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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Jan 31, 2009
Description:
There was one last mission for Whiskey Tango. The plan was for me to do the first test flight in N2022P with Paige flying Whiskey Tango as the safety chase plane.
With no fanfare, 22P’s fire-breathing turbo was spooled up and we launched into the lake to wait for my wingman. Paige cranked WT up and followed me with a rather large splash.
It didn’t take long for me to see something was wrong. As I circled on the water, Paige cranked. The wind blew, and he drifted towards the tall weeds.
There was nothing I could do from 22P, so back up the ramp I went to parking. Grabbing a paddle from the Maule and sprinting down to the dock, I jumped into my dad’s old aluminum jon boat.
Paddling furiously against the wind with the little wooden spoon that masquerades as the Maule’s paddle, I finally reached WT. It was about that time I noticed my feet were awash with the murky waters of Lake Harris.
“Need help?” Paige asked.
“Well, I thought you needed help getting started, but at this rate I figure I’ll sink first.”
“Yeah, well it is usually good practice to put the drain plug in any boat before putting it in the water.”
“Huh?”
“You do have a drain plug for that thing, don’t you?”
Hmmm….well, it was too late to worry about that. Instead I could focus my worry on Paige and his video camera recording the inauspiciously unfolding events.
Trying to salvage some bit of decorum (and keep dry) I moved to the front of the little boat lifting the leaking stern out of the water. That’s when I noticed the big crack in the bow that had been repaired by my dad with a bit of duct tape and bubble gum. As my dad said later, my weight exceeded the “repair’s rating.”
Thinking quickly, I jumped up onto the back of WT behind the engine. Saved by 220WT one more time. Holding on for dry life, I pretended to look for the source of the starting problem. There was no obvious clue.
About that time a fisherman came by to check out the spectacle. “Need some help?” he asked.
Duh? Here are a few clues: one sinking boat and a disabled seaplane drifting into the weeds. Fortunately I kept my tongue in its proper place and Paige allowed as how we could possibly use a tow back to the ramp.
“Well, I’ve fished your ramp so many times that I owe you that much,” the fisherman conceded.
That was only the start of my problems. We had no sooner gotten back to the ramp when my dad showed up. Oh, woe was me.
His advice was quick to come (after the mandatory chortling) and unrelenting in its wide ranging coverage. I quickly dismissed myself to get the tractor.
“That rope won’t hold. It will stretch and when it breaks it will lash out like a whip. You need a cable or some chain.”
“Oh, Dad, I do know how to tie a knot.”
Paige hunkered down in WT. I jumped on the tractor and jerked them backwards up the ramp. The front wheels had just cleared the water when the rope let go. Fortunately, no whippings were had.
Not to be thwarted I doubled the rope under my dad’s well-practiced “I told you so” gaze.
Ha! Doubling the rope got both WT and Paige and the sinking jon boat safely to shore.
No amount of cajoling would get WT started though. Its service was finished. Over. Done. Not a minute more to be had.
Date Taken:
Jan 31, 2009
Place Taken:
Tajmahangar, FL
Owner:
Dan Nickens
File Name:
Dead_in_the_Water.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZSE50000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZSE50000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZSE50000s">
Category:
344, SeaReys in Winter
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Steve Gromak - Feb 02,2009
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How's the old saying go, 'when it rains it pours', when something starts to go wrong, then a whole bunch of other stuff, glad everything turned out ok : ).<br />I've had days like that, the nice thing I'm usually the only one around to witness them, in which case I can deny it ever happen, right?
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