Winger Ed.
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2004
- Messages
- 649
You guys talking about stumps and busted props reminded me of this:<br /><br />I'm much better now, but back when I was younger and did the ocassional stupid human trick--- <br /><br />I'd just gotten out of the service back in Dec. of '80, and one of the buds I'd grown up with had just gotten a realtively (new to him), Sterncraft, open bow/tri-hull, Mercruiser I/O, with a Chevy hot water 6cyl in it.<br /><br />One fine October day, he called and asked if I was ready to go to the lake.<br /><br />He kept his boat at my house anyway, so I looked out, and said, "Sure, I'll hitch my truck up to it so we can go as soon as you get here".<br /><br />(Early Fall in Texas means the weather changes from one extreme to another about every 2 hours.)<br /><br />When he finally got over here, there were fresh Tornado warnings posted. "Still want to go"? he asked...... Bound and determined not to 'whimp out' on his buddy fresh out of the Corps.<br /><br />"Sure" I said. "All that stormy stuff on TV will go around us anyway".<br /><br /><br />And off we went. We put in, and took off for the other end of the lake, about a half a tank away..<br /><br />About 10 miles from the ramp, we ran over a stump. Raising the outdrive, we saw that a couple of the prop's ears were chewed up a little, but one ear was just gone. Yep, No spare, and that ended the outward bound leg of our fishing trip. That's when the wind started picking up real fast. It went from 10 mph or so to "ya better nail down the dog" in about 5 minutes.<br /><br /><br />As we were comeing back across the main body of the lake, at idle speed..... The boat just shaking like a leaf in ahhhhh,,, well,,, near a tornado.. <br /><br />The wind got worse, and the waves got bigger by the minute.....<br /><br /><br />He said "Look over there, about a mile away, see all that splashing? I've never seen that many ducks trying to take off all at once".<br /><br />I squinted a little due to the wind and now the rain, that was getting worse too.<br /><br />"Those aren't ducks bro. That's hail hitting the water". <br /><br /><br />Pretty soon. It was on us. In that open boat with no top,,, after getting hit on the head with a few golf ball size hail stones, we held our life jackets over our heads for the only available protection.<br /><br />Then the waves got big enough that going so slow, every one we hit scooped off about 3 inches of lake and dropped it in over the open bow.<br /><br />Needing to get our speed up a little in order to raise the bow as we headed into the storm, he asked me, "Does that vibration from the prop seemed very bad to you"?<br /><br />I thought about it for 2 or 3 seconds, and said,<br />"I think its a little better than it was a few minutes ago", I said.<br /><br /><br />He started pushing the throttle lever up while he said, "I think its going to get a little worse". <br /><br /><br />About 3-4 miles from our ramp, the wind was howling, the hail was bombing us, the rain cut vision to a few hundred yards, and I thought that Chevy 6 was going to just hop out from under the engine cover and land in our lap.<br /><br />God loves old Marines, and we made it back looking like hammered and wet cats, but safe. And about a week or two later, all the knots on my head and assorted bruises had shrunk back down or gone away too.<br /><br />..<br /><br />I'd finished restoring a old boat that Fall & Winter, but he didn't take his back out until late Spring. <br /><br />For about 10 years, I'd notice the weather turning pretty foul, or whenever we were under a tornado watch, I'd ask him, "Hey, ya want to go to the lake"? and he'd instantly! give me that one fingered 'Bronx Cheer'.<br /><br />I finally got him out again in the Winter about 6 years later, but in my boat this time. <br /><br />We motored for a mile or two under the protection of those tall, verticle, and canyoned cliffs, and then out into the main body of Lake Whitney. <br /><br />Sure, we saw the trees on top of the cliffs were bent flat in the wind, but I convinced him it wasn't a big deal. Out in the lake, he noticed the waves were running about 10-12 feet high down near the dam as we came out into the main body of the lake. <br /><br /> What a hoot. Once out in it, and heading up-wind, the bow would plunge down and scoop up a few inches of lake as it came up onto the next wave. The wind would throw it about 15' up and over the deck, up the cabin windshield, and then over the cabin roof & top windshield of that little 19' Alum. day cruiser before the splash landed about 20 feet behind us. <br /><br />It was great, it made ya want to go join the Coast Guard and go to the Rescue Boat School they have up in Washington where you drive through 40' waves. <br /><br />Gosh it was fun.<br />Being in a wave's trough that day, all we could see was water all around-- totally out of sight of land only a mile or so away until you came back up onto the topside of another one,,,<br /><br />After about a hour, he agreed the fishing probably wasn't going to be very good anyway, and we turned back.<br /><br /><br />Somehow, he never thought those adventures were as much fun as I did. <br />Ed.
<br /><br />Just funnin',<br />Joe