Boating Bliss

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Boating bliss
I know that people always say the two happiest days of A boaters life are the first day he owns a boat and the day he sells it.Well I must take exception to that nasty bit of sour grapes undoubtedly made by a land lubber extraordinaire for an example of my strong belief of boating pleasure:let me just recap my 4th of july 2007.
Plans had been made to meet some friends on buckshot Island (about 5 miles east of the old 41 bridge on the caloosahatchee river Ftmyers Fl.)Even though we are on the water ---I don't have a boat lift ,so our 18 ft seaswirl spends most of her time on a trailer under an oak tree in our side yard.
The night before I had charged the batteries, poured in some octane booster as I knew the gas was kinda old,cleaned all the leaves out and pretty much got her ready for a cruise up the river Oh yes I did put the drain plugs in--.Fourth morning ---we loaded up coolers,dry clothes food,and off to the boat ramp;and to our surprise it wasn't crowded maybe because the fourth fell on A wed this year.We backed the boat in she fired right up and we cast off;heading up river. Now because of the Manatees you have a no wake zone that seems like it go's on forever so we idled along,the motor surging a little prob that old gas .When we arrived at the buoys that allowed us full speed,We could only go a little faster than the snails pace we had been on.Bad gas --I thought to bring another fuel filter so no problem I'll just put it on .As I was diligently undertaking my rendition of a NASCAR pit stop It was brought to my attention that some ominous black clouds were approaching from the North.I succeeded in getting the fuel filter on and as I attempted to restart the boat it started to rain. We had just gone under a bridge about a quarter of a mile back so I headed back for the bridge .Just about the time the boat started to plane It sputtered and quit dead in the water .We could see the bridge but shelter was not to be ours this day.A real squall blew up (later we heard that several water spouts were sighted,Not that we could see We couldn't even see the condos on the rivers edge it was raining so hard.About that time my wife began explaining to me Something about my intelligence level and some thing about my heritage and the fact that she was never going to go out in that boat again, I didn't catch hardly any of it -------------------because--------------As I sat there with the rain just drenching me the lightning flashing,the wind howling I thought how lucky,fortunate and blessed I was to be right there right then.How many people on the forth of july sit in Appts in citys with no air conditioning,sweltering,the smell of the city,the noise.
I had my cell phone and contacted the Ft myers police Seems like they have a brand new Donzi A really nice officer brought it out and towed us back to the boat ramp no charge I do love Florida.I do have a happy ending'Took the boat home changed into some dry clothes and our friend Charley met us at the boat ramp and brought us out to the island where we had a great time.So where some people might have mistaken the storm,the bad gas, the challenges of the morning as bad I found so much good and attracted more .Laws of attraction