Subject of the week: been in trouble riding your ski/boat?

[CReynoldsMIZ]

for pwc.

for boaters.

little handheld GPS unit, does a questionable job of mapping but it leaves good breadcrumb trails and its excellent for speed testing. Thats the same unit I used to try and squeeze 62mph out of your GSX.

its actually smaller than you think... here's a stock image... fits easily in a pocket or glove compartment, but I preferred to mount it on the handlebars with a RAM unit.

I've upgraded since then... I have the garmin 421 now... but I still keep an etrex as a backup when i'm in a strange area.

Haha spim I bought that ETREX from you a year or two ago, not sure if you remember. I couldn't ever figure it out and sold the ski's if anyone wants to buy it for cheap. I think it just tracks speed if I remember correctly at this point.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

lol, ya, I remember that was probably the the one that gave me mapping issues, but the speedo worked just fine. At one time I had 3 of those things.

 

[ocod]

Haha spim I bought that ETREX from you a year or two ago, not sure if you remember. I couldn't ever figure it out and sold the ski's if anyone wants to buy it for cheap. I think it just tracks speed if I remember correctly at this point.

[MENTION=43106]CReynoldsMIZ[/MENTION]
Tried pming but inbox full.

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[Seadoobuddy]

[MENTION=43106]CReynoldsMIZ[/MENTION]
Tried pming but inbox full.
Lmk me know how low on dib's list I am.

guess I wont' even try then....

 

[Seadoobuddy]

I remembered another one, last month on the river after some hard rains we were at flood stage, came around the corner into a flooded field, lead ski hit a fence post that was sticking up about 2" in the water. punched a tennis sized hole in the center of the hull, after a brief inspection and at "holy crap" moment, looking around realizing there wasn't a road or ramp for miles the decision was made to run WOT to the nearest boat ramp and hope for the best. His ski is ridiculously fast so he was hitting the turns in the mid 80's and 90 on the straight's to get the 5 miles to the nearest boat ramp.

We left him there with some peanut butter crackers and a bottle of water, then did another 20+ miles at WOT to get to the launch site, pick up his trailer and go snag him. My ski only hit 62 at the time and the other two ski's were in the high 70's so I was fully tucked with throttle pegged and still arrived about 4 minutes behind those fast rides... (I hate them)

What river was this on? A fence post is usually abut 4 ft high....if only 2 inches was above water then the field really must have been flooded. I assume nothing is ever planted near the river then......do cows float?

 

[JCJ256]

Haven't had an incident with either ski as yet. But after over 20 years with my boats, I have had my share of problems on the lake with them.

One that comes to mind was after I had just bought my second boat, a 27' big block Chappy. This was the first boat I had owned or operated that had lots and lots of toys, Captains Call exhaust among them. So zooming into a cove for a little break - exhaust thundering - I switched off the key and glided to a stop where we anchored for a late lunch on this late summer Sunday. Afterward, we decided to take one more run around the lake and pull the kids on the tube one last time before heading back home. And as luck would have it, most people had already headed out so we would have the lake pretty much to ourselves.... Lucky, Right? Nope. Ever heard of water inversion? I hadn't, and had absolutely no idea why my brand new awesome boat wouldn't even crank over and the starter seemed to be smoking every time I even tried.
So after scratching my head and trying everything I could think of for nearly 2 hours, unbelievably another boat, off in the distance... but would they venture close enough to even see us frantically waiving our hands and swim flag. After making several fairly close passes while puling a skier, they finally pulled up close and asked if we were needing any help (took all I had at that point not to be caddy...) Yes, yes we do need help, thank you. Only problem was they were boating with an 18 foot Tahoe and all of a 180hp V-6. The Chappy weighed in at 5600 pounds dry and we had 65 or 70 gallons of fuel, 10 gallons of water, 5 adults, 4 kids and a bunch of gear. Add to this that they seemed to carrying about the same... well, perhaps a lot less fuel, but otherwise very close. It took us nearly an hour to be pulled the mile or so back to the docks, but I was very much grateful, considering this was indeed a monumental task for those nice folks to undertake.
Needless to say, I found out what water inversion is and of course, what causes it. That was the last time I shut down the engine with the exhaust on.

 

[benjilafouine]

Great topic! Happened to me but on a snowmobile. I know, not what we're talking about here. But learned similar lesson on being better prepared and not riding alone or at least not in desolate areas. Luckily I was only a mile from a road and someone stopped and gave me a ride back.

