Re: Boating Horror Stories from Summer 2003!!!!
Ok, here goes:<br />Friday, 7/4, we went to an outdoor picnic at Mom’s. Everything was going well until about 5 pm when a big blow went through—winds of 55+ mph. Needless to say, we got soaked trying to salvage the food, plates, napkins, etc. We hid in the garage until it was over and blue skies arrived, about an hour later. The picnic went on and everyone had a good time, considering.<br />About 7, the wife & I decided that we’d head out to Buckeye Lake for the annual fireworks, which typically start at 10, since the boat was already hooked up.<br />Lots of traffic both at the ramp and on the water, but we launched without incident and motored slowly to the fireworks location. We were early, so we had our pick of spots, and set anchor about 300 yards off-shore. At 9 a small shower hit us, so we put up the bimini top and rode it out. It was gone in 15 minutes, and we thought that would be it (right?) and settled in to watch the show. At 9:55, I noticed a little bit of lightning in the west and mentioned it to my wife. By this time, the lake was shore-to-shore boats and it was dark. My wife said that she didn’t want to risk getting caught on the water in a t-storm, but I tried to calm her fears by telling her that it was probably heat lightning and we’d be ok, but if it looked like the lightning was going vertical, we’d head back. She reluctantly accepted that explanation, and we continued to wait for the main show.<br />The fireworks were absolutely fantastic on the water, and I took about 150 pictures (some of which turned out pretty good!). Just before the grand finale, I looked west once again and saw several shots of vertical lightning. The wife was transfixed by the beauty of the fireworks and was a little startled when I turned on the blower and went to weigh anchor. I pointed to the west. She looked over and immediately hopped in the helm and fired the motor. She pulled us through most of the parked crowd, but the fireworks were soon over and everyone started back to the ramp(s) at the same time. She gladly let me take the helm when we broke in to open water.<br />Suddenly, the wind picked up dramatically, the rain came down in buckets and the lightning was getting close. The 3000 vessel armada we were in was all headed in the same direction, so we continued motoring at no-wake speed. It was pretty frightening watching all the other boats surrounding us, making sure that no one was doing anything stupid (which a couple were, but not close to us) but I never let on just how nervous I was at our situation. The bimini was of no help as the rain was blowing in from the stern, soundly soaking us and everything in the boat.<br />Finally approaching the ramp, my wife again took the helm. The wind was blowing about 30 knots, but she held station pretty well and eventually nosed me into the courtesy dock and retreated to more vacant open-water to wait our turn at the ramp. I sprinted to the rig and got in line, about 8th. Now the lightning was hitting close and often, and I was genuinely concerned for the safety of my beloved. It seemed to take hours before it was my turn to back down the ramp, but it was probably no more than 30 minutes. Even with a heavy crosswind, she managed to bring the boat in, retreating only once to better align up with the trailer. I called to her to never mind how she got it on the trailer, that we’d straighten it up later. Amazingly, she pulled it on perfectly! We pulled out and threw everything that could fly into the back of the rig. . I had the heater on high and a couple of dry towels awaiting her when she climbed in. I apologized profusely and often for her facing such a scary predicament and she did well not to express her anger. We backed the boat into the garage about midnight, leaving it hooked-up until daylight, when I could clean it out and dry it. It took about 6 hours the next day to wet-vac it out, shampoo the carpet, unload all the storage and hand-dry each item. What a trip! It cost me taking her to a nice dinner & a movie, but I think she eventually forgave me.<br />But the lesson we learned was to always ALWAYS check the weather radar before leaving, which we didn’t do this ONE time!<br />By the way, we found our picnic table tent/gazebo upside down and against the privacy fence in the morning. It had to have flipped over our electric service, telephone service and cable tv service wires to get to where it landed, just to illustrate how intense the wind was. It was broken, but I managed to temporary/permanent fix it.<br />An exciting and scary time was had by all!<br />Happy boating!<br />Sign me “what your mind forgets, you’re a$$ makes up for”,<br />Brian<br /><br />PS, didn't think about it until it was all over with, but probably one of the 1st things we should have done was don our PFDs. Will remember them first in the event of.... oh, man, I don't even want to think about it.
<br />In 1985 my girl friend then, and now, except<br />now she is called a wife! Well we spent several<br />weeks re-finishing a 12ft wood boat! Went down to visit my dad where I grew up and I spent over a<br />hour in 100 deg heat trying to get that little<br />johnyrude 9.9 to start! She went up to get the<br />truck and trailer, when she got back found out I<br />had just pushed the darn thing out into the<br />lake..I told her who ever finds it can have it! <br />Well she swam 1/2 mile out to the middle of the lake and pulled the boat from H$ll back. When we<br />got back to dads house he asked me if I had ran<br />the motor dry last year?? DUH! Like his chain<br />saws! I felt really dumb about then.. turned<br />johnrude up-side down.. put on new gas and it<br />fired on third pull!<br />Egg on my face but I don't mine sharing 
