WalrusLike
26-11-2012, 04:11 PM
To the bloke in the small runabout on Sunday at Couran Cove.
Your boat looked well used so its likely you have more experience than me. Therefore if our boats get in each others way it's likely my fault. So I am sorry. Sorta.
I was coming down from the pin to turn in to Couran. He was heading north up the main channel. I had a boat on my tail that I assumed was intending to continue south. There were huge boats heading north that mounded up some big wakes and a bunch of smaller boats all heading north at speed.
There was a gap! If I turn left quickly (hard-a-port for you old salts), I can get in to the cove. Only problem was one small vessel close in to the cove entrance heading north.
The bloke behind me had veered to the left of my wake so I had to go then or pull up and wallow in giant wakes till I could find a gap long enough to standing-start motor through.
I decided to go for it... the little boat would have to veer a bit to port to pass behind me, but not by much, and there was no one beside him to stop him doing so.
Instead he insisted on his right of way. I was NOT going to stop and be a sitting duck for the boats coming north so I surged ahead and passed in front of him.
He was very upset and shaking his fist and indicating I should slow down. Given the near impossibility of a slow entry across that traffic, and the fact that I feared the boat behind me, I didn't see another choice. I wasn't any faster than all the traffic. Initially just barely on the plane at 20 knots.
As it turns out, the bloke behind me turned in too. I wish I had known he would.
In retrospect I think I should have slowed down and/ or passed too far along and done a u-turn then in from south. My bad call.
So I am sorry... but if you had of veered left slightly we would all have been happy. :)
Your boat looked well used so its likely you have more experience than me. Therefore if our boats get in each others way it's likely my fault. So I am sorry. Sorta.
I was coming down from the pin to turn in to Couran. He was heading north up the main channel. I had a boat on my tail that I assumed was intending to continue south. There were huge boats heading north that mounded up some big wakes and a bunch of smaller boats all heading north at speed.
There was a gap! If I turn left quickly (hard-a-port for you old salts), I can get in to the cove. Only problem was one small vessel close in to the cove entrance heading north.
The bloke behind me had veered to the left of my wake so I had to go then or pull up and wallow in giant wakes till I could find a gap long enough to standing-start motor through.
I decided to go for it... the little boat would have to veer a bit to port to pass behind me, but not by much, and there was no one beside him to stop him doing so.
Instead he insisted on his right of way. I was NOT going to stop and be a sitting duck for the boats coming north so I surged ahead and passed in front of him.
He was very upset and shaking his fist and indicating I should slow down. Given the near impossibility of a slow entry across that traffic, and the fact that I feared the boat behind me, I didn't see another choice. I wasn't any faster than all the traffic. Initially just barely on the plane at 20 knots.
As it turns out, the bloke behind me turned in too. I wish I had known he would.
In retrospect I think I should have slowed down and/ or passed too far along and done a u-turn then in from south. My bad call.
So I am sorry... but if you had of veered left slightly we would all have been happy. :)