I was fishing in my kayak close to the docks at Diamond Head Point in New Smyrna. My bait got caught on the edge of the dock and I got close, never touching the dock, and retrieved my bait. I had seen a pontoon boat approaching when they were about 40 yards away and headed in my direction. I saw that they saw me so was not worried and continued to do what I was doing.
When I got my bait loose and started adjusting to get back out into open water i turned my head and the pontoon was literally just 10-15 away and steadily approaching directly at me. He never slowed until he got to his parking spot and as I was hurrying to get out of the way I says man you need to give me some warning. His reply, “you saw me coming and that’s all the warning you get”.
Straight up. That’s what he said. I told him that smaller vessels have the right of way and he replied “little fish need to get out of the big fish’s way”. Total and utter wrong move. I was barely able to grab my paddle and back out of his way with only a few short feet between us.... as in less than 5.
I did get his boat registration number and got some video of him and his wife packing up to get off the boat and go back into their condo so he can be ID'ed.
A few minutes later I called the police, met the officer at the kayak launch and told him what happened and showed him what they looked like from the video. The officer went over to the condo building to see if he could talk to the guy but don't know if he made contact. Tomorrow I'm turning all this in to the Coast Guard which has a station about a mile away.
Also a local fishing Captain told me that FWC has jurisdiction over this type of thing as well and I happen to have a customer who's brother works for FWC so I'm reaching out in that direction too.
This mother fucker needs some serious education on right of way. Any vessel under power must yield to any vessel not under power. It's really that simple. And broadly, any larger vessel must yield to smaller vessels with some exceptions like large ships that can't stop on a dime etc.
Anyway, this old fucker isn't done with me
In the photo the red box is the guy's parking spot, the blue one is me, and the orange is his position and course.
His correct action would have been to slow/stop or go around, which he had plenty of room to do.
pretty entertaining and it reminds me that travelling the ICW is still on my bucket list
