We teamed up with Capt. Casey Brunning of Hurricane Bay Charters in St. Bernard to come up with a list of things that you should never do at a marina. He stopped at 11, depending on how you count.
- Do not back your boat into the water with your lights on.
- Do not yell at the man counting your bait. He is probably counting shrimp, and if you’re not careful you’ll wind up short on small shrimp. Brunning said, “Don’t interrupt the person counting your shrimp, unless you are a gambling man. You may get more, or you may get less.”
- Do not pay your launch fee with a $100 bill. “This ain’t no bank,” Brunning said.
Be considerate
- Know the Fight Club mantra: “You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.” It follows that you:
Do not block the fuel pumps with your boat after you’ve launched;
Do not back your kayaks up to the launch and spend 20 minutes getting everything organized; do that mess in the parking lot;
Do not block the launch to load your boat for 20 minutes; do that at the gas station or in the parking lot;
Do not tie your vessel up to the launch side of the dock, it’s in the way, and shuts down the entire launch process for others;
- Do not straddle the yellow line if you are waiting for the launch on a lined road. Not everyone in the world is launching a boat; some folks are just passing through.
- Do not crank your motor before the boat is in the water. “We get it, you have a 2-stroke, and it’s awesome, but please, put the lower unit in the water,” Brunning said. “There are neighbors trying to sleep.”
- Do not crank your duck boats in the parking lot, and let them run until you are ready to launch.
- Do know your limitations and how to spot the limitations of others. Remember, one of the most reliable marks of manhood is a humble spirit. A man is humble when it’s his time to be the student, and a man is humble when it’s his time to be the teacher. If you are unsure about something, ask someone. Most people enjoy giving someone a hand when asked respectfully for help, and anglers are better than most people.
Do be kind. Do be helpful. Do be vigilant.
