Informational Warning

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Hooked

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Sorry this is going to be a long post. We had an experience on the Lake the end of June that has kinda left us wondering if we still want to keep going to Lake Powell. We were going out of a narrow canyon in our daughter's ski boat as ours had broken down the 2nd day of the trip and keeping our distance from a large Houseboat coming in, that was keeping mostly in the center of the canyon. We own a houseboat so we understand what it is like to maneuver one. When two wave runners passed, one keeping way right of us and we could not see where the other one had gone. We did have people sitting in the bow of our boat. We cut back left after the houseboat passed when we safely could, and thank goodness not going very fast; but low and behold there is the other wave runner stopped in the middle and we could not avoid him so ended up bumping him. Felt really bad and after both of us accessing that there was a tiny scratch on our boat and no damage to the wave runner and everyone thankfully was okay we both went on our way. Then a few minutes later the other wave runner came frantically chasing after us saying the guy driving the wave runner we bumped into was not the owner of the wave runner. He wanted our personal information which we gladly gave him our name and phone number as we could not find our daughter's insurance info in her boat. Then a couple hours later the state park rangers show up and gave my husband a ticket for "leaving the scene of a accident with damage". A class C misdemeanor. My husband told them he thought it was okay to leave when both parties had decided no one was hurt and we weren't going to worry about a tiny scratch on our boat. Was told it is not okay because what if someone determine later they were indeed hurt. They have yet not filed any claims for any damage. So my husband was thinking he would have to pay a fine and be done with it. NO, it is a mandatory appearance in court in Kanab, Utah and he has to show up early to be fingerprinted. We live in Salt Lake and of course the court time is 9am so will also have to pay for a hotel room. Don't know what is going to happen and really kinda concerned about it. So just warning anyone if you bump into someone on the lake be sure to give them your name, phone number and insurance info the first time whether they want it or not.
 
We were also involved in a jet ski/boat collision, near Bullfrog. Two young adults in our group were on the jetski which collided with a ski boat, both were moving at full speed. Our driver was young and careless; reportedly the boat driver was drunk. The drunk driver called his friend's boat over to tow our jet ski and take our driver to the medical clinic (broken arm). NPS couldn't identify the original boat or driver, so no citations were issued.
 
AND call the NPS as soon as you can get signal and let them know that the bump had happened and the circumstances. They are busy enough that they probably wouldn't have hassled you at all. If you can't contact them right away, do so as soon as possible. One more incident of jet skis in canyons creating a hazard.
 
Times have changed. We once had a houseboat to houseboat head-on in Moki Canyon [70's]. Back then there wasn't even a radio to call anyone if you wanted.
 
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