Lake Safety

Safety on the water should be a matter of great concern for all of us that navigate our waterways. Sometimes it is helpful to review some of the safety rules and courtesies of the “seas”.

One violation that is seen very often on our lakes is the direction of the traffic flow. The rule of navigation on inland lakes is to travel around the lake in a COUNTER-CLOCKWISE manner, especially close to the shoreline. If we all travel in this direction we will avoid collisions and not have confusion as to who has the right of way.

When boats are passing each other, especially in a narrow channel, the proper manner is port to port (left to left).

Pontoon boats have evolved into quite luxurious craft with many conveniences, one of which is docking lights. As their name implies, DOCKING LIGHTS are for landing at the dock. They are NOT to be used as headlights. White lights on watercraft are to mark the highest part of the craft close to the stern, therefore, it confuses and blinds other boaters seeing the white lights so low and also blocking out the red and green running lights. Please turn the docking lights off while navigating in the open water.

Respectfully submitted by Paul D. McEwen