I went for a camping trip Friday and Saturday up at Baker Lake. The way that I like to camp is to load up my boat with all the camping equipment and whatever friends are coming and head across the lake to set up camp. This minimizes the chance that my alcoholic friends will keep neighboring campsites awake, and minimizes contact with law enforcement which may be looking for little technicalities to write citations for.
Anyhow, as I was putting the boat in, I saw a younger guy in his early 20's in a pretty nice Boston Whaler with his girlfriend/wife, staring at the outboard, a nice 60hp Merc. I asked him if he was having problems and he said "Nope, we're fine". So I continue to load the gear, and about a half hour later when I'm getting ready to start the boat and head out, I ask him again if everything is okay. He looks at the outboard, looks at me, and goes "I don't know how to start it". We're talking a $10,000 boat and $4,000 outboard here. I asked him if he was borrowing or renting it, he says that he bought it last year.
So I go over and look at the boat. There are no oars inside, no PFD's, nothing. I'm thinking this guy is really really stupid or just plain crazy. I ask him if he has the manual, he pulls it out of the compartment and I went through it and explained to him how to choke the motor before starting, the importance of having oars in the boat in case of a breakdown (they're the spare tires for a boat) and the legality of not having PFD's in the boat if Fish and Wildlife or the Whatcom County Sheriff stops him.
At that point, my friends came back and we hopped into my boat and headed across the lake, while they were setting up camp I was watching the Boston Whaler people through my binocs, they sat in that boat doing nothing for 2 hours, then retrailered it and left.
When I asked the guy what he did for work, no kidding, he said that he was pursuing an engineering degree at the University of Washington.
