I guess you’ve heard about it on the news, a pre-wedding party on a power boat on the Hudson River collided with a barge. The bride to be and the best man were killed, the groom severely injured, a family friend is now being indicted for manslaughter. Alcohol is believed to have played a role in the accident, but the cops always say that.

When you hear “boating accident” you may visualize a yacht battling a gale far at sea, a sailboat breaking up on a rocky coast, or a ship running over a recreatonal water craft in a fog. It usually isn’t all that dramatic. Most people die or get hurt in ideal conditions, clear visibility and clement weather. And it isn’t always about the alcohol, although a cool beer on a hot day seems too often now to be replaced by the latest Millennial rite of passage: the Binge. Woo Hoo! Party, Party. Its easy to forget that there is nothing soft on a boat. Everything is hard, and usually sharp.

And usually, it is a power boat, too. No, I’m not displaying my usual ragman prejudice against stinkpots. But it does take some modicum of seamanship to even rig a sailboat and leave the dock. In a power boat it is so easy, just like driving a car. Turn the key, fire it up, take off. You don’t even need to know how to shift gears. And to be fair, you normally don’t get going fast enough in a sailboat to hurt anything except your ego and your checkbook.

But that’s the point. It is NOT just like driving a car. The water is an alien environment. You are in a clumsy, unstable, usually totally unfamiliar mechanical device operating at the interface of two chaotic and unpredictable natural environments: the atmosphere and the water. And although it seems just like driving a car, it stands to reason that it isn’t. The maneuvers are different, and your sensory input, particularly at night, is totally unfamiliar. It doesn’t take much for even an experienced seaman to become momentarily disoriented at the blaze of lights on shore and on the water, some of them moving, in a crowded harbor.

I understand these folks ran into an anchored barge in the dark. All vessels are required to display lights in certain patterns so you can tell at a glance where they are, which way they are oriented, and whether they are under power, under tow, at anchor, or drifting. I don’t really know if this was a factor in the accident or not, but that’s not the point. Ultimately, the skipper is responsible for the safety of his crew and passengers. Even if the accident is someone elses fault. This vessel was not overwhelmed by a raging sea, they ran into something really big, and stationary, in the dark.If you call yourself a mariner, it is up to you to see it coming.

At any rate. Be careful out there. A beautiful young woman is dead, and the young man who loved her has lost her forever, and two of his closest friends as well. It is so sad. And it happens so often. And most of the time, it is so unnecessary.