Page 59 - Discover Winter 2021

- If you have an emergency on the lake call 911. SEATOW:
The sooner the better. We are an all-volunteer fire
In 2020 we have seen a forty five percent increase
company protecting all 550 miles of lake shoreline.
in the number of on-water assistance requests over
Help us reduce response time.
2019 for the same period. Preparations at the dock
- Learn CPR. You knowing CPR on scene buys us and preventative maintenance can go a long way in
all precious time! avoiding problems afloat. Slow down at night and
learn where shallows, points and islands are located
Bedford County Sheriff Department :
before finding them the hard way.
- SML is served by Emergency Services from
SML Sail and Power Squadron:
three counties. When calling 911 while afloat
or along the shoreline of SML try to provide the - The Rules of the Road still apply when you are
most accurate and precise location information as towing (skiing, tubing, wake boarding et al). They
is possible to the dispatcher. The 911 coverage can also still apply when you are trolling for fish.
overlap and you may be talking to one county’s
Virginia Safe Boating Alliance:
dispatcher while physically located in another. Exact
location reporting including closest
- If you intend to make “No
channel marker if possible can
Wake”, look astern. Merely
help dispatchers decrease response
reducing power may in fact have
time for you and get the right help
you “plowing” water, making an
on scene. Stay on the phone with
even more destructive wake.
the dispatcher and give situation
details. Tri-Lake Administrative
Council: Wake damage was
- The sobriety of water craft and
significant in 2020; in part due
vehicle operators is essential to stay
to the high water events, and
safe afloat and ashore. Sobriety of
shoreline soil saturation. Stay
passengers and those being towed
away from shorelines, private
behind powered craft is just as
structures (docks), confined
important in such a dynamic and
areas, and narrowing creeks when
often unforgiving environment
generating a wake. Wake erosion
involving speed, wakes and moving
contaminates the lake, decreasing water quality.
platforms.
Wake courtesy and safety of others should be a
priority for all operators.
Small Craft and Lake Scullers/Paddlers (The Little
People):
SML Boat & Watersports Rental Association:
- Power craft operators please stand clear and give
- Thorough safety instruction and dockside safety
way to all small craft/human powered craft and
familiarization for rental boat operators is a must for
anyone in the water. Subjecting them to your wake
both rental companies and renters to insist upon and
no matter the height can put them in extremis.
expect.
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary:
- “Sober Skippers” is the honored standard for all
on SML.
- Know the “Rules of the Road”; the main channel
is not Interstate-81. Example; if you are cruising
As you see, your SMLWSC is composed of people from
on the main channel and a boat is entering from
many fields of expertise, and represents all interests on
a creek to your right you are the “give way” vessel
SML. Please write “Save” on this issue of Discover
obliged to slow down, come right, pass behind or a
SML, and review it again before inflating those
combination of all three to let the “stand-on” vessel
“Rubber Duckies” in starting your 2021 boating
proceed. There are no “Yield Signs” or entrance
seasons.Wishing you wellness and the peace of the
ramps afloat.
Holiday Season.
www.discoversmithmountainlake.com 57