OK well after reading some of the SHT that has gone on around here, I guess I can share one with you guys... it wasn't horrible, but it is kind of funny in retrospect..
I actually have quite a few but this one is probably the most told by the first mate!
After I had run the gambit of my "big" boats, ending up with a 22ft wellcraft eclipse BR, (which we sold), we took a break from boats for a while... just wanting to get back on the water, I bought a little 14' flat bottom jon boat, with a 15hp 4-stroke Honda on it. Ran great, easy to load/unload etc.
Well I had taken it out fishing by myself or with my buddies a ton of times, and never had any problems, but this time the Mrs. (now aka the First mate), decided she wanted to go, and wanted to go some place "secluded"... I told her she wouldn't like the ride in the little flat bottom boat compared to what she was used to, but she insisted we give it a try...
So we launched out of Sunset beach in Tarpon Springs, Fl, and were heading out across the intercoastal waterway out to anclote island, when this humongous deck boat decides heading directly at us, roars past within 10 feet, and tossing a huge wake.. (not giving way to our much smaller vessel)...
The wake came crashing over the front of my little jon boat, and filled it half full of water... at that point it became a mad scramble because I was in a bit of "panic" mode and was freaking out, and thought we were going to sink if we got hit with another wave...
Also the first mate happened to have the dry box open at that exact moment (digging for a snack), and of course the keys, camera, cell phones, and everything else was drenched and floating in water...
The only bilge pump I had in the little tin can was in a cooler that was doubling as a live well, luckily it was empty except for the bilge, so I grabbed the pump, hooked it up to the battery and was starting to pump the water out... while that was going, I was trying to get the stuff out of the now soaking dry box, and put it in the cooler... took out the fire extinguiser, camera, phones, etc, etc...
Well I set it all in the cooler (it was the only thing dry at the moment), and unbeknownst to me, the pin had come out of the fire extinguisher... my wife and I go to trade places so I can keep scrambling to get stuff up off the bottom of the boat, and as I was leaning under the front deck grabbing things, she stepped on the cooler lid to pass by me which then depressed the fire extinguisher handle, and discharged the extinguisher, and shot me straight into my left ear!!!
Keep in mind this all happened in a matter of moments because it was such a mad scramble and panic going on...
At that point I basically just sat down and almost cried because I wasn't sure much, of what else, could go wrong if anything LMAO...
Let me tell you, that powder stuff burns!!! I ended up washing it all out, we got the water out of the boat, dried out the cell phones, camera, and all that, and made it back to port... but that was the last time the Mrs. ever went out on the "little" boat again!
She stilll laughs at me to this day thinking back about how I looked with a face and ear full of fire extinguisher powder! UGH!
Just thought I would share one of those comedic moments, it was such a comedy of errors, I am sure we looked like the 2 stooges out on the water that day!
I actually have quite a few but this one is probably the most told by the first mate!
After I had run the gambit of my "big" boats, ending up with a 22ft wellcraft eclipse BR, (which we sold), we took a break from boats for a while... just wanting to get back on the water, I bought a little 14' flat bottom jon boat, with a 15hp 4-stroke Honda on it. Ran great, easy to load/unload etc.
Well I had taken it out fishing by myself or with my buddies a ton of times, and never had any problems, but this time the Mrs. (now aka the First mate), decided she wanted to go, and wanted to go some place "secluded"... I told her she wouldn't like the ride in the little flat bottom boat compared to what she was used to, but she insisted we give it a try...
So we launched out of Sunset beach in Tarpon Springs, Fl, and were heading out across the intercoastal waterway out to anclote island, when this humongous deck boat decides heading directly at us, roars past within 10 feet, and tossing a huge wake.. (not giving way to our much smaller vessel)...
The wake came crashing over the front of my little jon boat, and filled it half full of water... at that point it became a mad scramble because I was in a bit of "panic" mode and was freaking out, and thought we were going to sink if we got hit with another wave...
Also the first mate happened to have the dry box open at that exact moment (digging for a snack), and of course the keys, camera, cell phones, and everything else was drenched and floating in water...
The only bilge pump I had in the little tin can was in a cooler that was doubling as a live well, luckily it was empty except for the bilge, so I grabbed the pump, hooked it up to the battery and was starting to pump the water out... while that was going, I was trying to get the stuff out of the now soaking dry box, and put it in the cooler... took out the fire extinguiser, camera, phones, etc, etc...
Well I set it all in the cooler (it was the only thing dry at the moment), and unbeknownst to me, the pin had come out of the fire extinguisher... my wife and I go to trade places so I can keep scrambling to get stuff up off the bottom of the boat, and as I was leaning under the front deck grabbing things, she stepped on the cooler lid to pass by me which then depressed the fire extinguisher handle, and discharged the extinguisher, and shot me straight into my left ear!!!
Keep in mind this all happened in a matter of moments because it was such a mad scramble and panic going on...
At that point I basically just sat down and almost cried because I wasn't sure much, of what else, could go wrong if anything LMAO...
Let me tell you, that powder stuff burns!!! I ended up washing it all out, we got the water out of the boat, dried out the cell phones, camera, and all that, and made it back to port... but that was the last time the Mrs. ever went out on the "little" boat again!
She stilll laughs at me to this day thinking back about how I looked with a face and ear full of fire extinguisher powder! UGH!
Just thought I would share one of those comedic moments, it was such a comedy of errors, I am sure we looked like the 2 stooges out on the water that day!
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