Being an air force officer, I learned long ago that the best thing to do when you mess up, is to 'fess up, learn from your screw up, tell others about it, and hope they learn from it to. This is a bit of a story, but hell...not like I've got anything better to do. So...there I was...
Many years ago, I was the proud owner of a beat-to-hell 14ft aluminum boat with a 9.9 on the back. I spared no expense, going so far as to mount a single swivel seat on the wooden benches and voila, I had a perfectly good little fishing boat that was the envy of all my peers. Anyway, we had a "sports day" organized at work and a bunch of us decided that we'd go fishing for pickerel as our "sport" for the day. Ever heard the saying that all accidents can all be attributed to a chain of events lining up...or the stars in the cosmos aligning to totally ruin your day? Well....
Mistake # 1 - I was running late that morning and didn't bother to check the weather before heading out. It was overcast with some dark clouds, but I wasn't too worried about it. I'd fished in the rain plenty of times. I'm not made of sugar so I wasn't worried in the least.
Mistake # 2 - I didn't tell anyone where I was launching from or where I was headed on the lake. Cold Lake in Alberta is a very deep, very large lake and it's easy to get lost if you don't know the water at all (which I didn't).
Mistake # 3 - When I got to the pre-arranged meet point, everyone had already left. I was late and my fishing partner had elected to go with someone else. I proceeded to the launch area, put the boat in the water and took off on a large body of water I didn't know well and I was all by myself without anyone knowing where I was or when I was supposed to arrive.
Mistake # 4 - Plunking my rather large butt (at the time) in the rear of my little boat, I started away from the launch area with the bow high in the air. I wasn't overly worried...I knew from experience that as the boat came up on plane, the nose would eventually drop and I could see where I was going. Besides that, I was late and wanted to get to where the rest of the guys were headed to join the party. I had ALL of my fishing equipment, no expense spared, nosiree..nothing but the best for me. Yep..I had everything I needed for fishing and nothing at all for safety while on the water!! No life jacket, no bailing bucket, no whistle, no oars, no nothing, but hey...what's to worry about? I was an experienced fisherman and had been out dozens of times. I didn't need no stinking life jacket...besides...I'm a very strong swimmer.
Mistake # 5 - Inattention to my surroundings. As I was peeling across the lake to where I figured the river mouth was (and thus my buddies were waiting), I was concentrating on trying to spy a landmark that indicated the river mouth. I never once thought about scanning around me. Very suddenly, I realized that I couldn't keep the boat on plane, even with the mighty 9.9 wide open. The bow stayed high in the air and I couldn't see where I was going. The ride became VERY rough so I let off the throttle to slow the boat and to let the bow drop enough for me to see. I was immediately swamped from behind by a two foot wave that came right over the transom and soaked me but good. I looked over my shoulder and was shocked to see nothing but white caps curling towards me. I scanned the sky and saw some very big, very black clouds over the lake and it was starting to rain...starting to rain HARD! I was taken totally by surprise and thought, wow...what am I gonna do now? I figured that the smartest thing to do would be to turn around and head back to where I started from before I really got myself into trouble (I wasn't smart enough to realize that I was already in serious trouble!)
When I tried to swing the boat around, between the bow staying high in the air, the high gusts of wind and the steadily building waves, I wasn't able to get the boat completely turned. Every time I tried, The boat would yaw like crazy in the troughs and I knew that if I kept it up, I would wind up capsizing. I was a long way from either shoreline. It was raining so hard I could barely make out the shore as it was. My only remaining choice was to tack into the wind on a 45 degree angle and make for the shoreline off to my left. It was a bit of a feat, but I managed to get close to the shore after about half an hour of absolute terror, fighting the wind every step of the way. However, my ordeal wasn't over yet. I was in about four feet of water less than 10 feet off the shore, but my launch area and my car were at the opposite end of the lake. There was no way I was going back into deep water and try to make it directly across the lake. I followed the shoreline all the way around the lake, never able to give the motor more than about 25% throttle, otherwise, it was like being thrown around in a washing machine. I was headed directly into the wind and cresting and bouncing off of wave tops the entire way. At one point, my much adored fisherman's cap went flying off my head, but I didn't have the courage or the skill to turn the boat back to go get it. When I was about two thirds of the way to my destination, I FINALLY thought about seeing how much gas I had left. When I bent down to lift the gas can, I was horrified to find that it was damn near empty. Why oh why hadn't I thought to fill the gas can BEFORE I left? Oh yeah..because I was in a hurry and besides, what could happen?
