We saw all of that and more yesterday.
Some of it is ignorance of general rules of the road, some of it is stupidity and some of it is moronic arrogance that crosses the line into downright dangerous boating that could get someone killed.
Well, the boat "CAMMY'S DAD" out of our harbor was all of the above yesterday. The operator of that vessel was as close as you can get to a criminal act of negligent seamanship that I've ever seen. He is very lucky nobody was injured.
As we approached the cut in our harbor "CAMMY'S DAD" overtook us from our stern at high speed at an extremley close distance throwing a dangerous wake as he passed between us and some other small boats. He had difficulty controlling his own boat as he passed in front of our bow. It was absolutely ridiculous in it's stupidity and beyond the pale of bad seamanship. All so he could get in front of us and get back to his slip 10 seconds earlier.

I'm calling this guy out publicly for safety reasons.
Be advised, NJFishing community. When you see the roughly 36 foot express sport boat "CAMMY'S DAD" be on guard. The operator of that vessel is a dangerous boater.

Instead of posting this here, you should notify Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook about what you witnessed and the apparent danger to your fares. Posting this here does little to no good, and I'm sure if you speak to the commanding officer they can locate the vessel and contact the captain and have a little discussion with him/her about safe boating practices.

Our CG guys do that down here REGULARLY and will follow up if a legit concern is voiced to them. This is their job and this is why the USCG and NJ State Police ENFORCE maritime safety rules!!

If not the USCG, contact the State Police - they will also follow up in a similar fashion.

[shrimpman steve]

Originally Posted by Capt. Kevin

I did!!!

I can't blame you in the least!!

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by Reel Class

Instead of posting this here, you should notify Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook about what you witnessed and the apparent danger to your fares. Posting this here does little to no good, and I'm sure if you speak to the commanding officer they can locate the vessel and contact the captain and have a little discussion with him/her about safe boating practices.

Our CG guys do that down here REGULARLY and will follow up if a legit concern is voiced to them. This is their job and this is why the USCG and NJ State Police ENFORCE maritime safety rules!!

If not the USCG, contact the State Police - they will also follow up in a similar fashion.

Your opininion?????