@boardmandan

Glad you like my subjects. I still have 2-3 subjects in mind and then I will have to think of some more (winter is long).

About snowmobiles, a friend of mine broke down on a trail at midnight (coming back from friends) at a temperature of 20 degrees F. He had nothing with him (not even a flashlight) and the night was pitched black. He knew he was spending the night there...

So he dug a hole in the snow with his hands and he groped (hope I have the good word here, used a translator from French to express my mind) some pine branches to cover himself and spend the night outside, which he did.

He slept! And when daylight came back he opened the cover of his ski only to find out that his issue was simply a lose wire. He fixed that in a minute and was rolling again!

But so far, the best story in this thread is the one with the gators!!!!! Really scary: imagine, you have to sleep on your ski or next to it and then you hear all these weird noises... and snap! you lose your leg! Like a Jurassic Park story...

Benji.

 

[donkey]

last summer we left havasu landing headed for the sand bar,a few miles north of the lake,on the river.we had just put the skis in,parked the truck at the 5th whl,n we split.after the sand bar we headed north towards topok ,,when we got there,i discovered we had no money,no cell,no gas,no water or food.it was a very long float down river,and then we had to swim them towards camp.i now keep a hundred buks in the registration bag on every ski i own.
when we got bak to the beach area, i found my wallet,phone and 6 waters on the rear bumper of my truck. still pisses me off.

 

[racerxxx]

guess I wont' even try then....

[MENTION=43106]CReynoldsMIZ[/MENTION]
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I texted reynolds wrap, send your pm's

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[Spimothy Leary]

What river was this on? A fence post is usually abut 4 ft high....if only 2 inches was above water then the field really must have been flooded. I assume nothing is ever planted near the river then......do cows float?

it was on the upper peace river, you've been on similar rides, about 25 miles north of the navagator, maybe 3-5 miles past where your group turned around on the big junkies ride. And ya, sometimes up there by brownsville you come around the corner and instead of river its "lake" which is a flooded field with LOTS of hazards that you can't see until its too late.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

Glad you like my subjects. I still have 2-3 subjects in mind and then I will have to think of some more (winter is long).

About snowmobiles, a friend of mine broke down on a trail at midnight (coming back from friends) at a temperature of 20 degrees F. He had nothing with him (not even a flashlight) and the night was pitched black. He knew he was spending the night there...

So he dug a hole in the snow with his hands and he groped (hope I have the good word here, used a translator from French to express my mind) some pine branches to cover himself and spend the night outside, which he did.

He slept! And when daylight came back he opened the cover of his ski only to find out that his issue was simply a lose wire. He fixed that in a minute and was rolling again!

But so far, the best story in this thread is the one with the gators!!!!! Really scary: imagine, you have to sleep on your ski or next to it and then you hear all these weird noises... and snap! you lose your leg! Like a Jurassic Park story...

Benji.

its actually a very good subject... the stories are not only entertaining, but educational, much safer to learn from other peoples mistakes.

and ya, gators freak me out, and I see one on almost every fresh water ride

They just look at you like your lunch

actually on the last K river ride that I missed, the group was on break on shire and watched (zero warning) a 10 footer snag a full size crane off the shore and swallow him while he screamed, it kind of freaked everybody out.

breaks over boys... lets ride.

 

[benjilafouine]

Captain Crunch!

 

[Seadoobuddy]

its actually a very good subject... the stories are not only entertaining, but educational, much safer to learn from other peoples mistakes.

and ya, gators freak me out, and I see one on almost every fresh water ride

They just look at you like you're lunch

actually on the last K river ride that I missed, the group was on break on shore and watched (zero warning) a 10 footer snag a full size crane off the shore and swallow him while he screamed, it kind of freaked everybody out.

break over boys... lets ride.

Wow, that would be scary but interesting to see Mother nature do her thing. A guy like me would just be a light snack for a gator.

 

[Coastiejoe]

I've generally had good luck, and since I made the solo trip detailed below I've rarely gone out solo since except in very high traffic area's.

But maybe 6-7 years ago the idea of getting stranded never occurred to me so I did solo rides everywhere, a couple days a week, if my buddies couldn't make it out 2pm on Wednesday, I just said fark it and went out.

