Thursday, May 27, 2010

Let's all be careful out there, ok?

Sorry, have to get serious for a day.

I've just read too many terrible stories this May.

First there was the awful thing in New Mexico where two of my favorite bloggers lost a dear friend, crewmate & sometimes skipper. Particularly awful there in that the gentleman was a habitual life-jacket wearer but for reasons no one will ever know, he'd left it in his bag that day.

Unfortunately, that was just one in a string of sad stories from New Mexico.

And then there was a grim day in San Francisco, and then in my own backyard, police think they have just found a kayaker who went missing earlier this month. I had heard about this before, I think he actually went paddling on the day that TQ and I had cancelled our planned "dam paddle" & gone hiking instead because it was too windy to paddle; by the time we were talking about it at Sebago, the kayak had been found without a kayaker. Thank you Soundbounder for the link).

Don't really have anything wise to say on this, just horrified at how many of these sad stories I've read in this one month, & particularly that one happened to an experienced boater who was a good friend of people I've "met" through boatblogging.

Seems like a good time to pass along a link from Tillerman. Check out boatinsurance.org's post on 48 Blogs that Offer Tips on Boating Safety.

The first section of the sidebar to the right also has a number of my own favorite boating safety info pages.

And as Matthew at Soundbounder said when he passed on the local news - let's all be careful out there.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

2 young women just died this last weekend north of you :(

bonnie said...

And then I didn't even think of the one that Tillerman posted about up in R.I., where a couple of young men "borrowed" a motorboat from the marina where they worked to take some young ladies for a nighttime joyride. Ended when they hit some low rocks called (appropriately) Despair Island. 3 dead, two injured.

It's been a sad sad May.

Tillerman said...

Well said. Update on the fatal Despair Island crash in RI, the driver of the boat was arraigned on several felony charges this week related to the deaths caused in the accident. (It was actually 2 deaths I believe, not 3.) It is alleged that alcohol was involved.

Carol Anne said...

This is an especially timely message as we enter the Memorial Day holiday weekend, when vast hordes of people will be heading out onto the water, without necessarily much in the way of boating safety habits.

In New Mexico and many other parts of the world where Catholicism is the primary religion, a tradition is to place a descanso, or memorial shrine, alongside the road where someone has died. It's a way of honoring the dead, and also of warning others who pass along that highway that here was a place where somebody died, where perhaps caution is advised.

Unfortunately, we can't place descansos out in the middle of the lake.

Strange ... the verification word is wings ... maybe Marty has already earned them.

moonstruck said...

Memorial Day Weekend. Can you remember the last time you said the Pledge Of Allegience?

Dennis G

bonnie said...

Carol Anne, I don't claim to know what happens but I would think that anybody who leaves people feeling the way you & Pat feel about Marty has to get handed a pair of wing the minute they get where they are going.

And hopefully he also gets a boat something like the one Sam Chapin pictured himself as sailing in 15 years.

Honestly, I wasn't even thinking even thinking of Memorial Day, which is of course almost here & is of course a weekend during that I tend to be especially cautious in my waterborne travels, knowing that others may not be & that the littlest boat will always come out the worst in a conflict. I was just shaken by the sheer number of incidents I've heard about this May - spring is always bad this way but it seems like I've heard more sad stories this month than I usually do all spring.

Here's hoping that the bad trend has ended & that everyone has a happy & safe Memorial Day wekkend.