Captain's Corner

Ahoy, mateys! This be a fair and true listing of a few words and a little trivia as to the origin  having to do with ships and sailing.  These terms come mainly from the great age of sailing ships, the 16th to 18th centuries, and almost all hail from  great seafaring peoples of the day, those being English, Norse, Dutch and German.        Bow                            "forward part of a ship," beginning where the sides trend inward, mid-14 century, from a source such as Old Norse  bogr , Middle Low German  boog , Middle Dutch  boech  "bow of a ship," from Proto-Germanic  *bugon- , from PIE root  *bheug-  "to bend," with derivatives referring to bent, pliable, or curved objects. Stern                            ...

  With increased traffic on the waterways, those at the helm need to maintain a proper lookout. Leave smartphones alone, and know when to tune out conversations on board.  As captain you are responsible for the safety and well fare of not only  all on board, but other boaters as well. 2020 Lake of the Ozarks had 97 incidences 84 of these were boating accidents where drinking, inattention, no lookout contributed to accidents. The Coast Guard describes operator inattention as “failure on the part of the operator to pay attention to the vessel, its occupants or the environment in which the vessel is operating.” Although it’s difficult to determine how many boating accidents actually happen as a result of boat operators or lookouts texting or otherwise using electronic devices such as cellphones, laptops and tablets, there’s little doubt that such activities are a big part of the problem. Rapid growth in the use of wireless devices wreaks havoc for operators of all types...