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Whenever Jim Farrell or Robert Van Winkle, weathermen on WINK-TV and WBBH-TV respectively, use the term “boating interests” in their forecasts, I wonder, who are these people, these “boating interests.” Can I be one?

I love our modest, 14-year-old deck boat, but I doubt that makes me a legitimate boating interest. My enthusiasm may not compensate for my lack of expertise.

Other people often act as though they sense that. Examples:

-- When I tie up for lunch at the Little Bar in Goodland, I notice that real boaters sometimes sidle over and re-tie my rope — I mean my line — if they think I’m not looking.

-- While cruising Smokehouse Creek on Marco, sometimes when I wave at a passing boat, the other boater looks alarmed and shouts an urgent plea that I keep both hands on the wheel.

-- Unlike the way pelicans often flock around other boats heading toward the dock, presumably anticipating some scraps from the catch of the day, the birds tend to zoom up, up and away at high rates of speed as I approach. I’ve heard that birds can sense danger in ways we humans barely understand.

-- Even in the calmest of waters, I notice that friends who are with us on the boat tend to finger their life jackets every few seconds, unobtrusively making sure they can have the vests on in seconds.

-- A few friends on board sprinkle their nervous conversation every few minutes with some variation of, “So Don, how shallow is the water right now?” They seem to envision spending hours on a sandbar awaiting high tide.

Whether I am a legitimate boating interest or not, I watch the local weather with more interest now than before I owned a boat.

I have figured out that when ABC-7’s forecaster Jim Reif reports a light chop on the water, he doesn’t mean a cut of pork with the fat trimmed.

I now know that when Fox-4’s Tom Johnston predicts scattered showers, it means the rain will scatter over whatever route I take when I take out the boat.

Truth is, I have a lot of questions about boats and boating.

Why do we license boats but not boaters? We license the fisherman, not his tackle, right? And fishing seems less dangerous than driving a boat.

Why do we name our boats? Few folks name their cars, bikes, roller blades or treadmills.

I mentioned earlier that we always wave at passing boats. Nobody told me to do that; it’s just something I learned as a kid, I guess, a custom whose origins are lost in the fog of history.

But why do we do it? Are my ancestors responsible for starting this tedious tradition? I notice that sometimes, people in huge boats or yachts sometimes don’t wave at us deck boaters. Is it a matter of size? Altitude? Attitude? Or do they reserve their waves only for other “boating interests?”

Not waving may be wise in the long run. Our horse and buggy ancestors probably waved at each other as well way back then.

Funny how waving to and from wheeled vehicles often has degenerated into trading digital salutes.

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E-mail Don Farmer at don@donfarmer.com.