Hate to go from all the floral frivolity & hot movie buzz to dead-freakin'-serious without so much as a trip report to ease people back into the Frogma-as-boating-blog concept like this, but cripes, it's that time of year again - the stories of totally avoidable Spring boating tragedies are starting to turn up all over the internet. Time for the annual Spring safety squawk. I'm late this year, in fact, but better late than never.
The weather has been beautiful, but folks, please take the time to educate yourself about cold-water boating safety before you pull the boat out of winter storage. Air temperatures may be in the 60's and even 70's, but here in NYC, our water temperatures are still hovering around 50, which is cold enough to do a great deal of damage in a fairly short amount of time should you have the misfortune to end up in there without being prepared.
The nice folks at USCG Auxiliary Norwalk just posted a link to a new Coast Guard press release on the subject today; also, I still have my Off-Season/Cold Water Boating Safety Sites link list right at the top of the sidebar (see it? just over to the right, by my Facebook link?) and it won't sink back down to the bottom of the list for at least another month or so.
Great time of year to be on the water, I plan to get out there myself this weekend, looks like nice weather, highs around 60. I'll be wearing my drysuit anyways. Cooling off is easy, it's warming up that's hard.
3 comments:
Excellent reminder. I'm looking into having a big solar water heater installed to warm Lake Hinuma. :)
Great plan! Let me know how it works out, maybe I can do that with Jamaica Bay, too.
Oh, although then the seals would never visit. Maybe I won't. I like seals.
So much to do eh, mate!
Post a Comment