Just passing the winter by reading all the stupid human tricks.....and thought I'd share.<br />Last trip of last summer I went mackeral fishing with 2 friends. Just myself in my 12' car-topper, and the 2 others in my friends 14 footer.<br />In order to go well in the little boat with a 4.5 on it, I have a piece of 2x6 that I put between the front and back benches so I can spread my weight and the boat will plane nicely.<br />We played around a bit, and then went to fish at the edge of the channel. I stopped about 30' from them, went to the front of the boat, dropped anchor, and then went back to sit down on my board. Well, in the anchoring process, the board moved a bit...so, when I sat down the board went out from under me and I went backwards into the side of the boat. From there, the rest is history, over backwards into the water, taking the boat over with me. <br />I now know how people can drown in boating accidents exactly like that one, because instinct got me right-side-up and gave a stroke up to the surface. As my face came out of the water, I was opening my mouth for a much needed breath. Instead of air, I got a mouthful of aluminum. I went over the starbord side, and when I broke the surface, I caught the port gunnal right in the teeth as the boat finished rolling over. I can just imagine coming up and getting that gunnal on the temple or the top of the head...the lights would go out, and I'd be a statistic.<br />Anyway, a few seconds after coming to the surface, my buddy was out of his boat and into the water with me. (Warm summer day) After we made sure I was in one peice, we turned to the gear. I went into the air pocket and recovered everything floating in there, then turned to the boat and motor. <br />Between the 2 of us, we got the boat to shallower water and were able to stand up. At that point a few young guys in a bayliner stopped in the channel and asked if everything was ok...."Oh yeah, no problem here....we do this every day..." Got the motor off and into the dry boat, then got mine rolled back over and dumped out. <br />After getting towed to shore, and stripping the outboard down and getting it running in a barrel, I was ready to go home.<br />By the time I got home I had a fat lip and 2 very sore front teeth. I checked them in a mirror and found I had a strip of aluminum on both front teeth from getting the gunnel in the mouth. Brushing and scraping with the business end of a steak knife wouldn't remove the aluminum, and I ended up wearing it for about 2 weeks, until it wore off.<br />I now have a safer seating arrangement in the boat. And, the only things that didn't make it back to shore was a screwdriver and the sunglasses that I was wearing when I went into the drink. Sadly, my FRS radio and cell phone didn't handle the salt water too well.<br /><br />Moral of the story..? If you ever go over in a small aluminum boat.....let the boat finish going over before you come up to meet it.
