The sun is out - and that means so are the boats. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Marine Patrol cruises the rivers and lakes of Clackamas County 365 days a year.

But summer is the patrol's busiest time of year, as more and more people venture out onto the water to enjoy the sunshine.

The deputies of the patrol consider safety the most important part of their job. It's something they spend a lot of their time on, whether they're inspecting boats, making rescues or visiting schools to talk about water safety.

Rescues are frequent. The patrol has performed more than 30 rescues so far this year, and did 52 in 1999 - an average of one per week.

But that's not all they do.

The deputies must also enforce fish and game regulations, settle arguments, look for intoxicated boaters, watch for expired licenses and solve crimes.

The last duty, solving crimes, is something they do particularly well.

This year, CCSO Deputy Doug Olsen was named Investigator of the Year by the International Association of Marine Investigators.

In 1999, he recovered $66,000 worth of stolen property, including two boats, three personal watercraft and 13 outboard motors.

Police who spend their time in squad cars develop an "eagle eye" - a sense of what to look for. It's much the same out on the water.

But some things are a bit different.

"In a car, you can tell the bad cars. The driver of that dilapidated car might be wanted on a warrant. You can read the cars," Olson said. "Out here, you can't do that. You might see a beat-up fishing boat and some prominent attorney might be driving it."

As a result, the deputies cruise with binoculars and watch the boats more carefully than they do cars. They look for current registrations. They look for life jackets. They look to see what people are doing on the boats. And when they see something they don't like, they stop and conduct a safety inspection.

"If I want to stop a car, I need probable cause," Olsen said. "Out here, we can stop the boats and direct them to a safe harbor and do a safety check."

Safety checks include looking at the engine exhaust, testing the horn and looking for life jackets - one for each person on the boat. Adults aren't required to actually wear them on the water, but kids 12 and under are.

We observed the Marine Patrol in action on the Willamette River near Wilsonville one Friday afternoon.

Boaters were out taking full advantage of the sunny weather.

It wasn't long before Dep. Doug Olsen spotted a boat going the other way with an improper license tab display. The letters weren't spaced correctly.

He turned the Boston Whaler around and caught the other boat.

Trainee Andy Schmidt soon tied the boats together with a rope.

Olsen explained the display requirements to the boat owner, Mike O'Rourke of Rivergrove, and offered to perform a safety check.

Good news. The boat was in working order. The O'Rourkes had enough life jackets for everyone. And O'Rourke's young grandson, Brett, was wearing his snug-fitting jacket as required.

Olsen turned to the boy. "Hey there, big guy. How you doing?"

He handed Brett a gift certificate for a soft serve cone from Dairy Queen. "We use this as a reward for kids to make sure they wear their life jackets," he said.

Olson sent the O'Rourkes on their way with a wave - and he and his crew start looking again.

Olson soon found another boat - this one without current license tags. He pulled up and asked for registration information.

"Everything's current if you were to call on this number," replied the driver, a blond woman in a spotted bikini. "I didn't get my stickers on today. It's my fault entirely."

Olson called in and found that everything was current.

Olson pulled the boat over to a nearby dock to get it out of traffic and did a safety check. He found life jackets for everyone. The youngest passenger, a 12-year-old boy, was wearing his as required.

Olson looked closely at the jacket and found a problem. It was not a Coast Guard-approved model.

The woman's jaw dropped a touch. She said she just bought the life jacket that day, specifically for that trip, because she knew the boy had to have it.

"Am I getting a ticket today?" she asked.

"I will be issuing a citation for the personal flotation device for the child," Olson said.

But he thought about it more and decided to let this one go.

"Thank you, sir," the woman said. "It's our first time out on the water."

Olson handed the woman a piece of paper - the results of her safety check.

It had check marks - one for the expired tags, one for the improper life jacket and one for not having a fire extinguisher on board the boat.

"Each of these checks represents a $175 citation you could have had," Olson told her.

Later, Olson explained why he let the woman off without a fine. "Part of what we do is educational," he said. "If I can get the message across with a warning, we will. If I think it takes a citation, we'll write it."

Olson's leniency has limits, though. If he sees a small child without a life jacket, he won't let that go. Small children should always be wearing a life jacket because they can't react fast enough to put them on in a crisis situation, he said.

Olson wants to deal with situations through prevention. And who can blame him? The patrol has a lot of ground - or in this case, water - to cover.

