Last Friday my wife and I decided to boat on Geist and do a little fishing. We’d gradually made our way to the very westernmost end of the reservoir literally as far from the launch point as possible and quite a distance from the marina. A long story as to why I pulled a boneheaded move, but suffice to say I ran the boat out of gas.
I started to use the trolling motor to try and make my way to the marina but it was going to take a LONG time to get there even if the trolling motor battery did hold out. After making a little slow but steady progress I noticed what appeared to be an “officially” marked boat and flagged it down. It turned out to be an Indiana Conservation Officer. I explained my problem and asked if he could give me a tow to the marina so I could gas up. His reply was pretty much “That would take about half an hour to tow you there and if I got an emergency call I would be delayed going to it. Because you have a trolling motor you don’t have an emergency” and he put his boat in gear and drove off.
At the time I was embarrassed and mad at myself about doing something so stupid I didn’t think to ask the C.O. any questions. Afterwards, I had time to reflect a little about what had just happened and concluded the C.O. could have:
1. Given me a tow. If he received a call, he could have cut me loose and been on his way, or
2. Offered to give me the phone number for the local marina to enable me to call to see if they could provide “waterside” assistance.
Later, I decided I wished I would have asked the C.O. for his name and badge number if only to know who he was. Luckily, a kind hearted boater came by shortly after the C.O. left and towed me to the marina.
I’m wondering if I’m out of line in feeling like the C.O. should have been more of a “public servant” or it is SOP for a C.O. to decline to offer assistance to boaters in this type of circumstance ?
I started to use the trolling motor to try and make my way to the marina but it was going to take a LONG time to get there even if the trolling motor battery did hold out. After making a little slow but steady progress I noticed what appeared to be an “officially” marked boat and flagged it down. It turned out to be an Indiana Conservation Officer. I explained my problem and asked if he could give me a tow to the marina so I could gas up. His reply was pretty much “That would take about half an hour to tow you there and if I got an emergency call I would be delayed going to it. Because you have a trolling motor you don’t have an emergency” and he put his boat in gear and drove off.
At the time I was embarrassed and mad at myself about doing something so stupid I didn’t think to ask the C.O. any questions. Afterwards, I had time to reflect a little about what had just happened and concluded the C.O. could have:
1. Given me a tow. If he received a call, he could have cut me loose and been on his way, or
2. Offered to give me the phone number for the local marina to enable me to call to see if they could provide “waterside” assistance.
Later, I decided I wished I would have asked the C.O. for his name and badge number if only to know who he was. Luckily, a kind hearted boater came by shortly after the C.O. left and towed me to the marina.
I’m wondering if I’m out of line in feeling like the C.O. should have been more of a “public servant” or it is SOP for a C.O. to decline to offer assistance to boaters in this type of circumstance ?