GREAT SACANDAGA LAKE — Fulton County sheriff’s deputy Bill Inglis slowly scanned Sacandaga Lake on Sunday afternoon as he cruised the water in a 1996 Boston Whaler.

Inglis was aboard the 19-foot boat for his shift on Sunday, searching for outdated boat registrations, water safety violations and monitoring overall activity on the lake.

“There’s a rule,” Inglis said. “Once you get on the boat in the morning, you don’t get off until you’re ready to go home, so you have to bring whatever you need on with you.”

Fulton County sheriff's Deputy Bill Inglis patrols the Great Sacandaga Lake on Sunday.
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Inglis usually works weekends, either 9 a.m to 5 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for boat patrol.

He said he stopped six boats on Sunday for random safety checks. He checks for various safety features such as an anchor and line, distress flag and flares, flotation devices and noise-level compliance.

He said several of the boats stopped Sunday had minor violations, but he let the operators off with a warning. Operators found in violation can be given citations to appear in court and face fines that average between $25 and $50.

Boaters can also be charged with boating while intoxicated if they have blood alcohol content of over .08 percent.

Deputies on boat patrol conduct a field sobriety test and then bring an operator to shore if they think the operator is over the legal limit.

A patrol car meets the deputy and suspect on shore and a chemical test is conducted.

A total of six of the county’s 40 deputies are trained to operate the department’s three boats and two jet skis. One of the boats and two of the jet skis are able to be transported to Caroga Lake, which deputies also patrol.

Deputies monitor the Sacandaga Lake by boat between about May and October on all weekend days and also do spot checks during the week, according to Inglis.

When he’s not on the lake, Inglis drives a patrol car for the department.

The boats that patrol Sacandaga are docked at Miller’s Grandview Marina off Lakeside Drive in Mayfield.

“They’ve kept their boats here for as long as we’ve had the marina,” said Bruce Miller, whose family has owned the marina for the last 15 years. “They do a fine job.”

The lake is also patrolled by the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department, state police and officers with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Inglis said he stays within the Fulton County part of the lake unless the other departments need assistance, similar to how police coordinate road patrols.

“We all get along very well together. We help each other out,” Inglis said. “If they need help, we’re there for them.”

By Sunday afternoon, traffic on the lake near the Grandview Marina was light. The busiest times are Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons, according to Inglis.

He said traffic has also been down in recent years because of the cost of fuel. On Sunday, several boats were anchored in the middle of the lake and boaters waved to Inglis as he passed.

The boat Inglis was in on Sunday gets about 2 miles per gallon, and Inglis said he uses about 75 gallons of gas a day. He estimated that he covers about 2,000 miles every season on the boat.

“In the past five years, it has dropped off quite a bit,” he said. “With the price of fuel, this is what you see a lot of. They find a place and anchor out and sit there all day.”

Inglis, 59 has been patrolling the Sacandaga for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department for the last seven years. Before that, he patrolled the Hudson River in Duchess County for 17 years.

He lives in Mayfield, within a few miles of the marina where the boats are docked.

“I’m very close to the boats, so they can get hold of me and in five minutes I can be out in the water,” he said.

In one incident he remembers, he helped rescue a swimmer whose boat had blown too far away for her to swim back to it.

A passing fisherman caught up with the woman and she held on to the side of the boat’s hull until police arrived shortly afterwards.

“That’s police work,” Inglis said. “You have days and days of absolutely nothing and then you’ll have a day that you can’t even keep up with it.”