Deer Isle 20140724

Our first day in the area. We saw guillemots, goats, a bald eagle schooners. lobster fisherman, and a beautiful New England fishing town.

We encountered several dozen of the lobster fishing boats over the three days of kayaking. At first they can seem rather unpredictable as they charge around, engines pounding, from buoy to buoy, often only 100' between them. But after three days of encounters I have come to be believe that they are the best kind of powerboat to kayak amongst. 1) they are predictable in that if a fisherman is amongst the traps which are arrayed in bunches covering about 0.1 square miles then they are highly focused on avoiding getting fouled in the traps (or anything else that might be less than 200' or less in front of them. I conclude that they would never hit you. 2) If a lobster fisherman is in the channels that separate the buoys then they are charging straight ahead still paying attention to where they are going. They cannot afford to get fouled in the buoys on either side. 3) Good rule to follow is to always take their stern. They are working to feed their families and deserve to keep going with a right of way, and taking their stern is safer in that you are looking right at their boat-wake and can manage your path safely over it. Compare that to pleasure power boaters they are concentrated on 1) the beer in their hand, 2) the scantily clad female next to them, 3) the fishing line behind them, 4) the water skier behind them, and Nothing in front of them. The anecdotal newspaper accounts bear it out. The crew of an ocean going ship would never know they hit you.