By the time I finally got back to my launch point after following the shoreline around for about an hour and a half, it was raining to beat hell. The drops actually hurt! I was fortunate that I had parked my Explorer close to the launch area because I recognized the car long before I recognized the launch area itself. I beached the boat soaked thru to the butt, recovered the boat and was in the process of putting the tie down straps on when it suddenly stopped raining. There was even a little bit of sun shining thru the clouds. For one fleeting second, I actually considered trying to make it to the guys again, but fortunately, having the living daylights scared out of me once was enough for the day.
You can guarantee that the very first thing I did when I got back to town was to stop at Canadian Tire and purchase a suitable life jacket and safety equipment that I should have had in the boat in the first place. Sure I can swim...but I can't swim in very deep, very cold water in a storm going against the wind and waves. I was very, VERY fortunate that I didn't become a statistic that day, leaving behind a young wife and two very young sons. As the cliche goes, I'm sure the telegram they would have received would have gone something like, "we regret to inform you that your husband died from being STUPID".
In a nutshell, I learned that "they" don't make rules about safe boating and required equipment just to be a pain in someone's ***. Safety equipment is there for a reason....that reason being to save your life!! Apologies to all for the "book", but hopefully someone will see this and say, wow....I'm going to make damn sure I have the proper safety equipment so that that never happens to me!
Rob
By the way...my friends never missed me. They had assumed I slept in and decided not to make the trip.
Many years ago, I was the proud owner of a beat-to-hell 14ft aluminum boat with a 9.9 on the back. I spared no expense, going so far as to mount a single swivel seat on the wooden benches and voila, I had a perfectly good little fishing boat that was the envy of all my peers. Anyway, we had a "sports day" organized at work and a bunch of us decided that we'd go fishing for pickerel as our "sport" for the day. Ever heard the saying that all accidents can all be attributed to a chain of events lining up...or the stars in the cosmos aligning to totally ruin your day? Well....
Mistake # 1 - I was running late that morning and didn't bother to check the weather before heading out. It was overcast with some dark clouds, but I wasn't too worried about it. I'd fished in the rain plenty of times. I'm not made of sugar so I wasn't worried in the least.
Mistake # 2 - I didn't tell anyone where I was launching from or where I was headed on the lake. Cold Lake in Alberta is a very deep, very large lake and it's easy to get lost if you don't know the water at all (which I didn't).
Mistake # 3 - When I got to the pre-arranged meet point, everyone had already left. I was late and my fishing partner had elected to go with someone else. I proceeded to the launch area, put the boat in the water and took off on a large body of water I didn't know well and I was all by myself without anyone knowing where I was or when I was supposed to arrive.
Mistake # 4 - Plunking my rather large butt (at the time) in the rear of my little boat, I started away from the launch area with the bow high in the air. I wasn't overly worried...I knew from experience that as the boat came up on plane, the nose would eventually drop and I could see where I was going. Besides that, I was late and wanted to get to where the rest of the guys were headed to join the party. I had ALL of my fishing equipment, no expense spared, nosiree..nothing but the best for me. Yep..I had everything I needed for fishing and nothing at all for safety while on the water!! No life jacket, no bailing bucket, no whistle, no oars, no nothing, but hey...what's to worry about? I was an experienced fisherman and had been out dozens of times. I didn't need no stinking life jacket...besides...I'm a very strong swimmer.
