Danger Where You're Not Looking

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL
34 42.54 N 081 05.58 W


Safety first should be our motto, and the motto of anyone else associated with boating.  We normally associate that with obvious things like life jackets, passage planning, and signal flares.  Sometimes though, danger comes where it's least expected.


The other night, a long time boating resident of Boot Key Harbor was returning to his boat at night after the Christmas lighted boat parade.   BANG he ran smack into an unlighted day marker piling while in his dighy.  The poor man hit the piling and wound up in the water.  His girlfriend, who is not a boater, grabbed his collar, pulled him aboard and managed to get him to shore.   The man was helicoptered to the Miami trauma center with serious injuries.


It's hard to fault him for being careless. It is easy to visualize a similar accident happening to any of us.  We wish him a speedy recovery.