Its rather amazing to think that if you have your life jackets stored in your boat holds, or snapped in place securely on your boat seat, if the boat goes down, so does your life jacket. Try jumping in very cold water this spring that's way over the walleyes head and yours, then try to retrieve your life jacket floating away in that perfect walleye chop. You leave early in the day on a sunny bright Gilligan's island kinda morning. Maybe the fishing was fantastic so you stayed into the night time hours. Perhaps the fishing was tough and it was your only day to be on the water so you stayed later than usual. In any case the darkness, fog, whatever sets in and you can't see north from "I think we go this way". Fog, can be just as thick at noon. One hand held compass would be pretty handy right about then in your tackle box. The newest hottest engine owners in minutes will be going full throttle right out of a big lake public access. Then we read how more than one boat last season got throttled when they hit semi submerged rocky reefs or managed at night to slam full speed into an island. Sometimes the cocktail hour, is better served, dry docked. If you ever want to experience hook removal techniques from your thumb or in the event you need to help someone else, try practicing with a nice big treble hook on a fresh potato. After you get done pour ketchup all over the extraction site to get the full effect. The law may not require certain boats of a specified length to carry certain safety equipment. Throw' able life jackets, or flare guns are two instances that come to mind, and you as a safe boater, may never need them. But you may happen upon someone that could. And firing a flare gun when no one is searching is just shooting blanks. Save those flares, for when you need to get spotted. There may be ten thousand lakes, but you just happen to be lost, on ONE, of them. Not every boater who takes a day upon the water is playing Russian roulette. There are many who go deep into remote lakes, local lakes, or rivers as easily as you or I would walk back and forth to our own mailbox. And amazingly enough, nothing goes wrong. Do your running lights work not only so you can see, but someone else on the water can see you? You may be very capable in your boating, or your canoe. That does not mean the person who has to try and negotiate your boat wake with there first kayak trip ever has your experience level. We get new boaters every year that have hours of experience as opposed to years of experience. We get older boaters who got lazy after awhile. No one is exempt. My self included. The boat motor ran just fine last season. I could've sworn I had an extra shear pin. I have been on this lake my entire lake life and never hit a floating log before. Grab the oars, what oars? We read these stories every boating season and they leave me amazed. The trout whisperer