Boating Accidents

The Chesapeake Bay is crowded in the summer. In places, way too crowded. One of those places is the Magothy River near Gibson & Dobbins Islands - where we live. It's fine thorugh the week, but on weekends, hundreds of boats anchor and party behind the islands. I've crusied through a couple of times, but I usually find somewhere else to go. Sunday night after I came in from fishing the Choptank I got out my electric filet knife and was preparing our dinner on the dock when I noticed a boat with flashing blue lights screaming through the No Wake Zone at the mouth of the river. Soon several other police boats joined them near Dobbins Island, about a mile across the river. I watched for a while with my binoculars but couldn't tell what was going on except that I noticed one boat being towed away and the police boats still circling. I thought it must have been a drowning. Yesterday the newspapers told the story: A man and a woman were thrown from their respective boats last night after the two Sea Rays hit each other on the Magothy River, (click for the full story). There was another accident, this one fatal, up north of us as well, and I've heard of many more this summer. I feel safer motoring around the huge ships in the Inner Harbor than dodging the weekend nuts in the river. -S