Most of you have probably heard this story (a couple of times) but I was just thinking about everything that I need to do to get the boat ready. The water level is coming back up and we are finally warming up and it will be here before I know it!
When I first got the boat, I asked a couple of different people to go with me the first time I put it in, just to make sure I did everything right, didn’t know if there was some trick to it or if it was pretty straightforward. I was nervous though and figured that would be best. Things came up though and that just never happened, so when Gene came out to visit, I rounded up Lori and the guy she was dating then, Jim, and the kids and off we went!
We got the boat off the trailer just fine, parked the truck, got everything situated and tried to start the boat. Nothing. When I’d bought it, the guy started it up just fine. We figured out that it was just the shifter, you have to push it a certain way to get it started. Got it going, putted out into the no-wake zone and I just tried to get a feel for the responsive-ness of the wheel. It isn’t like driving a car, where it reacts immediately, there is a delay. I remember saying something to Gene about it, but he didn’t say much.
As we headed out of the no-wake zone, I got a little braver and went a little faster. Little by little, I inched the speed up. Ok…now I can go straight and really fast…and I even conquered the slight curves as we went through the canyons. Well….guess we better figure out how to make bigger turns in this thing! I believe I said “Lets do doughnuts!” as I cut the wheel. First a big circle…that was fine…then a smaller one and a smaller one until suddenly, that boat was standing on edge. The kids were screaming, Lori was yelling, Jim and Gene were yelling to slow down.
I did….the kids started crying, Lori demanded that we pull up to a dock (presumably so she could empty her drawers) and for the next few hours, the kids demanded that someone else drive the boat. Jim started picking on me and I responded with “well, how was I supposed to know? I’d never driven a boat before!”. You coulda heard a pin drop, then Gene started laughing. Jim never did think it was funny, and proceeded to tell me how HE thought I should drive the boat, while Lori took a few hours to get normal skin color back.
We finally got the kids a little more ok with it by having Gene teach THEM how to drive. Even then, which ever one wasn’t driving would only cower on the floor and plead with us to slow down.
Now…let me defend myself here by just saying that I do have SOME experience with boats. I spent plenty of time at the help of the ship I was on in the Navy and I’ve been out ON boats. I understand the aerodynamics of them and the basics of the limits you can push them to. The boat has a deeper hull than most recreational boats do, and you’d be hard pressed to actually tip it over.
The day didn’t end there though…once we finally got everyone breathing normally again, we went to explore new territory and promptly ran out of gas. Oops! The guy I bought it from claimed you could pull a skiier all day on one tank….NOT! I just remember thinking ‘well…sure got ourselves in trouble this time, now what?’ Surprisingly, it only took a minute or so before someone else pulled over and we threw our bow line over and they towed us in to Spring Shores Marina, a few miles from where we put in. The gas pump was closed though, and we’d started taking on water. It took hanging upside down in the water to figure out that the plug had come out, luckily I had a spare (ALWAYS keep a spare plug!).
Gene flagged down a sheriff’s deputy that was putting a patrol boat in the water and had him run them over to the boat launch to get the truck. I realized as they were pulling away that they didn’t have the keys (I’d thought I’d locked them in and would be able to use the keypad to get in). I flagged down the deputy in the boat to see if he could radio them to come back, but…no radio signal. He said to get in and he’d run me up to the other launch to meet them and we took off. I don’t know if he was just showing off but holy crap! The patrol boat is a jet boat and we were going FAST and hitting the wake so hard that it was like metal on metal. I thought I was going to lose some teeth or fall out, one of the two. We made it though, got the truck, headed back over to Spring Shores.
The story doesn’t end there though!
No….we got started loading the boat up on the trailer…had it on, Gene went to pull the truck forward out of the water and I realized that the motor was still down. I waved my arms and yelled for him to stop, he did and immediately the winch rope snapped and the boat slid backwards. All I could do was turn around and put my hands over my ears, because I knew we were going to be losing that huge tank of a boat right onto the concrete. It slide backwards and stopped when the prop caught on the concrete though. Another guy came running over to help and loaned us a tow strap to winch it back up, Gene cranked while the rest of us pushed. We finally got it back on the trailer, but the tow strap was too slick, it wouldn’t stay tight.
We pulled it out of the water and parked in the parking lot, took Lori and Jim back to their car and headed down to town to find a new winch line. Of course…the same stores that had had them days before were now sold out…so we got some rope and headed back up. I’m booking it back up 21 trying to make time before it gets dark and they close the gate to the boat launch….and I get party lights in the rearview mirror. Great…now what? I explained what we were trying to do and Gene schmoozed them with his southern accent and he let us go. Got to the launch, changed out the rope, strapped it down the best we could and headed for home.
Up the driveway, ever so carefully…and jockeyed it into the parking spot. I realized as we parked it that the new rope had snapped during the trip, the only thing holding it on were the straps on the back. If that thing had come off on the steep driveway, it would have taken a crane to put it back on!
We did get the winch line replaced with something much more heavy duty, and there were a few more boating adventures that followed, but nothing nearly as dramatic.
Here’s to hoping we have a smooth boating season this year!
[...] Becca put up a good read today.Here’s a quick excerpt:We got the boat off the trailer just fine, parked the truck, got everything situated and tried to start the boat. Nothing. When I’d bought it, the guy started it up just fine. We figured out that it was just the shifter, … [...]