They are responsible for the Willamette River starting from the Sellwood Bridge south past Oregon City and Willamette Falls, all the way to Butteville, west of Wilsonville.

They must also patrol the Clackamas River, the Molalla River, and portions of the Tualatin and Pudding rivers.

And then there are lakes high and low - Timothy Lake, North Fork Reservoir, Rosylyn Lake, Trillium Lake and Harriet Lake, for starters.

The many bodies of water - and boaters enjoying them - means long hours in the summer.

"In the summertime, we pretty much will run 10-hour days," Olson said. "We're out late. We don't get weekends off."

Of course, winters are worse. There's not much to protect deputies from the cold out on the water, where they are exposed to freezing winds.

"A lot of people ask how you get a great job like this," Olson said. "My standard response is, come on out here in February."

Every once in a while, Marine Patrol deputies are called on to settle conflicts. Anglers will complain that someone else has cut them off or is fishing their spot in a river or lake. And there are also conflicts between larger boats and personal watercraft, also called jet skis.

"The personal watercraft would like to jump the waves, and the best way to do that is to get close to a boat," he said. "We've had a lot of accidents, a lot of close calls."

Most boat owners don't like to be buzzed by the jet skis. It makes them nervous because they can't tell which way the personal craft are going. "If everyone had more courtesy to the other boater, we wouldn't have the conflicts," Olson said.

There are also problems associated with alcohol. For some people, it's a long-standing tradition to have an open beer on their open boat.

"It is not illegal to have an open container and be driving a boat, where in a car, you can't have that open container," Olson said. "But we are looking. If we stop them, we'll be looking for signs of intoxication."

What happens if deputies think a boater has been drinking too much? How can they tell for sure? It's difficult to make someone walk a straight line in a swaying boat, Olson said. But there are ways to tell if someone is drunk.

Deputies can look for slurring of speech, odor, and other signs of intoxication. They can also give eye-tracking tests, and even take people to shore for balance tests if necessary.

Olson finds it's a constant battle to teach people that boating under the influence is wrong. "Historically, alcohol and boating have gone together," he said. "It's taken a long time to get people's views changed. People know it's not OK to drink and drive. That's slowly starting to get translated over to boating."

The Marine Patrol does arrest people if necessary. It will take them to a waiting patrol car on the shore, and the car will take them to jail. If the arrested person was the one in charge of the boat, the police will dock the boat or turn it over to a responsible friend.

Boating under the influence is a misdemeanor. The fourth offense is considered a felony, and driving under the influence convictions count toward that total.

Intoxicated boaters cannot lose their driver's license, and there is no such thing as a boater's license for the time being. However, they can lose the privilege of driving a boat for up to three years.

By the year 2010, all power boat operators will be required to carry a Boater Education Card. The requirement will be phased in starting in 2002. The Oregon State Marine Board has more complete information at their web site, www.boatoregon.com.

Land-based cops are sometimes drawn into car chases when someone refuses to pull over. Has that happened to Olson?

"I've only had one boat try and elude me," he said. "It was a personal watercraft (on the Willamette River). I chased him all the way down to Ross Island."

The man went to jail on an attempt to elude charge, but the charge was later dropped.

"We did not prove by a reasonable doubt he knew we were behind him and we were chasing him," Olson said.

The excuse is unlikely to work now. The patrol has added sirens, public address systems and overhead lights to their boats, just like a patrol car has.

Olson spotted a third boat - this one a small paddleboat. He pulled up to it as it docked at a Butteville Road residence.

The boat had two teenage girls and a younger boy. None had life jackets, so Olson cited one of the girls into Juvenile Court. She was the oldest one, so she was deemed the responsible party.

As he explained the citation, a chunk of watermelon struck the sheriff's boat. It came from a dock about 50 feet over, where several older teenage boys were having a good time.

The patrol went over for a chat with the boys. One immediately fesses up to having thrown the fruit, though he claims he threw it straight up and not laterally. The wind must have caught it, he said.

Olson didn't buy it.

"You're lucky you're not going to jail for harassment," he told the boy. "It's unwanted physical touching and you will go to jail.

"If you've got a problem, flag us down. If you throw stuff, we will take you to jail."

Olson started up the boat and pulled away from the dock.

"We could have easily taken them to jail," Olson said. "He got the message, I think." And if not? "If they're going to be like that, we'll talk to them again," he said.