Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 07, 2020

Ever heard the term " dead right ". You may have the right of way but it won’t help you if you’re dead

“Here lies Mike O’day. He died maintaining the right of way. His right was clear, his will was strong, but he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.”

I’m afraud he’s going to drown.

Someone pry that barnacle off the side of our ship!

Oh look. A new form of oaralism.

Rowing to the wake, are we dear sir?!?

I was told that small craft have to make way for the larger ones. It makes sense because a huge ship needs a large distance to change direction.

It’s important who’s right but it matters who’s left.

Superior mass always tells.

“Hey Bos’n, did you just hear a wee thump?”

The problem is all the looneys on shore screaming, “He’s right!” and demanding the ship stop.

What is the point of Las of the Sea, if no-one takes any notice??

I may have the right of way but I choose to live another day.

I kinda remember that smaller powered boats, which can slow rapidly, are required to allow the right of way to sail powered boats which can’t. Then there are moot points like this one. Who’s going to be around to complain. He shoulda picked the free sky-diving option from his vacation package.

In our boating days, we referred to this as the law of gross weight tonnage – if you are bigger than we are, we’re yielding…

Sometimes one just has to get the h*** out of the way because it may be the wisest choice.

ya, good luck with that.

No worries. “Fake” cruise line company.

Right of way is often a matter of survival.

“Boater Fraud” Love it.

Maybe the focus should be on ones self responsibility, not self rights

A human powered boat has the right of way:“When you’re approaching a vessel without motor power, such as a sailboat, they have the right of way.

An important note — a sailboat must be “under sail” to qualify for the right of way over power-driven vessels. If they’re using their small outboard motor instead, they have the same right of way as a normal powerboat.

In recent years we have seen a proliferation of human-powered craft in the form of kayaks and paddle boards. The Navigation Rules refer to human-powered craft as “vessels under oars” and they are singled out only in the lighting rules. Otherwise they are simply “vessels.” We may encounter these vessels in three different navigational situations. We may encounter them in overtaking situations. The vessel being overtaken is the most privileged vessel on the high seas. Give that human-powered craft a wide birth when overtaking, being mindful of your wake as you do. The two other navigational situations in which we may encounter paddlers are head-on and crossing situations."

I think (but do not know) that the comic is about Voter Fraud!

With either the Big boat being the legit vote, and the dingy the amount of Fraud. Or it could be the Big boat is the legit vote, and the dingy is the GOP trying to stop/deflect it!

When rights become entitlements freedom is lost — this could an anti-masker vs SS Covid.

Thats a lot of boater fraud

Do the math! Size matters!

“Might makes right”

my dad always told me to live by the law of gross tonnagelarger vehicle has right of way

I took up sailing on a Sunfish, a little sailboat for one man. I was practicing my sailing up the Intercoastal Waterway near Wilmington, NC. Coming the other was was another sailboat, about a 40 footer cruising on his inboard motor, the pilot reading the paper using autopilot, with not a care in the world. Though I was the smaller vessel and had the right of way, needless to say I didn’t get it. His backwash almost swamped my boat.

 New World Record in Ball Dropping

2020-01-07 • Presidential Daily Brief: “Analysts concluded [coronavirus] could be a cataclysmic event.” • Trump did nothing.

2020-03-11 • WHO declared a global pandemic.

2020-04-15 • Trump suspended US funding of WHO.

2020-12-07 • US coronavirus deaths: 288,928 (47 weeks after PDB; 6147/week)

For comparison …

 79 years ago 1941-12-07 • Pearl Harbor attack: 2,403

2001-09-11 • terrorist attacks: 2,977 (5 weeks after PDB warned Bush about it)

Korean War (33,686) + Vietnam War (58,220) + Afghan War (7,970): 99,876

WW1: 116,516 (83 weeks for US; 1403/week)

WW2: 418,500 (195 weeks for US; 2146/week)

Civil War: ~620,000 (213 weeks; 2911/week)

Spanish flu: ~675,000 (~117 weeks; 5769/week)

Rules of the road: The more maneuverable vessel must give way.

I’ve seen sail boats do that to Navy ships in the San Diego harbor. For the record, a US Navy vessel has the right of way and they know it. Sorry about your dingy dude.

Sadly, the Titanic sank

It’s funny how many people think this comic is about boats.. :D

I was busy looking at the deck chairs to see if there was a secret message that would get Wiley banned from the rest of the newspapers. I did not find one, but I think it is there.

This is why we’re in such trouble

Famous last words. “I had the right of way!”

Life has the only true right of way. Humans have no say so.

The ship has the right of weight.

Where are all the ARMED stormtrumpers threatening the ship’s captain???

“I had the right of way” is a really stupid epitaph.

entitlement – the combination of selfishness and laziness.

This brings to mind that great confrontation between a lighthouse and the U.S. Navy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evWk4-kal18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyCLhvxpQt0

I worked in a factory that had signs posted in certain areas saying pedestrians had the right of way, instead of the forklifts. I have the mindset that forklifts ALWAYS have the right of way. This has kept me alive. Some things are obvious.

Actually, he doesn’t have the right of way. The large ship probably does in this case. Since there’s a rowboat there it implies a channel. "Sailing vessels and vessels less than 65 feet in length cannot block passage of a vessel that must restrict its navigation to a narrow channel.

My Maternal Grandmother had a saying that fits. She was right, dead right, as she drove along. She’s just as dead as if she were wrong.

That’s Captain Trumpty Dumpty!

