At The Helm:

My column this week has to do with a different side of marine and boating safety, so before you go turning the page because you think that you’re invincible and know all there is to know about safety out on the water, I suggest you read this anyway. Who knows, you might just learn something the easy way and not the hard way.
As every boater should already know, there are several required safety items that should be onboard their boat at all times. The first and most important is obviously life vests for everyone onboard. They should be wearing them, but at least they should out and ready in the event of an emergency. If life vests are stored away in a compartment, they will do little good as 99 percent of all boating incidents happen in a split second. When that happens, there’s just no time to retrieve them and put them on.
Next, a throw-cushion or throw-ring is required should someone fall overboard, and if there are two or more folks onboard, the cushion or ring must be out in the open ready for immediate use.
Following that, items like a fully charged marine fire extinguisher, anchor and line, paddles for boats 16 feet and under, a manual bailing device, a whistle or other noise making device and a few other items are required to be onboard and ready for use when things go wrong, and they will.
Oddly enough, while all of those items are required and rightly so, there are several other non-required items that could save your hide, or at least make a bad situation a lot better. Unfortunately, many boaters ignore them. They think that accidents and bad situations only happen to others, or that they don’t want to spend the money, or that they are invincible. For those boaters, it’s most often lessons learned the hard way that finally brings them to their senses.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a guy who we’ll call Raymond spotted a nice pre-owned boat for sale at a local marine dealership. Despite the boat being a 1995 model, it was in extremely good condition, almost like new because of the great care the previous owner had given it. In fact, the boat had a brand new fuel system, including a new fuel tank, and completely new steering and control cables.
As for the outboard motor, it was a 2006 model and the 2006 model trailer was an aluminum one with a stainless steel saltwater package. The price tag was irresistible and after a demonstration ride Raymond bought the boat the following day.
When Raymond came to pick up his rig, the staff once again went over everything with him about the boat and motor, how everything worked, how to clean and maintain it, and they reviewed a safety checklist with him.
For the most part, the boat already had all of the “required” safety gear, but they also recommended that Raymond install and purchase a few other items, such as a second battery with a shore power charging system, a VHF DSC marine radio, a coastal distress signal kit, foul weather gear and a telescoping boat hook. Since Raymond had already spent most of his money buying the boat and keeping just enough to fill the gas tank, he said that he’d have to wait on those items.
A few days later, Raymond and his teenage sons head out from a boat ramp in Port Isabel for a day of fishing and boating. The weather was fairly calm, warm and partly cloudy and the guys were having a great time fishing just south of the Causeway close to South Padre Island almost directly in front of the U.S. Coast Guard station. But the fish weren’t biting so they decided to move and try a different spot. However, when Raymond turned the key to fire up the motor there was only a slight “clicking” sound coming from the motor.
It was now past 3 p.m. and after several more attempts to start the motor with no success, Raymond checked the battery cables to make sure they were tight. They were and now he’s thinking he’ll need a tow or some type of assistance. For some odd reason, there were no other boats in the area or passing by and he didn’t have a distress signal kit or flare gun to signal anyone or the Coast Guard station. He had to resort to using his cell phone to try and summon help. The only phone number he had that might be able to help him out was the dealership’s number.
The dealership, being 35 miles away, couldn’t help him out with a tow and determined that even though the three- to four-year-old battery had enough power for the horn and nav lights, or a marine radio had he had one, it just didn’t have enough juice to turn over the motor, and of course he didn’t have a spare battery onboard either. They suggested that he call Tow Boat US, but the $300 tow charge was out of the question for Raymond.
Now, the wind was picking up out of the south, it was getting cooler and cloudy, so Raymond decided to drift toward the Causeway in hopes of signaling a passing boat. Just as his boat gets close to a piling, he couldn’t reach it and he remembers the telescoping boat hook that the dealership had recommended he have onboard.
Had he had it, he could have easily pulled his boat over to the piling, but now he was drifting toward the last set of pilings on the north side of the Causeway. If he didn’t snag one of those, it could be a very long drift north towards Port Mansfield, some 35 miles away, assuming he didn’t get stranded aground in the shallows somewhere.
Luckily, Raymond did manage to tie off to one of those last pilings, just as the fog started to roll in, and as anyone who has ever been out in the fog knows, it’s always very cold and very wet.
That’s where the foul weather gear would have come in real handy for Raymond and his sons. It was now getting dark and the group was beginning to think they’d be spending a long, cold, wet night out on the bay when a passing boat finally spotted them and towed them in.
Raymond returned to the dealer the following day and sure enough, the old battery would only hold 4 volts under a load and he had it replaced with a new one. When asked if he wanted to get any of the non-required safety gear, he said he was in a hurry to go fishing again and would buy it later. That’s when one of the dealer’s staff looked at another and said, “You know that old saying that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”. Well, he’s been led, and now so have you!
AS ALWAYS, STAY SAFE & HAPPY BOATING!!!