Mistake # 5 - Inattention to my surroundings. As I was peeling across the lake to where I figured the river mouth was (and thus my buddies were waiting), I was concentrating on trying to spy a landmark that indicated the river mouth. I never once thought about scanning around me. Very suddenly, I realized that I couldn't keep the boat on plane, even with the mighty 9.9 wide open. The bow stayed high in the air and I couldn't see where I was going. The ride became VERY rough so I let off the throttle to slow the boat and to let the bow drop enough for me to see. I was immediately swamped from behind by a two foot wave that came right over the transom and soaked me but good. I looked over my shoulder and was shocked to see nothing but white caps curling towards me. I scanned the sky and saw some very big, very black clouds over the lake and it was starting to rain...starting to rain HARD! I was taken totally by surprise and thought, wow...what am I gonna do now? I figured that the smartest thing to do would be to turn around and head back to where I started from before I really got myself into trouble (I wasn't smart enough to realize that I was already in serious trouble!)
When I tried to swing the boat around, between the bow staying high in the air, the high gusts of wind and the steadily building waves, I wasn't able to get the boat completely turned. Every time I tried, The boat would yaw like crazy in the troughs and I knew that if I kept it up, I would wind up capsizing. I was a long way from either shoreline. It was raining so hard I could barely make out the shore as it was. My only remaining choice was to tack into the wind on a 45 degree angle and make for the shoreline off to my left. It was a bit of a feat, but I managed to get close to the shore after about half an hour of absolute terror, fighting the wind every step of the way. However, my ordeal wasn't over yet. I was in about four feet of water less than 10 feet off the shore, but my launch area and my car were at the opposite end of the lake. There was no way I was going back into deep water and try to make it directly across the lake. I followed the shoreline all the way around the lake, never able to give the motor more than about 25% throttle, otherwise, it was like being thrown around in a washing machine. I was headed directly into the wind and cresting and bouncing off of wave tops the entire way. At one point, my much adored fisherman's cap went flying off my head, but I didn't have the courage or the skill to turn the boat back to go get it. When I was about two thirds of the way to my destination, I FINALLY thought about seeing how much gas I had left. When I bent down to lift the gas can, I was horrified to find that it was damn near empty. Why oh why hadn't I thought to fill the gas can BEFORE I left? Oh yeah..because I was in a hurry and besides, what could happen?
By the time I finally got back to my launch point after following the shoreline around for about an hour and a half, it was raining to beat hell. The drops actually hurt! I was fortunate that I had parked my Explorer close to the launch area because I recognized the car long before I recognized the launch area itself. I beached the boat soaked thru to the butt, recovered the boat and was in the process of putting the tie down straps on when it suddenly stopped raining. There was even a little bit of sun shining thru the clouds. For one fleeting second, I actually considered trying to make it to the guys again, but fortunately, having the living daylights scared out of me once was enough for the day.
You can guarantee that the very first thing I did when I got back to town was to stop at Canadian Tire and purchase a suitable life jacket and safety equipment that I should have had in the boat in the first place. Sure I can swim...but I can't swim in very deep, very cold water in a storm going against the wind and waves. I was very, VERY fortunate that I didn't become a statistic that day, leaving behind a young wife and two very young sons. As the cliche goes, I'm sure the telegram they would have received would have gone something like, "we regret to inform you that your husband died from being STUPID".
In a nutshell, I learned that "they" don't make rules about safe boating and required equipment just to be a pain in someone's ***. Safety equipment is there for a reason....that reason being to save your life!! Apologies to all for the "book", but hopefully someone will see this and say, wow....I'm going to make damn sure I have the proper safety equipment so that that never happens to me!
Rob
By the way...my friends never missed me. They had assumed I slept in and decided not to make the trip.
Glad you made it back without any problems!
