cstoaks
Cadet
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2010
- Messages
- 11
Ok I will bite. On Easter Sunday I decided to take my "new to me" 1988 Bayliner Capri to one of our local lakes here in the Idaho area. The wind was blowing and the temperature outside was about 45. I had been on vacation for a week and had picked up the boat 8 days before Easter. The weather all week was very poor including rain, snow, and hail. It was supposed reach a high of 51 without wind chill on Sunday. So this is my first boat ever and I have been spending a lot of time reading forums and information on line. One really great piece of advice I had read would have made for a bummer of a day instead of a terrible day. That piece of advice was "start your boat before you take it off the trailer."
So I back my boat into the water and let it float off the trailer like a real pro. I am really impressed with my self. I load all of our gear, my wife, and two kids into the boat, and park the truck and trailer. So confident am I in my new purchase that I push away from the dock, prime the engine, and jump behind the wheel to start the engine. It cranks for a mere 30 seconds and then won't so much as click the starter. Battery is dead. So I grab my paddles and start trying to row back to the dock, did I say the wind was blowing like mad. I am unable to paddle my boat back to the dock and find my self at the mercy of the wind. It quickly blew me to a fairly nearby shore. My wife and I began to tow the boat back to the dock by wading in the freezing cold water. My wife trips over a boulder and plunges into the water and is now soaked head to toe. She climbs back into the boat and strips off her wet clothes and wraps up in all of my coats which are still dry. Now I am pulling this boat through the water wading in about knee deep water. I fall in up to my waist and am now soaked. I have now twisted my left knee so bad I can hardly walk. I continue to pull the boat towards the dock. I figure that it is about half a mile from where we were blown ashore to where the dock was. I finally got the boat back to the dock, trudged up the 200 yard ramp that seemed almost vertical especially with frozen leg muscles, and backed the truck and trailer down to get the boat. I got my wife, kids and all our gear loaded back into the truck some how managed to load the boat on the trailer and towed it back home and put it back in the garage. Powerful lessons were learned on Easter Sunday 2010, I am glad to have learned them. I am now suffering from a very sore body, especially that knee. Plus all my buddies are laughing at me for my stupidity.
So I back my boat into the water and let it float off the trailer like a real pro. I am really impressed with my self. I load all of our gear, my wife, and two kids into the boat, and park the truck and trailer. So confident am I in my new purchase that I push away from the dock, prime the engine, and jump behind the wheel to start the engine. It cranks for a mere 30 seconds and then won't so much as click the starter. Battery is dead. So I grab my paddles and start trying to row back to the dock, did I say the wind was blowing like mad. I am unable to paddle my boat back to the dock and find my self at the mercy of the wind. It quickly blew me to a fairly nearby shore. My wife and I began to tow the boat back to the dock by wading in the freezing cold water. My wife trips over a boulder and plunges into the water and is now soaked head to toe. She climbs back into the boat and strips off her wet clothes and wraps up in all of my coats which are still dry. Now I am pulling this boat through the water wading in about knee deep water. I fall in up to my waist and am now soaked. I have now twisted my left knee so bad I can hardly walk. I continue to pull the boat towards the dock. I figure that it is about half a mile from where we were blown ashore to where the dock was. I finally got the boat back to the dock, trudged up the 200 yard ramp that seemed almost vertical especially with frozen leg muscles, and backed the truck and trailer down to get the boat. I got my wife, kids and all our gear loaded back into the truck some how managed to load the boat on the trailer and towed it back home and put it back in the garage. Powerful lessons were learned on Easter Sunday 2010, I am glad to have learned them. I am now suffering from a very sore body, especially that knee. Plus all my buddies are laughing at me for my stupidity.
