After months of sitting unused in my driveway, I finally got my boat on the water this weekend. The lake levels around here are real high and there is only one ramp open, so there was quite a line backed up to launch. I got in the water and backed off the trailer. I was drifting backwards towards another boat, so I put it in gear and went to crank the steering hard right. The wheel would not budge. I tried cranking it back and forth with no luck, so I put it in neutral and leaped to the front so I could drop the trolling motor.
After narrowly avoiding this other boat, I trolled to the dock and tied up to investigate. My friend came back after parking the truck and we both looked at it. Since it was busy and we were camping on prime real estate, I decided to troll over to the bank where I could get out and manually rock the motor back and forth.
Did I mention the lake was high? I jumped out 2 feet from the shore and the water was almost up to my shoulders! I ended up hanging on the motor as the boat drifted beyond where I could even touch the bottom. My friend tried to troll back to the shore while I hung on. Eventually I found the bottom and tried to work whatever was frozen free. No dice. I asked for the anchor and with the butt end of that I banged on the steering tube until it popped free and steered back and forth smoothly. I climbed into the boat, soaking wet with 5lbs of mud on each shoe. I sat on the edge of the boat washing my shoes and feet and realized I was the source of some free entertainment for all the nice people on the dock.
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all weekend. Try the veal.
After narrowly avoiding this other boat, I trolled to the dock and tied up to investigate. My friend came back after parking the truck and we both looked at it. Since it was busy and we were camping on prime real estate, I decided to troll over to the bank where I could get out and manually rock the motor back and forth.
Did I mention the lake was high? I jumped out 2 feet from the shore and the water was almost up to my shoulders! I ended up hanging on the motor as the boat drifted beyond where I could even touch the bottom. My friend tried to troll back to the shore while I hung on. Eventually I found the bottom and tried to work whatever was frozen free. No dice. I asked for the anchor and with the butt end of that I banged on the steering tube until it popped free and steered back and forth smoothly. I climbed into the boat, soaking wet with 5lbs of mud on each shoe. I sat on the edge of the boat washing my shoes and feet and realized I was the source of some free entertainment for all the nice people on the dock.
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all weekend. Try the veal.
