So there I was planning all week to take my boat to the lake to catch the bass that I heard were hitting. I picked up the bait and had everything ready the night before. That way in the morning all I had to do was load up the boat and I would be good to go. Morning came so I loaded up the boat and headed out. About 30 minutes into the trip it suddenly hit me I left the bait at home. That was no big deal I could just buy more at the corner bait shop. 30 minutes later I get to the lake and get the bait then head down to the lake. I undo the straps for the boat, get the plug out of the boat and put it in place, then I go to grab the keys. THE KEYS! I left them at home! There was no way I was driving an hour back home and then an hour back to the lake. All hope was not lost as I had worked on the electrical system enough to know how to hot wire the ignition switch.<br /><br />All was working well until the motor started acting up later in the day. It lost 3/4 of it's power and just didn't want to run right. Through a series of trying troubleshoot and test the motor something else happend. While cranking it over I heard a pop like a backfire and then the engine sounded like it wasn't getting any fuel. I turn around to see the smoke coming from the engine hood. Knowing engines don't smoke like that I quickly ran back to it and pulled the small access panel open to get a better view. Can you guess what happend? The sudden rush of oxygen turned the smoke into flames and fire shot out of the access panel. I quickly grabbed my fire extingisher and pushed the button only to be covered in a white cloud of dust as the wind blew a lot of the chemical back on me. The cloud of dust hung in the air, the water was covered in white dust, my boat was covered in dust, and I was covered in dust. All hope was not lost though as I had my trolling motor. I was only about 2 miles away from the dock going into the wind and had a pretty full battery. I spent the next two hours bobbing through the lake at 1 MPH slowly making my way back to the ramp.<br /><br />My fire extingisher was right there when I needed it and as a result the damage was very minimal. It looks like fuel is what caused the fire. I'm not sure where it came from but the starter or generator must have sparked the fire when I turned it over. I used to think fire extingishers weren't that important to have readily available. I was wrong and will definately be mounting the new one in a just as accessible place.<br /><br />Maybe I should have just stayed home in bed that day. But hey at least the weather was nice.
