Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
I’ve seen a lot of irresponsible and stupid things done on the water, but last week I witnessed what I think is perhaps the worst I’ve ever seen. My wife and I drove down to the Ocean City Inlet to watch the parade of boats returning from the last fishing day of the White Marlin Open. From our bench seat we had a great view of the entire inlet and all the way in to the Commercial Harbor. That evening the current was ripping out hard and most of the inlet was covered by a set of 2 to 3-foot standing waves that came all the way in as far as the Oceanic Fishing Pier. The combination of the wakes from the tournament boats and the waves created by the current had our inlet in a state that was about as bad as it gets and certainly gave testimony to the skills of the hundreds of captains who were a part of the long procession-line of vessels returning home that evening.
The incoming boats stretched for miles out to sea and eventually funneled into a single-file line that snaked it’s way through the entrance buoys and the channel that runs along the south side of the inlet. As we watched millions of dollars worth of boats carefully work their way in through challenging conditions I was suddenly shocked to see a line of 10 to 12 personal watercraft begin an attempt to cross the inlet from the Oceanic Fishing Pier over to the north end of Assateague! I could not believe what I was witnessing, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it so I sat there hoping and praying that the crossing could be made safely.
It was nerve wracking to watch as the rental “guides” lead their customers across the inlet. It started out as the typical line of watercraft, but soon after they entered the inlet and got into the troughs of the standing waves, the line became what appeared to be a confused mass of riders doing all they could to stay on top of their little vessels. The guides circled around and signaled the renters to keep moving forward in the direction of Assateague, but it was obvious that the onslaught of waves, wakes and cross currents had the novice jet skiers struggling just to stay upright.
As if crossing the inlet wasn’t challenging enough, the next hurdle the riders needed to overcome was getting through the line of incoming fishing boats. The boats were following the marked channel on the south side of the inlet until they got well inside the inlet and then they would disperse, some going towards the Commercial Harbor, some to the Ocean City Fishing Center and some up the bay to the Rt. 50 Drawbridge. For some reason, the so-called “guides” elected to cross the stream of incoming boats right off the northern tip of Assateague Island where all the boats were still lined up one after the other in the channel.
With the big boats traveling about 30 to 40 yards in front of one another, this meant that the jet skis had to time their crossing carefully as they passed behind one boat and before the next one came along. A single ski or two with a competent rider could have done that with no problem, but these were “renters,” there were a bunch of them and they were limping along in the trough of some very choppy water. In other words – it was a recipe for disaster!
What happened was that one of the guides went through, a couple of the renters followed, but the others didn’t. Instead, they bunched up with some of them stopping altogether. As stopping a wave rider in choppy water makes it all the more unstable, things were looking pretty bad until it appeared that the other guides successfully prompted everyone to keep moving and eventually they all got across to the Assateague side.
While all that was happening, the big sport fishing boat that all the skis were crossing in front of had to stop to keep from running over one, or all, of the skis. This meant that the guy behind him had to stop, and the guy behind him and so forth. At that point, I was watching a bunch of big sport fishing boats doing their best to safely hold position in the narrow channel of a choppy inlet because some bone-headed wave rider rental “guides” didn’t have the sense to take their renters along a safe path to wherever it was they were going!
No doubt that the worst of this incident was that the rental operators risked the safety of their renters and put the big boats in a precarious position. But as a side-bar, I should point out that they broke a navigation rule that states that a vessel crossing a channel will give-way to vessels navigating in that channel. In other words, by the rules - the wave riders were not allowed to cross in front of the incoming tournament boats.
Fortunately, they all got across, no one was hurt and no boats were damaged, end of story - or so I thought. Not 20-minutes later, we watched as a group of (orange) wave riders returned from their little foray in the waters behind Assateague. All of the aforementioned events were repeated except in reverse sequence. First, they encountered the tournament boats, forcing more than one to halt its progress. Then they encountered the middle of the inlet along with the rushing current and standing waves. No sooner had I mentioned to my wife that someone was going to end up in the water than a girl lost-it on her ski and went into the water. With the current now sweeping her right down the middle of the inlet and towards open water the girl struggled to swim back to her ski but couldn’t seem to close the gap to less than 15-feet. One of the “guides” tried to get her on to his ski, but that didn’t work, so he maneuvered her ski closer to her and she managed to climb aboard and get the machine started. By then there was an Natural Resources Police officer on the scene, as well as a couple other small boats that had stopped to help.
Both of those incidents lasted only 10 to 15 minutes, but boy-oh-boy were there ever some tense moments as it all unfolded! I have no idea what was going through the minds of the rental operators when they elected to send their skis and their customers out to cross the inlet at such a dangerous time. Maybe they didn’t know about the tournament and that all the boats would be returning and creating such a hazard. Maybe they didn’t know that the inlet was so rough. Maybe they just had so many customers waving money at them that they elected to throw caution to the wind and let the “guides” do their best to get the skis out and back and keep everyone alive. I’m guessing that it might be a little combination of all of those factors, but it doesn’t matter what the motivation was, it shouldn’t have happened, but it did, and I thank God no one was injured! After the tragedies that occurred in our inshore waters last year, you’d think that everyone in the rental business would be on high alert for safety at all cost, but apparently some folks didn’t get the memo.
It doesn’t matter if someone is renting wave riders, para-sailing or taking people fishing, anyone involved with taking folks out on the water had better have their ducks in a row 100% of the time because the people they might be putting in harms way are totally relying on them to keep them safe. If the weather or sea conditions are marginal the clients aren’t going suggest that the outing should be cancelled or altered in some way to avoid hazardous conditions. They’re always going to rely on the captain, rental person or whoever the so-called “expert” in charge is to make the call that will keep them safe.
A few Saturdays ago we had a day of extremely strong winds and heavy rains. The weather was predicted ahead of time and for once the weatherman got it exactly right. Nobody went out on the ocean that day – or so I thought. The next day I heard of a local charter boat that did indeed go out, and more than just a couple miles! I have no clue what the motivation was that prompted that captain to risk the safety of his clients, his mate and himself that day. It couldn’t have been money because I’m pretty sure the fellow isn’t that destitute. But in today’s sue-happy-money-for-nothing society, anyone who takes people out on the water had better know that if there is even the slightest accident or injury there’s going to be a lawsuit, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a rental boat, a charter boat or a private boat owner taking his best friend out for a simple cruise, if someone gets hurt - someone’s getting sued!
A few years ago, a charter boat had a group out fishing and a member of the party, who had way too much to drink, fell down in the cabin and hurt themselves. It was a normal day offshore with a bit of a chop, but not so much that many (if any) of the boats cancelled their trips. But that didn’t matter. The injured person elected to sue the captain of the boat claiming that he should have known better than to take anyone out on the water under such conditions. If a drunk person can fall down on a moderate day and sue their captain, imagine how it would go for someone if even the slightest incident occurs on a day that keeps most boats at the dock!
Whether it involves running someone out to catch a fish, or leading a group across a choppy inlet, taking people out on the water is an extreme responsibility that cannot be taken lightly, a captain or guide can never be too careful, cautious or concerned for the welfare of those willing to entrust them with their lives.
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
