One evening my wife and I (very newby) were going to spend
the night on the boat. Due to water in the gas tank we got
a late start (several hours). Since it was then dark, and
the wind was blowing rather hard, (and since I had not
sailed at night, I decided to motor behind a nearby island
where I had been several times. To get there you either
had to go between two islands or around them. After I got
out in the lake I couldn't see to go between them,
(DARK-DARK) so elected to go around them. I rechecked the
chart with my red flashlight, but with the boat bobbing
around I guess I didn't look closely enough. We were
tooling along slowly and suddenly stopped. I shifted the
motor into neutral. Helen said "you hit something" and I
said "WHAT?" Helen said "I don't know but it's white and
says S..H. on it!". I said "S...H..?" She said
"S...H...O...!" Then it dawned on me that it probably
said "SHOal" on it. So, I quickly reversed, found my way
back to the inlet and anchored quietly and spent the
night. We still laugh about it! I now am much more
careful checking the chart when I go somewhere different.
Ted Duke
WWPs19 #626
Ray Boivin wrote:
>
snip
> I promised to tell you about my midadventure with a buoy last Saturday.
snip