Ok so i just posted this morning at 7:30 in the morning east coast time thinking it would be a normal day out on the water... i have not gone boating in a few months... i think like April. So i was really excited. Got there about 9:30 or 10 a.m. After getting to the site, I loaded all my gear on the boat. Before undocking, i seen the outer layer of my boat seemed low on air pressure. Now i just assumed it was because the water was cold. I own an excursion 5 by the way, but i like posting here because it is the most active thread. So i grabbed my small electric pump and plugged it into the battery and all was good. Figured if i had a hole, i would have seen air bubbles from under the boat and my no-force pump would not have worked. So i went to the deeper "pool" area of the marina i was in which leads to the open waters if you leave the marina area protected by the land. After a bit of sitting around tossing the fishing line out there, seen the pressure in the outer tube drop again. Being that over an hour had passed on the water, surely this was just because of cold temperatures because after an hour passing and still having air in it, that would not be a hole. So pumped it up again while on the water and it was fine. Started towards the outer side of the land/marina to the open water side. Now i was less than a city block from land so no real danger. Minnkota 30 was powering my raft. Now a had the anchor out and playing my music from my phone which was on the floor and my wallet safe in the utility pouch (I think you know where i am going with this). A few boats passed by creating some major waves because i was not far from the entrance to the marina. No biggie. The boat took the waves no problem. Like a minute later i switched up my lure to the trusty raspberry sented worm lure. Tossed the line and seconds after that i see splashing. So i get excited and wheel it in and stand up for a few more tosses. Waters got mildly wavy and (i mean hardly enough to move the boat) it was strange but it was as if my right leg lost support. Not from my physically but as if the boat really shifted to one side. My cooler is my bench seat and it was between my legs while i was standing, becauee i was sitting on it in a horse riding like fashion. So when i was standing and it all shifted, i knew something was wrong because my cooler slide to the right side as well. Because of the position of the cooler, i could not drop low and recover from falling. It was all in slow motion as i heard a voice in my head say "you are about to go into the water".... Splash!!! Quickly start tredding water (life vest on of course), reach for my fishing poll as a reactiong before it gets away from my, toss it on the boat. Pull myself up and onto my boat like hoping a fence and putting one leg up and rolling onto the boat from my side. It was at that moment i felt the edge of the outer tube and it was d*mn near flat when i pressed on it with force. I now knew why the boat wabbled like it did. I quickly scan the area and seen my cooler, hat, seat cushion and one paddle in the water. I was in reach of the paddle so i grabbed it. Everything else was too far. Put the motor on and headed for the cooler first. I thought to myself "i hope my hat does not sink but i need the cooler first". After getting the cooler, i realized the motor mount was half under water and the engine was so low that the head was maybe 5 or 6 inches from the water. I was anxious to get my seat cushion and hat but i had to stay focus and pulled out my pump from the cooler because the boat was hardly moving by motor and i was drifting out further from land. So plug into the battery and started pumping. Outer tube filled up no problem. Now made my way to the hat and the seat cushion. I felt embarrassed because land fishers seen me. Though i was not far from land, i was not close to the docking area.... so finishing off... i made it back. All my stuff was wet. I was so glad my phone and wallet was safe, but my earpiece was in my pocket. My sandles were in the cooler, not wet much and it is much easier to paddle your feet in water without footwear. So i have learned from my experience and want to give some advice, leave important things on the boat. Has anybody else fallen off their boats?