Anyway, decided to explore the estero river, which I had been out on before on a couple of group rides, its a little 7 mile run full of twisties off the bay, because I was playing hooky off of work my wife, boss, familly had no idea I was even out on the water... (ya, i'm not so bright some times)

Short version of the story is that I made a wrong turn at about 45 mph and basically ran into a dead end with a mudbar in the middle, whomp... 600 lb ski completely stuck in the mucky muck 6 inches deep and i'm about 100 yards off the beaten path and can only see the "river" through the trees. I'm smack dab in the middle of mama gator country, we see gators out there quite often...

Its maybe 4pm, and boat traffic was very light, maybe 1 boat going by every half hour...sunset was around 6pmish, so i had about a 2 hour window before I was officially fubar... I was maybe half hour before dead low tide so at best maybe 6 hours I might have been able to get it off the muck, hopefully. A very depressing moment when you realize you just farked yourself.

I basically sat there thinking about getting eaten by gators around midnight (no cell service) After failing to signal two boats finally the 3rd one hears my whistle and stops, dude trims up his boat and makes it about 30 yards in before he can't go further, and he know's he can't leave me, although he suggested (twice) that I leave the ski and wade over. I begged him to come over and help, knowing that two of us could get it off the sandbar, but alone I had no chance...

Reluctantly he wades over in the muck and we spend about 20 minutes sliding the ski 4 inches at a time off the bar, exhausted and bug eaten I shook his hand, offered money (refused) and went straight back to the ramp, all of a sudden I was quite the religious fellow, well, at least for about 45 minutes, then I went to hooters and had a cold beer.

it was...
Terrifying...
The last time I rode solo in a low traffic area
the last time i traveled w/o flares
the last time I went out with less than 100 ft of rope.
the last time i've gone to Estero Bay alone (mud bars everywhere)
the last time that my wife didn't have my ride plan via text so she knows EXACTLY where I'm going and when I expect to return.

All in all it was pretty scary, but enlightening at the same time, i learned a lot of lessons that day, including the fact that at least now I know I'm not the type to panic, i stayed pretty relaxed and calm despite the obvious concerns.

next....

Scary experiences are most often the very best learning opportunities. Can't tell you haw many people I saved in one form or another only to hear them say, "well, looks like I have to go to church now...." Which I always took to mean, they cut a deal with God. God ame through so now they had to fulfill their end of the deal... LOL

 

[benjilafouine]

Ping!

More on that subject? From friends or family? Sea-Doo or else? I will post a new subject by next Monday but I wish I could hear more stories here.

How about an ATV ride that went wrong? A 150 miles ride (300 miles round trip) in the woods with no houses, no cell phones, no roads and nothing but trees and trails and then almost halfway on the first leg, one of the riders rolls over his ATV and pass out alongside of a huge rock (helmet smashed) and then wakes up two minutes later and wants to try to stand up? Want to hear the rest of that story and the rest of the trip? Absolute Nightmare. Very stressful and almost a hypothermia case. Actually, it was my last wild ride and it was last year. It convinced me to call it quits on these wild rides. No, there were no gators but nonetheless very scary...

If some are interested, I will write the rest of the story but I want to read some more from you guys! Let's not put that thread to rest so fast. Winter is long...

It all started when six of us on six ATVs decided to go on a long ride that we thought we knew everything about on the north side of Quebec Province, meaning more than 100 miles away from a large center...

Benji.

 

[Mickirig1]

My Wife and I got towed a few miles back to the ramp when someone (Me) did not make sure the battery screw was tight. I have paid back the favor this season twice. I towed 2 boats about 3 miles or more back to the launch ramps. One did not know the cotter pin goes in the retainer nut on the prop. The other had his battery die. Both were 20 foot boats. They did not think my GTI could tow them.

 

[SaltyBones]

My Wife and I got towed a few miles back to the ramp when someone (Me) did not make sure the battery screw was tight. I have paid back the favor this season twice. I towed 2 boats about 3 miles or more back to the launch ramps. One did not know the cotter pin goes in the retainer nut on the prop. The other had his battery die. Both were 20 foot boats. They did not think my GTI could tow them.

Speaking of...I've often wondered how hard it is on these skis to be pulling boats.

 

[Mickirig1]

I varied the throttle on each tow. Steady tow no yanking. After my family having boats most of my life I know the " We need help " stare. Most of the weekend fuel burners out on this lake don't have a clue! They probably do not even have a tow line.