Thursday August 9th, 2012:
I took a couple of hours of PTO and headed out to the boat. It was blowing about 13kts out of the North. I had yet to sail Papillon on my own and I had a few chores to do on the boat. I had lunch and got to organizing some things and puttering around in the cabin. I came up to the cockpit and looked out over the bow, towards the exit/entrance of the bay to the rest of the lake. I see a pontoon boat coming pretty much right at me. Luckily they turned more in to the bay away form me but they were still about 30 feet or so from me, so it was close. I looked down for some reason in to the cabin and I hear the sound of metal bashing in to metal.
I look over to Port and I see the No Wake buoy disappear beneath the previously mentioned pontoon. The lady at the helm slams the boat in reverse and it ain't going anywhere. She hit it perfectly, dead center. Now this is a rental pontoon which had some nice older ladies on it. As I tell folks, I think Gladys and the book/wine club went out for a day on the lake. Now a No Wake buoy is not small. They are about 3 feet tall and pretty damn dig around too. No idea how the hell no one saw it. Maybe that explains how the were heading directly for me and then saw me thankfully in enough time to change course, directly over the buoy.
 |
| Sitting on the buoy, its under them..... |
So after a couple of minutes I shout over and ask if they are OK. They reply yes and that the boat rental place was on the way to tow them off. About 30 minutes later a power/ski boat shows with a couple of 20 something on it and they throw a line and tie on. The spin the pontoon and the wine club passengers around and the buoy underneath. The gun it and drag the buoy and the boat damn near me and finally the buoy tumbles out from under the pontoon. The guys (boys) on the power boat laugh about how far they dragged the buoy and I am kinda speechless as I am realizing when the wind changes to the south my boat will swing around and bash upon the newly moved buoy.
 |
| Its a little close now.... |
As the title says, the things you see......
Thanks for linking me, Dan. I'll return the favour.
ReplyDeleteSeeing stuff like that, particularly on a lake, is not unusual. I've seen some incredibly dopey things on the water that, if you saw them on a road, would have you poking out 9-1-1.
An O'Day 25 should be pretty well-mannered if reefed down to the high 20s. If you are trailered and can launch into November, wear lots of layers and give it a shot.
All the best, Marc
Thanks for linking me, Dan. I'll return the favour.
ReplyDeleteSeeing stuff like that, particularly on a lake, is not unusual. I've seen
some incredibly dopey things on the water that, if you saw them on a road,
would have you poking out 9-1-1.
An O'Day 25 should be pretty well-mannered if reefed down to the high 20s.
If you are trailered and can launch into November, wear lots of layers and
give it a shot.
All the best, Marc
Having lunch next to the public boat ramp.Dodge PU pulls in with a matching super paint job,on a 41 go faster,backs up and stops,gets out with his girlfriend? puts her on the ramp dock,hands her the bow line,unhooks all the hold downs,disconects the bow eye,gets back in the truck and backs up smartly.Up to now things are quite normal,wait for it!!!!! He locks the brakes and boat slides off 10ft to short,outdrives crumble under the boat and I could hear them tearing the bottom.The boat slid down the ramp sinking and came to a stop just in front of the girl on the finger pier.He gets out,looks around gets in and drives away.N ever came back .
Delete