Texting while boating

[staying alive]

Had the family out last Saturday ,went around the backside of Bowen to get out of the wind ,dropped anchor for a couple of hours with 3 grand kids, daughter ,son-in law and my wife ,enjoyed the sun let the kids play with the spin casters it was all good.
Was blasting over to the hump afterwards to do a couple of hours of trolling and fire up the barbecue on the way back to McDonald beach, going along at a good clip and my daughter screams Dad to your left , just glanced over my left shoulder to see a big power boat (orange) coming straight at us thank god I had my hands on the throttle just pulled back as fast as I could and the guy cut across our bow 10' away he had his head down and I would lay money on it he was texting after going by us for 100' he looks up startled and spins his head around . I was in shock at how close that was ,I was doing over 30 and so was he and I had 300 litres of fuel on board it wouldn't of ended well . He was heading back to Bowen marina I,ll bet he was just dropping of somebody at horseshoe bay probably his honey -- then they where texting I love you's back and forth .Almost cost my family our lives .
He was the giveway vessel , I had the right of way , but I doesn't count to be dead right . Pay attention out there . You see it everyday on the road people with there heads down texting I,m sick of it

Happy to still have my family

 

[Rum Buddies]

Sure he was texting, but you didn't see him until he was very close, so maybe you weren't paying close enough attention either?

Gotta spot the idiots before they close, bet that got the heart going!

 

[Travo]

Very true have to keep a close eye all around you at all times .. Living on okanagan lake seen my fair share of close calls mostly alcohol related but have seen pictures of a few horrible accidents .

 

[staying alive]

yeah Poppa I'm pissed at myself I usually notice everything , that's why I'm in charge . But one time not seeing someone in my blindspot and it was almost fatal, never had anything close to that. And yes the heart was pounding. Gave my crew **** also to make me feel better, when you're operating the boat you need help to spot sticks and idiots. Son in-law saw him first but made a weak attempt at letting me know good thing my girl can scream - don't know why I let her marry him.

 

[Gypseas]

Good forum handle BTW

Glad you guys are ok
cheers

 

[profisher]

I often have to tell clients to sit down while in the cabin of the boat. I'll be running out of the harbour in the fog and I guess they want to see where we are going but they create a big blind spot usually to the port which is where traffic coming from the basin will be coming from. Of coarse in the fog other boats which are turned around can come from any direction.

 

[Rockfish]

It used to be that guides would share info on fishing between themselves on the VHF and sometimes even private radio channels but now that seems to have changed to text messages because it is more secure and private. I guess it is not much different than texting in a car. Talking on a radio or phone is safer because you can still maintain a watch while you are doing it but texting requires you look down and give it most of your attention. If you have to do it better at slow speed and still attempt to keep a watch in between keystrokes for other boats, deadheads etc.

It is somewhat the same issue with some navigating in thick fog at high speed with their eyes on the gps/chart plotter but not keeping a good watch. In the fog go slow and watch where you are going, radar is not a substitute.

Apparently there was a bad collision off Sooke last summer where one boat coming out of the sun was a contributing factor.

 

[fishin_magician]

For the original poster, I would have been sounding my horn long before that....and reducing speed/altering course.

Collision Regs, like rules of the road, don't mean SFA when it involves personal safety.

I once had to fire up mainpower in a hurry and speed up to 6 knots with a difficult evasive manoeuvre with 6 rods out on 2 downriggers in a 2.5 knot tide flow to avoid an impending collision with a 40 foot sailboat closing in at 15 knots off Point Grey despite the fact that my speed over ground was 1 knot. The sailboat was from the RVYC and cleared the stern of my vessel striking 4 of the six rods hard. I was freaked out. Had I not taken evasive actions there would have been a highly destructive and/or fatal collision. The sailboat then proceeded to sail past about 200 feet, made a hard turn around the Point Bell Buoy with inches to spare on the buoy then come back within 20 feet of us just as we got things settled down. I caught the name on the boat and we visited the yacht club. Of course, there is no recourse. We didn't have it on video. The actions of the sailboat captain were deliberate with intent and reckless.

Do what is right and avoid collisions at all costs regardless of who is right according to the collision regs.

 

[staying alive]

It wouldn't, of helped at the time I,m just lucky I had my hand on the throttle --it was literally 2-3 seconds from impact---but my next purchase is a bad butt horn for on top of hardtop ,my current horn is wimpy. That way if I see someone coming on a collision course I can wake them up

 

[Hookin'up]

It wouldn't, of helped at the time I,m just lucky I had my hand on the throttle --it was literally 2-3 seconds from impact---but my next purchase is a bad butt horn for on top of hardtop ,my current horn is wimpy. That way if I see someone coming on a collision course I can wake them up

the handheld compressed air horns are great for that, unless you have a large air supply on board I have not seen a decent 12v horn that will carry like the compressed air do