About a year ago a good friend of mine got married out on Goat Island behind Isle of Palms. My wife and I decided we would make a full day of the festivities and put the boat in at Sol Legare for a nice boat ride up the Stono, across the harbor and up the ditch. We arrived around noon for a 1 o’clock wedding to make sure I could secure a good spot on the floating dock for my boat.
About mid-way through the reception I decided to walk down to the dock and make sure the boat was sitting ok as it was low tide. When I got down to the floating dock I noticed a large motor yacht coming down the water way heading south. I was tied up to a dock that was right in front of the no wake zone buoy for the Isle of Palms Marina and anticipated the yacht slowing down for the buoy. The captain never touched the throttles. He was running about 12-knots and pulling a 3-foot vertical wake. As the wake approached my 23-foot center console sitting in 3-feet of water it literally broke over the transom. 200-gallons of chocolate milk colored water covered my wife’s beach bag and towels, a dress she had brought to change into after the wedding, and several other items. I yelled loud enough for the Captain to hear me inside his fancy air conditioned bridge, but he did not bother to slow down. I was furious and attempted to hail the captain on the VHF to give him a piece of my mind; but he would not respond. I then heard several others calling the same vessel about his wake, but still no response. In hind site I should have called the Coast Guard to report the wreckless operator in hopes that no one else’s property suffered the wrath of his vessels wake.
This week’s article comes to us via Boat U.S. Remember you are responsible for your wake.
Subject: BoatU.S. News: Boat Wakes Make People Angry - And Can Injure
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