In Reply to: Kelp Boating Hazards posted by Jesse on January 14, 2007 at 03:55:44:

One problem with kelp is that it has a tendency to collect all mannor of flotsome--rope, trees, you name it.

As Chuck said, go slow at night! i don't care how much experience you have--i have over 20,000 miles of travel at night, but i do not think for one second that it is completely safe..one of my rules is that i don't travel at night after the first major rain storm of the year, and i wait a few weeks after the last storm so the debris has time to clear the waters.

I have seen areas of solid flotsom that were literally MILES long, FULL of all mannor of garbage from sofas to refrigerators, to whole sailboats that are 2" below the surface...i have seen whole trees big enough to build a treehouse on!

The bottom line is, you are NEVER completely safe running at night unless you are going slow enough that a full impact would not damage your hull/prop, PARTICULARILLY this time of year!

Good luck~