1st day out Accccccck
 

It's the same every year. I spend countless hours getting my boat ready for
that first trip. Then. . . as the day /hour approaches I beg the water gods
not to let anything untoward happen. Like . . .pls let the motar start,
don't let me forget to put the plug in, make sure the sonars actually work
etc. and last but not least don't let me do anything really dumb at the
ramp.

So Judy and I go off to the lake Sat. just to run the boat around before we
haul it south for the MTC. The ramp is crowded full of guys who've already
been out 2 dozen times. Apprehension builds no matter I've done this
launching thing a zillion times. To complicate matters we're taking our
puppy (Capone) for his first ride. I back the boat down the ramp, Judy
finiishes it as I direct her. The motor starts, the boat won't move. after a
few embarassing moments I realize the transom straps are still connected. No
prob. Just have judy pull the boat out a bit. I'm directing her, but
forgetting to trim up the motor. A lound noise. . . the kind that makes
everyone on the ramp give you that "what an idiot" look. But damage is just
a scrape.

We survive the lake. the dog is good except he doesn't realize yet that
casting a jig an pig doesn't mean to retrieve it like when we play catch in
the back yard. We get home and I take the dog in the house. Come back out
to the garage to finish backing boat into garage when in the course of that
chore I notice Capone has escaped ! I quick exit the SUV run catch him take
him back inside. I step back out into garage to notice boat and SUV heading
down the driveway and directly at a Lexus parked at my neighbors house
across the street. I run faster than I have for many years, jump into the
SUV and slam on the breaks. While my heart rate exceeds the latest stress
test I note the gear shirt not in park. It takes 400 hours for my heart rate
to return to normal.

All in all not a bad first day.

--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

And life is good........................;-)

"Joshuall" wrote in message
...
It's the same every year. I spend countless hours getting my boat ready
for
that first trip. Then. . . as the day /hour approaches I beg the water
gods
not to let anything untoward happen. Like . . .pls let the motar start,
don't let me forget to put the plug in, make sure the sonars actually work
etc. and last but not least don't let me do anything really dumb at the
ramp.

So Judy and I go off to the lake Sat. just to run the boat around before
we
haul it south for the MTC. The ramp is crowded full of guys who've already
been out 2 dozen times. Apprehension builds no matter I've done this
launching thing a zillion times. To complicate matters we're taking our
puppy (Capone) for his first ride. I back the boat down the ramp, Judy
finiishes it as I direct her. The motor starts, the boat won't move. after
a
few embarassing moments I realize the transom straps are still connected.
No
prob. Just have judy pull the boat out a bit. I'm directing her, but
forgetting to trim up the motor. A lound noise. . . the kind that makes
everyone on the ramp give you that "what an idiot" look. But damage is
just
a scrape.

We survive the lake. the dog is good except he doesn't realize yet that
casting a jig an pig doesn't mean to retrieve it like when we play catch
in
the back yard. We get home and I take the dog in the house. Come back out
to the garage to finish backing boat into garage when in the course of
that
chore I notice Capone has escaped ! I quick exit the SUV run catch him
take
him back inside. I step back out into garage to notice boat and SUV
heading
down the driveway and directly at a Lexus parked at my neighbors house
across the street. I run faster than I have for many years, jump into the
SUV and slam on the breaks. While my heart rate exceeds the latest stress
test I note the gear shirt not in park. It takes 400 hours for my heart
rate
to return to normal.

All in all not a bad first day.

--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

What breed of dog is Capone? Good dog name.
"Joshuall" wrote in message
...
It's the same every year. I spend countless hours getting my boat ready
for that first trip. Then. . . as the day /hour approaches I beg the water
gods not to let anything untoward happen. Like . . .pls let the motar
start, don't let me forget to put the plug in, make sure the sonars
actually work etc. and last but not least don't let me do anything really
dumb at the ramp.

So Judy and I go off to the lake Sat. just to run the boat around before
we haul it south for the MTC. The ramp is crowded full of guys who've
already been out 2 dozen times. Apprehension builds no matter I've done
this launching thing a zillion times. To complicate matters we're taking
our puppy (Capone) for his first ride. I back the boat down the ramp, Judy
finiishes it as I direct her. The motor starts, the boat won't move. after
a few embarassing moments I realize the transom straps are still
connected. No prob. Just have judy pull the boat out a bit. I'm directing
her, but forgetting to trim up the motor. A lound noise. . . the kind that
makes everyone on the ramp give you that "what an idiot" look. But damage
is just a scrape.

