Hi 78 Lo 69
Sunny and warm!
Lat/Lon 24 42.8 N, 81 5.4 W
Yesterday was our 1 year anniversary! It was 1 year ago that Sid and I met each other face to face. I flew to Seattle and he met me at the airport. 1 whole year and we haven’t killed each other yet! I think that’s a pretty good sign, don’t you?We are in Marathon, on Vaca Key. Yesterday, we took the dinghy down to the end of Boot Key Harbor so that we could do some grocery shopping. On the way back from the store, we got pulled over by the Dinghy Police. I shit you not. And we almost went to prison for multiple dinghy violations!
We were cruising along through the harbor with the dinghy full of food, when we look behind us and there’s this big flat, kinda tug looking, boat with an official looking seal on the side of the pilot house. The driver and a uniformed officer were both waving at us. So we smiled and waved back. Then they hollered at us, so we slowed down and they motioned to us to come over to them.“We saw you just fly through that prohibited area back there!” Officer Attitude yelled at us. It was hard to hear over the dinghy motor, so I said, “I’m sorry,… what did we do?” He repeated it. “You just flew through that shallow area and you were just churning up mud the whole way!” (That was total crap, but we weren’t going to argue.)
Sid drove us over to the boat and I grabbed a rail. Officer Attitude looked down on us in the dinghy. Standing with his feet far apart, and his hands on his belt, he said dryly, ”Lets see the safety equipment for this vessel. You got life jackets in there? I don’t see any. How about your registration? Have you got that in the vessel?”
“Not with us. It’s back at our boat.” Sid told him.
Officer Attitude wandered to the other side of the deck, spoke to someone on the radio on his shoulder. He came back quickly and informed us that our dinghy was not even registered. He said he called in the VIN number and it came back registered to someone else. The problem was, he couldn’t see the VIN number from where he was. It’s very tiny on the transom, UNDER the motor. Sid told him the dinghy WAS registered to us, but that we were in error in not having the new sticker on it.
He pointed a finger at Sid and squinted his eyes, and said, “This vessel is not registered to you. You’ve been in the state of Florida more than 60 days and you haven’t registered it! You know more than you are letting on here.”
Sid and I looked at each other… Is this guy for real???
The he announced, “I’m Officer Guererro, and I’m not usually on a Poop Boat. I’m usually out there.” And he pointed out toward town, I guess. (Hmmm, I’m starting to pick up on something here…)
He continued with, “ I don’t appreciate you coming here and tearing through the protected sea grass. You could have killed a manatee.”
(I’m sorry, but after seeing one, I’m pretty sure that hitting a manatee with a little dinghy would have killed US. And we weren’t ‘tearing’ any where, these harbors are ‘no wake’ zones.)
Then he says, “You committed several serious offenses here today.” And he crossed his arms at the wrist in the motion of hand cuffs! “You don’t have the proper safety equipment on board, you are supposed to have the stickers on the side, and the paper registration on board at all times. But I’m gonna let you off with a stern warning this time. You’d better get this stuff taken care of TODAY!”
Officer Guerero allowed us to leave and return to our boat with our groceries.
Ok, now I’m a huge supporter of Law Enforcement. I have a lot of respect for those guys, but it was sooo obvious that this guy had a nasty attitude and wanted someone to take it out on. Yes, we should have had life jackets. But the damn dingy IS registered, and we just needed to put the stickers on it. (Which we have done by now.) And where in a dinghy are you supposed to keep a piece of paper! It’s always wet inside the dinghy, and the wind blows stuff around. Geez!
A POOP BOAT? LOL! No wonder he was so bent outta shape!
“I’m not usually on a Poop Boat – I’m usually a real cop. But since I got caught with the Chief’s wife, I got busted down to dinghy patrol.”
5 comments:
Well bummer you got stopped but good that you didn't get any tickets! Take those life jackets with you from now on, best to have them at all times!
O M G !!!! That is histerical!! I think he was the one that pulled us over on a deserted road. Rocking back and forth on his heels, hands on his expanded belt loops. We made the mistake of saying we were JUST going the flow of traffic. "Well out here there is no flow of traffic, just what FLOW are you referring to??? Are you on something Boy???" yikes... Thanks for the laugh....hee
Sarah: How appropriate that the officer's name "guerrero" means "warrior" in Spanish. He's taking that a bit too seriously. Glad you got off with a good story and not a huge hassle.
Jay: Incidentally, that is neither the first nor the worst I've heard. In fact, I was stopped in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, in 1985 by the CG as I dinghied from a boat at anchor to shore, a distance of some 200 yards. I got a ticket for no flares, no whistle and no extinguisher in a 7 foot inflatable with a 6 h.p. motor! I wrote to the commandant of the local CG station and told him of the situation, and that I had (at that time) more than 25,000 miles of sailing experience and had never heard of anyone being stopped like that. I never heard another thing and the ticket quietly disappeared, but it showed me that every form of law enforcement has their "Officer Guerrero" types.
Hope your trip is all and more than you expected. BTW, where do you plan to be between Feb. 20 and mid March? We are hoping to be in Florida then and would love to come see you and Quest.
Gee, Lala, where WILL you be on Feb. 20th ? Celebrating? We can't even send you a Happy Birthday card. But I will email you and be thinking of you---hoping that you're having a beautiful day.
So you met a "lawman" who takes himself way too seriously. Who loves to scare the pants off ordinary citizens. Funny how those kind make rash statements "your vin doesn't match" (can't even see it) "you were going too fast" etc. I had an officer who claimed he had followed me for miles ! with his lights on. NOOOOO, I had just pulled away from a stop light. The worst, you can't argue, or they do get nastier. Glad you were only warned.
Oh , yes, congrats on the year and both surviving.
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