S
Swamp Puppy
Member
So, I was anchored up on the OR side of the channel about 100 yards or so off of Sand Island with marker 77 almost directly across the river from me.
I was alone in my anchor spot with 1 boat well above me and another down at the lower end of the island. lots of beach goers on the island, but not a lot of traffic on the water.
sometime around noon'ish (i don't check the ol' phone much on the river) , a boat came running at me from the washington side of the river..from seemingly out of nowhere. it didn't look like a fishing boat and my first thought was, "here comes the cops".
This boat kept running, up on plane, coming straight on to my port side. i was keeping an eye on the craft..as most would..and started to get a little nervous as the distance quickly closed and this person was still running straight at me with no apparent intentions of changing direction or slowing down.
it got to point where i had to decide if i was going to take evasive action or not and was just starting to stand up and get moving..when the boat, at the last possible moment, made a sharp turn and passed by me heading up river. The boat then took a direct course towards the boat above me approaching them quartering in from the port side stern. it looked like they got fairly close to that boat as well before correcting and then heading off up river to places unkown.
now, here is the kicker. as the boat turned and passed me, there was a plain as day ODFW emblem on the side. There were two people aboard. 1 male (driver) and what appeared to be a female passenger.
I am actually pretty steamed about it as there was no reason for them to approach in the manner they did or pass by me so close. As i said earlier, boat traffic was light on the river and at that point in time there were no other boats in the vicinity giving this guy LOOOOOTS of room to go wherever he wanted.
I have been checked/pulled over by river LE guys many times..they always approach slowly and usually pull up from below and well off to the side until they ID themselves and let it be known that they intend to pull alongside to check things out. Never have i seen any LE boats approach anyone in the manner that the ODFW boat did to me. in all honesty, a sherriff or state'er would probably have cited a recreation boater if they had seen them operating in the same manner.
additionally, what the heck was ODFW doing a fighter jet fly by on me for anyway? they are not law enforcement and have no jurisiction to do anything other than "observe and report", which we should all do anyway.
i have it in my head to fire off an email to the ODFW office and report this incident. what would you do?
I was alone in my anchor spot with 1 boat well above me and another down at the lower end of the island. lots of beach goers on the island, but not a lot of traffic on the water.
sometime around noon'ish (i don't check the ol' phone much on the river) , a boat came running at me from the washington side of the river..from seemingly out of nowhere. it didn't look like a fishing boat and my first thought was, "here comes the cops".
This boat kept running, up on plane, coming straight on to my port side. i was keeping an eye on the craft..as most would..and started to get a little nervous as the distance quickly closed and this person was still running straight at me with no apparent intentions of changing direction or slowing down.
it got to point where i had to decide if i was going to take evasive action or not and was just starting to stand up and get moving..when the boat, at the last possible moment, made a sharp turn and passed by me heading up river. The boat then took a direct course towards the boat above me approaching them quartering in from the port side stern. it looked like they got fairly close to that boat as well before correcting and then heading off up river to places unkown.
now, here is the kicker. as the boat turned and passed me, there was a plain as day ODFW emblem on the side. There were two people aboard. 1 male (driver) and what appeared to be a female passenger.
I am actually pretty steamed about it as there was no reason for them to approach in the manner they did or pass by me so close. As i said earlier, boat traffic was light on the river and at that point in time there were no other boats in the vicinity giving this guy LOOOOOTS of room to go wherever he wanted.
I have been checked/pulled over by river LE guys many times..they always approach slowly and usually pull up from below and well off to the side until they ID themselves and let it be known that they intend to pull alongside to check things out. Never have i seen any LE boats approach anyone in the manner that the ODFW boat did to me. in all honesty, a sherriff or state'er would probably have cited a recreation boater if they had seen them operating in the same manner.
additionally, what the heck was ODFW doing a fighter jet fly by on me for anyway? they are not law enforcement and have no jurisiction to do anything other than "observe and report", which we should all do anyway.
i have it in my head to fire off an email to the ODFW office and report this incident. what would you do?
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