a 40-footer, and perched on its
transom seat, a good 6 feet over
the swim platform, was a wom-
an enjoying the ride. A single
lurch could get her a ticket
to the emergency room or,
from that height, the morgue.
Mosher signaled her to sit in-
side the boat. Clearly, the lady
knew she was in the wrong.
Mosher wasn’t eager to
write citations.
We left the cruiser behind
and noticed a watercraft ap-
proach the pontoon, and weShe didn’t even bother with
a warning.
Then, 200 yards away, a
teen boy throttled up a water-
craft, carving a semidoughnut
turn and doing so right of the
dock. Worse yet, he was in a
narrow fi nger of the cove with
not 20 yards from that dock to
the one on the other side.
Now, I thought, I’d fi nally
witness a citation tendered.
Mosher approached the teen,
a young man, who gripped the
gunwale of the Donzi, hold-
ing himself in place to take his
medicine.
The doughnut-doer’s fam-
ily eased up in a runabout, and
Mosher waved in a friendly
way. She was still all-marine
with the boy and asked for a
picture ID. He was from Wash-
ington, Illinois, and his LOTO
vacation just wasn’t starting
of like he expected.
Mosher checked his life
jacket to see that it was buck-
led snugly, and logged the
warning. The kid lucked out
this time.
“I give 100 warnings to
a ticket,” Mosher said later.
“Tragedies on the lake happen
from things people never see
coming.”
Floating logs, prop
injuries (often while
the boat is turned of ),
and even prop and jet
wash cause problems.
“I’d rather stop
people from getting a
prop injury than mak-
ing a wake,” Mosher
continued. “Our job here isn’t
to make people miserable
but to help them come home
safe, and that takes education.
People are receptive to that
prevention.”
Throughout the day, I saw
she was right. Mosher’s af able
yet fi rm instruction was practi-
cal and reassuring. People re-
sponded to her and, at least for
the moment, changed to safer
operating procedures.
We were at about the
25-mile marker, a descriptionturned our attention to the
surrounding tra c.
It seemed like a good time
to ask what kind of personal
boat she had.
“A 1995 Ski Ray, a Yamaha
1200 and some kayaks,” she
said. They’d sold a pontoon
and a Jet Ski, then indulged
themselves with a wakeboard
tower for the Ski Ray.
For fun, I asked her about
her brand preferences. Her
answer was more professional
than recreational.
“I like the Yamaha Wave-
Runners. They have the jet
spray in the back that goes
straight up when they are
running. That’s golden,” she
said. “It’s like a brake light. It
gives you a visual cue that the
watercraft in front of you is
slowing down.”11:10 A.M.
Lake tra c for this July Satur-
day is still relatively light, but
Mosher has no trouble fi nding
boaters who just don’t know
the rules. Soon another ski-
fl ag waver darted out of a cove
with no skier in tow. Mosher
gave chase, turning
and accelerating
smoothly. By the
time we caught up,
the fl ag was gone.Our pontoon
stop proved
the crew had
proper life
jackets and a
sober skipper
to keep the
crew out of
trouble.
Mosher logs a
warning in a
national data-
base, should
the violator be
stopped again.BOATINGMAG.COM | MAY 2018 | 85