We survive the lake. the dog is good except he doesn't realize yet that
casting a jig an pig doesn't mean to retrieve it like when we play catch
in the back yard. We get home and I take the dog in the house. Come back
out to the garage to finish backing boat into garage when in the course of
that chore I notice Capone has escaped ! I quick exit the SUV run catch
him take him back inside. I step back out into garage to notice boat and
SUV heading down the driveway and directly at a Lexus parked at my
neighbors house across the street. I run faster than I have for many
years, jump into the SUV and slam on the breaks. While my heart rate
exceeds the latest stress test I note the gear shirt not in park. It takes
400 hours for my heart rate to return to normal.

All in all not a bad first day.

--
God Bless America

Josh The Bad Bear

That's way too many things to deal with in one day. Glad you made it
through. My first time out this last weekend in the boat was much less
eventfull. I put in at a flowage I'd never been to before and just
idled around to look at things. All of a sudden my 9 year old son
yells out, are we going to fish today or not. You would not believe
how that made me feel. Up until then he had shown very little interest
in fishing and I was beginning to wonder if that was something that we
would ever do together. Well I put the trolling motor down immediately
and we fish for the next two hours. Never caught a thing but he didn't
complain once. It was the best day I have had in a long time.
Hopefully there will be many more like it but maybe with a few more
fish.

I hear ya Josh... I hate the first trip out too! Not mine, mind you. But all
the others that sit either on the ramp or at the courtesy dock taking care
of everything that should have been done before leaving the house.

Saturday, when I was headed back home I waited for 20 minutes for this guy
to prepare his pontoon boat. He was parked on the left side of the dock, and
since I was alone, this was the easy side to dock on. Finally I gave up
waiting on him and took the right side after being courteous enough to let
the guys launching use that side so their trailers wouldn't be blocking
everyone else waiting for the ramp. Finally, I was able to get my boat out
of the water, wiped down, locked down, and ready to leave... and this guy
was still playing around with the pontoon boat.

Is there a reason why you can't set up your tables, open your canopies,
organize your seats, and whatever else you need to do while you're waiting
your turn to launch? Never owned or operated a pontoon boat, so I may be
wrong... but it sure sounds logical.


(Ranting ending for the day... hopefully.)

Charles

"Joshuall" wrote in message
...
It's the same every year. I spend countless hours getting my boat ready
for
that first trip. Then. . . as the day /hour approaches I beg the water
gods
not to let anything untoward happen. Like . . .pls let the motar start,
don't let me forget to put the plug in, make sure the sonars actually work
etc. and last but not least don't let me do anything really dumb at the
ramp.

"Charles B. Summers" wrote in message
...
I hear ya Josh... I hate the first trip out too! Not mine, mind you. But
all
the others that sit either on the ramp or at the courtesy dock taking care
of everything that should have been done before leaving the house.

Saturday, when I was headed back home I waited for 20 minutes for this guy
to prepare his pontoon boat. He was parked on the left side of the dock,
and
since I was alone, this was the easy side to dock on. Finally I gave up
waiting on him and took the right side after being courteous enough to let
the guys launching use that side so their trailers wouldn't be blocking
everyone else waiting for the ramp. Finally, I was able to get my boat out
of the water, wiped down, locked down, and ready to leave... and this guy
was still playing around with the pontoon boat.

Is there a reason why you can't set up your tables, open your canopies,
organize your seats, and whatever else you need to do while you're waiting
your turn to launch? Never owned or operated a pontoon boat, so I may be
wrong... but it sure sounds logical.


(Ranting ending for the day... hopefully.)

Charles


You know, both of the ramps around here where I launch regularly have a prep
lane on the approach. You still get guys blocking the ramp for half an
hour. Usually back it an angle to block 2/3s of a 3 or 4 lane ramp.
Amazing. One nice thing about Fisher's is that there are 3 separate ramps
so its pretty hard for somebody to block all seven lanes by themselves. Of
curse if the water is low and you have a bigger bass boat you can only use
the old single lane ramp that all the big pontoons have to use all the time.

Of course I have accidentally put my outside plugs in the livewell drains
instead of the bilge holes once or twice and had to do an emergency pull out
and block a lane of the ramp for a minute. Thank God for automatic bilge
pumps. LOL.

Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com