Yesterday I took my family along with three of my daughter's friends to the lake. It is a lake that we goto on those weekends when our local lake just seems a bit boring. It is about a 70 mile drive. Anyway we used a ramp that we had never used before and I have to tell you what I saw. After we had put our boat in the water- less than two minutes thanks to all of these kinds of stories and some good info from iboats- I witnessed the most inconsiderate act of maritime etiquette I have ever seen. I am idling out in the water and then move to the dock waiting on my wife, son and my daughter plus three friends when the ramp opens up on both lanes. It is a narrow two lane ramp, but can easily accomodate two large boats with a little care and consideration by both drivers. The next boat inline is a 24foot pontoon with only one person in the truck, a man of, let's just say, greater than 55 years old. It appears this is going to be a fishing trip. Well the guy centers himself in the ramp, all alone, and backs down with five in line behind waiting to use the ramp. Bad enough admittedly , but wait til you hear this. He has two five plus gallon jugs of gas that he brings out to the rear of the boat, mixes with oil and then fills his tank on the boat, all while on the ramp. Then after ten minutes or more of refueling He has starting difficulty. He pulls the cover and works on his engine for a little bit. At this time my crew starts trickling into the boat after getting bathing suits on and such, my wife last after masterfully parking truck and trailer speeding up my own launch she gets herself ready and arrives at the dock. I pull up to the dock on the side furthest from the ramp. It is a tiny dock located fifty feet from the ramp. The guy backs off of the trailer, and instead of parking opposite of me, he parks sideways across the end of the dock blocking me in with two adults and five kids in my boat. He masterfully maneuvered his boat to the dock as a large wake was coming in, so he obviously was no newcomer to this. He walks back to his truck on the ramp and then parks. He then goes to the restroom which is a pretty good walk. Remember he is alone, so I took the liberty of untying his boat and walking it to the side of the dock so we could leave. I received several comments of what I should do with the boat from the ever lengthening line for the launch, but that would be their task, not mine. Thanks to all of you, I mustered some patience in a very frusterating situation.
