From: Bill K.
I have been asked by some Association Directors to post this description of the boating incident that happened
Friday 15th August approximately 10:00 pm.
I was on my way to the landing to pick up my son, Paul and his two friends visiting for the weekend. It was dark and there was no moon. As I approached within five hundred metres north of the narrows, a number of boats were coming and going with their navigation lights turned on, making the approach very easy as I could tell which way boats were travelling. In the dark the boats themselves were not visible.
As one boat continued south through the narrows, there was another faint intermittent white light in front of me, which I was intending to follow as it was supposedly going in the same direction towards the narrows. After a minute or so I realized something was not right and I slowed down.
Suddenly there was a boat with no visible light about 10 metres away coming directly at me. There was a stack of material balanced across its front deck and extending about 1.5 metres on either side of the boat, right in line with my face. The faint white light I had seen was maybe a dim hand-held flashlight. I did a full throttle power turn to the left and ducked flat onto my boat seat hoping to avoid the collision – and fortunately did. It was only a short time later when I picked up my son at the landing and he asked me why the stern light stalk was bent at a 45 degree angle, that I realized that I had been only inches away from a broken neck or unconscious in the water. The stern light and probably the top of my motor (scuff marks) had been struck by the extended material.
This “mystery” boat had no navigation lights, and the operator was probably driving blind with the load in front of him (her), and obviously didn’t know or care what my navigation lights meant.
PLEASE, before a tragedy occurs, if you have not done so, install the correct navigation lights and learn how/when to use them and read their meaning on other boats. It IS part of the required safe boating certificate qualifications. Even portable flashlight versions are better than nothing.
THANK YOU to all those other people (except the boat south of the narrows that was running red lights both bow and stern) using and boating according to their navigation lights that night.