Another way to see this is there is a massive, destructive item in motion labeled “boater” fraud, and the “regular guy”/loudmouth, who may actually be right in what he says, is just trying to stand up to it. Thought I’d toss that in there and see how much hate will get thrown this way. I mean, Comment #1 was calling a lot of people “looneys”, even saying there were “all these…”. One would think that if there are really that many that think the guy in the little boat is right, perhaps it would be important to determine if “boater fraud” was supposed to even be in that shipping lane to begin with..?

Reminds of the time we, the USS Enterprise, were entering San Francisco bay. The ship was between the Golden Gate and Bay bridges heading to Alameda NAS. An idiot in a sailboat cut across our bow. Needless to say even with a emergency back bell, we munched that sailboat. Was in #1 EOS on throttles watch, was fun wiping the forward throttle closed and then wiping open the reverse throttle open. Boy did that ship shake. After I mustered out in November of 1976, a commercial fishing boat tried a scam on the Navy by doing the same thing in the Bay. After an investigation he didn’t get a dime.

On another subject entirely, memory brings me to this.

On this date in 1940, I had just celebrated my 6th birthday. Not much as birthdays go, but by Dec. 1946 I had learned a lot about the world as it affected the families in my neighborhood. Families were missing members, veterans were neighbors who returned changed in a way I could not comprehend.

Over the years the true import of this date and the events it triggered have been replayed in all kinds of locations and for all kinds of reasons. But one thing has never changed. Whenever the drums and horns sound the alarm, there are men and women who answer the call, and there are families who pray they are still complete when the danger has passed.

Thanks and prayers for the fallen, the injured, the emotionally scarred, the missing in action, and for their families.

Lest we forget.

I believe that, in the air, balloons have right of way. I’m guessing you’re also less likely to catch coronavirus in one of those than you are in an airplane.

Apologies for interjecting the truth here, but the liner has the right of way.

Any ship that has poor steerage, has the right of way.

Actually, no. Under maritime law, the ship has the right-of-way.

Dinghy vs Dingy

As nouns, the difference between dinghy and dingy is that dinghy is a small open boat, propelled by oars or paddles, carried as a tender, lifeboat, or pleasure craft on a ship, while a dingy is a penis – both pronounced with a soft “G”.

As a verb, dinghy is to travel by dinghy.

As an adjective, dingy is drab; shabby; dirty; squalid – and pronounced with a hard “G”.

I suppose one could have a dingy dinghy – but give one with a dingy dingy a wide berth.

Not boater fraud, boater chicken.

Must be some british brexiteer

That ship has sailed. Get over it.

The fight of way is to the the largest not smallest.

Vessel size is always considered in right of way arguments. As one of my clients has said, “No one wins in a collision”.

My former husband took my younger brother kayaking in Puget Sound. As they were paddling across a passage, they saw a Navy vessel cruising down the passage. “ No worries”, the ex says to the brother, “we have the right of way.” And yet, according to brother, the ship did not change course or speed. Thankfully, they both decided at the critical moment it was time to haul ass. Brother suggests the story is much more amusing in the telling than in the experience.

How to catch a troll. First get some troll bait. Puns are especially good.

Gross tonnage rules

That could be the last epitaph for a few people.

The substance of this strip is familiar. I think it’s based on one of the lines in the movie “Captain Ron”, staring Kurt Russel and Martin Short.

I think I used to know that guy.

He’s a Lawyer and is probably planning to Sue.

Insight from Dr. Seuss, “The Zax” [Sneetches and Other Stories, 1961]One day, making tracks In the prairie of Prax,Came a North-Going ZaxAnd a South-Going Zax.And it happened that both of them came to a placeWhere they bumped. There they stood.Foot to foot. Face to face.“Look here, now!” the North-Going Zax said, “I say!You are blocking my path. You are right in my way.I’m a North-Going Zax and I always go north.Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!”“Who’s in whose way?” snapped the South-Going Zax.“I always go south, making south-going tracks.So you’re in MY way! And I ask you to moveAnd let me go south in my south-going groove.”Then the North-Going Zax puffed his chest up with pride.“I never,” he said, “take a step to one side.And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my waysIf I have to keep standing here fifty-nine days!”“And I’ll prove to YOU,” yelled the South-Going Zax,“That I can stand here in the prairie of PraxFor fifty-nine years! For I live by a ruleThat I learned as a boy back in South-Going School.Never budge! That’s my rule. Never budge in the least!Not an inch to the west! Not an inch to the east!I’ll stay here, not budging! I can and I willIf it makes you and me and the whole world stand still!”Well…Of course the world didn’t stand still. The world grew.In a couple of years, the new highway came throughAnd they built it right over those two stubborn ZaxAnd left them there, standing un-budge in their tracks.

This just reminded me of a Red Green bit. Red’s been told he has to retake the driver’s test and Harold is helping him study. Harold asks him who has right of way at a stop sign. Red replies, “The guy with the big truck.” Harold objects and says “check the rule book!” Red replies, “Check the cemetery.” :-P

I remember hearing this story from a friend. A ship traveling at night spots a light directly in their path and radios ahead for the other ship to turn 2 degrees to starboard to avoid impact. over the radio the other person responds that he can’t change course and the other ship must turn 3 degrees to port to avoid impact. the first ship orders the other ship to turn 4 degrees to starboard to avoid impact. The reply is to repeat the fact that they can’t alter coarse and the ship must now turn 5 degrees to port to avoid impact. The captain of the first ship now comes on the radio and tells the other person that he is a US navy cruiser and that they have the right of way and demands that the other ship turns 6 degrees to starboard to avoid impact. The other person replies, “I am a US coast guard lighthouse, I can not change course, turn 7 degrees to port to avoid impact.”