About a month ago I was going into devil cove. A boat was headed out. I cut to the right, he cuts to the right, I cut to left, he cut to left, I go back right and he goes to the right. By now my wife is screaming in my ear. I cut a sharp right and he then passes me to the left. Why is the normal reaction not to go right when you are in a head course?

DCB = Dave's Custom Boats http://www.dcbracing.com/

Man, it amazes me that the simple "rules of the road" are so often overlooked. If you treat the waterway just like any roadway and always stay to the right, many of these potential head-ons could be avoided. But, you did do the right thing, change course to starboard, even though you were about as far to the right as you could get.

This particular corner is a little strange - you need to avoid the shallow water (which is really shallow) so you find yourself drifting into the middle of a 90 degree turn that you otherwise would be hugging the right side of for "rules of the road", and on the other side of the turn there is a wide navigation area where boats are all headed for the turn you are exiting only your enterance is from a narrow area and traffic on the other side is, once again, very wide.

All of this can be overcome by slowing down

GR

Agreed BP. There are these unique areas in many waterways and, you're correct, reducing speed will solve many of the problems associated with them. I just see plenty of people in our local area that have no idea to stay to the right. Dangerous deal when you are coming around a turn and find someone coming dead at you. Scary stuff.

When I see someone coming my direction and can't figure out what the H*#ll they're doing I'll exagerate my turn to starboard showing them my port side. Hopefully they get the picture as to my intended course and pass without incident.

I think you did as well as any of us would, but I would also add that if it was me I would have waved my arm/s to get his attention and then I would make my intent clear as to where I was going and see if I could get him to show me his intent by pointing or something. Now if he was drinking, forget about waving your arms, it probably wouldn't have helped.

70 MPH is way to fast for that corner. People do it all the time but are asking for it. Its sharp, narrow, shallow, and one of the most dangerous (probably most dangerous) corners on the river. My 2 cents.

He was from Europe?

It's funny no one mentioned using your horn. According to California Boating Law, either boat should signal their intention to go starboard with one short blast, with the other doing the same as confirmation.
Michael