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View Full Version : Unscheduled Midnight float Down the River!



sandblasted
09-02-2003, 11:16 AM
What a labor day weekend at the river! I had more crap happen with my boat than I care to remember.. but I can laugh at it today!
1st, I plugged up my intake grate at the Park Moabi Marina on Saturday..didn't figure it out until my temp gauge started to skyrocket...So my friend's wife and I jump in and clear out the grate..Good to go...
Sunday we head up to Bullhead to launch by my friend's grandparents house...My buddy launches 1st and heads downriver. Right after i launch my reverse locks up from the worst sandlock I have ever had!!!
Now I'm floating downriver with just me and 4 kids...usually I can shake the bucket up and down and it will release but not this time...being the stupid Polack that I am I push hard on the reverse lever and it frees up...Great!...then when I look at the jet it's still in reverse, broke the friggin cable!! :mad:
I manage to get close enough to a dock to tie off and jump back in the water..still won't budge...get out a screwdriver and finally get it free'd up...Just then my buddy comes by and tells me he just floated downriver for about a mile with the same problem...he heads over to the grandparents house to get me some zip ties and we tie up the bucket..hell, who needs reverse...
Around 4pm we take the boats over to lazy harry's for lunch...just as I enter the inlet I fell the bucket drop in reverse...broke the damn zip ties!! I idle the boat up to the beach and tie the bucket up with a short piece of rope..All good..
we eat lunch and idle back out of the inlet...I idle out of the no wake zone and hit the throttle and go no where!! Try again, still won't go forward..check the bucket and it is still up! what the f**K!..I idle back into the inlet and see my friends walking his boat thru the inlet...I ask him what the problem is and he says "weeds"..Turns out I have the same problem so we pull both boats over to the beach and drag them as far up shore as we can..open up the clean outs, turn on the bilges and spend the next 10 minutes removing weeds from our jets!! What fun...while we are doing this another jet boat comes by and the people kind of laugh at both of us sitting there...They idle out into the river, hit the throttle and go about 50 feet then the motor just starts revving and they go no where...They had weeds too but now they are stuck in the middle of the river...Hope they didn't open the clean out in the middle of the river... :D
Now for the midnight float...After spending all day saturday at Park Moabi we head back to Needles and tie off to the dock where we are staying. I had my wife tie off the bow with 2 Dock Buddies and let the current take the boat out about 4-5 feet from the dock so it won't bounce off from the wakes...then we tie off the back and it's good to go..I usually tie off another safety line to the front bow, just in case...but not this time!!
We head up to the house and spend the next several hours drinking beers. Around midnight we decide to go down to my boat and listen to some tunes...My buddy had taken his boat off the water for gas so we just had mine tied off...I get in the boat and go untie the back line so we can pull the boat in closer for the ladies...Just as i untie it my buddy yells out " you boat came unhooked"..I'm thinking, yeah, I know...then I realize it's the front that came unhooked...Now I'm floating downriver at midnight with no key!! :confused:
So I sit on the bow and try to think up a plan...I grab the dock buddies slip into the water and try to swim the boat close to a dock..No way, the current is going too fast...I swim back to the boat and hang off the front grab rails and think..."I'm ****ed"! just about then I hear someone yelling at me...I look at the docks but don't see anyone...then I look up river and this guy is swimming for me like Marc Spitz...he was the friend of one of the girls that was with us..Now, I,m thinking, Great! We can both float down to havasu!! Just as he gets to my boat he yells out he has my keys!!!
As soon as my boat broke loose my buddy Chris ran in the house and got the keys...then this guy jumped in the river and swam after me...
Disaster averted!!!
They say you learn something every time you go boating...Man, that is so true...I will never tie off my boat without a second safety line...
and I am adding heavy duty zip ties to my tool bag!
All that and I still had a fun time! I must be a river rat! :D

Warlock28
09-02-2003, 11:24 AM
Just sounds like another day at the river to me!!!
:D :D :D

JetBoatRich
09-02-2003, 11:32 AM
Greg, sounds like I missed the show. Main thing is your back and nobody was hurt :D
[ September 02, 2003, 12:33 PM: Message edited by: JetBoatRich ]

dimarcobros
09-02-2003, 11:35 AM
Wow sounds like a busy weekend. At least you got your boat back with little damage and no one was hurt. I think I would of soiled myself if I started floating down river with no lights at midnight. Glad to see you made it.
DMB

Mandelon
09-02-2003, 11:49 AM
Your pal Chris sounds like the right kind of friend to have!
It could have been soooo much worse. :p

sandblasted
09-02-2003, 12:05 PM
Mandelon:
Your pal Chris sounds like the right kind of friend to have!
It could have been soooo much worse. :p Actually I blame Chris and his wife for everything. They are the ones that got me hooked on boating! :D :D
But you're right, they are good friends..

75_Elim
09-02-2003, 12:38 PM
sandblasted:
Mandelon:
Your pal Chris sounds like the right kind of friend to have!
It could have been soooo much worse. :p Actually I blame Chris and his wife for everything. They are the ones that got me hooked on boating! :D :D
But you're right, they are good friends.. Aaaahh, the challenges of boating. You gotta love it !! :D

LUVNLIFE
09-02-2003, 06:31 PM
If that's the worst trip you have all year....You are doing all right Greg. wink

sandblasted
09-02-2003, 08:36 PM
LUVNLIFE:
If that's the worst trip you have all year....You are doing all right Greg. wink Got one more river trip planned for Oct...I guess it could get worse! :D

RiverForUs
09-02-2003, 11:51 PM
sandblasted:
They say you learn something every time you go boating...Man, that is so true...I will never tie off my boat without a second safety line...
and I am adding heavy duty zip ties to my tool bag!
How about a Hide-A-Key?