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

[benjilafouine]

Hi again,

This is my new subject for this week. This time, anyone can answer, 2-stroke, 4-stroke, Sea-Doo boats (or even any boat, I am not picky), as long as you were in trouble...

Subject is: have you been stranded before in the middle of a lake (or at sea) with a failed ride and feel in some danger or harm? I can't wait to see you share your experience on that subject.

Note: I am posting this subject in the 2-stroke forum because this is the area where most trouble can occur...

Benji.

 

[benjilafouine]

As usual, I will start first.

For those who followed my adventures this summer, you will know I had tons of issues!

It all started when my ski was "skipping" fire and that the solenoid failed. I played with the plugs with not success (easy to understand why). So I brought it to the local mechanics who found the issue quickly: the ground was loose and the fire was skipping and the solenoid was fried. He fixed it quickly and I was back on the water on a Monday afternoon.

Since that weather was bad that day, I had only 10 minutes to test it and it was running fine but I came back to shore because of the rain. Further that night (beginning of August), weather had improved so I decided to go for a ride less than 45 minutes before sunset. After five minutes, I ran up to a first issue: my ski lost power so I went to shore limping only to find out that a spark plug had turned loose (my fault for playing with it but I thought that the local mechanics would have checked them when fixing my ski, but he didn't...). So I screwed the plug back on and was on my way again. Ski was just fine.

About ten minutes later, and less than 15 minutes before sunset, my ski just died right in the middle of the lake (and another thunderstorm was coming). I was far from shore, like half a mile in every direction. So I pulled the seat and tried to figure out the issue without any luck (my seat even fell in the water and I had to retrieve it). Right at sunset, a good Samaritan came to my rescue after noticing that I was in trouble. I was about four miles from my place so he started pulling me very slowly not to fill the ski with water. Then my uncle came to the rescue (at least I had cell phone signal) and by the time I got back to my dock, it was dark and slightly raining.

I really felt hopeless being stuck in the middle of the lake with one small paddle (that was broken on the top of it)... I was also humiliated by my ski and I am still trying to forgive it despite the new engine and rebuild (to be continued next year...).

I had a similar experience with a Ski-Doo once but it easier to walk on snow than water and I was close to home so this one tops my list.

Your turn....

Benji.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

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....

 

[jammin777]

never got stranded on a ski but 5 years ago i had a reneil beachcraft boat with a 5.7l omc cobra. had a boat full with the wife. daughter and her husband and grand daughter. we were out tubing when all of a sudden a big cloud of smoke came bellowing out of the engine compartment, so i shut her down and while everyone was about to jump ship as they thought is was a fire, it turned out that the rubber exhaust bellows from the manifold to pipe was melting. we had a few boaters come by with fire extinguishers on hand to see if we were ok. we ended up being towed 5 miles to the ramp and of course i offered money but was refused. the next day i i found that the exhaust manifold drain plug had fallen off which is rubber and held on with a hose clamp. stupid me forgot to tighten it when i winterized it the year before.

spimothy, I'm glad that you didn't get eaten by gators!

next....

 

[Hicktown]

Never really been in too much trouble out on the water. On my 96XP I go out solo all the time, but I'm always on small to medium sized lakes and there's almost always other boaters out as well. One time I did get stranded when my negative battery cable broke into 2 pieces randomly. I was not too far from the boat ramp, probably would've taken me an hour or so to wade back behind the ski. However my friends waiting for me at the ramp got another boat to come out and tow me back. The other time I got stranded was when my motor blew out. Again, not far at all from the ramp. Took me about 20 minutes to paddle back using my retractable paddle which I keep in the ski.

Probably my scariest time out on the water was taking out my new to me 85 Ski Nautique boat. I had a boat full of people and the boat suddenly did not want to run. It sputtered out and started backfiring out the carb, igniting a small fire on top of the motor. Luckily we splashed some water on it and the fire was out in no time. Motor then would not start. Tried flagging other boats down for a tow with no success. This was getting late in the day on a Sunday, thought we might have to spend the night on the boat. Finally about 20 minutes later the engine fired up and we high tailed it back to the ramp without any issue.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I sucked up sea-weeds and melted an exhaust hose to the point where my 99 GSX LTD was taking on water! Anytime you shut the engine off it started sinking faster. I quickly beached it on the side of the river and was able to get a trailer to it. That was fun.

 

[benjilafouine]

When I read comments, I realize how important it is to have emergency equipment. I have:

- a small anchor with 16 feet of rope.
- another 16 feet of additional rope.
- a retractable paddle.
- my cell phone (when it works). Note: since my episode, I always tell my wife where I am going.
- usually some bottled water.
- a jacket (and shoes/sandals).
- spare spark plugs.
- an emergency kit, the fluo container one (including another rope, flashlight, etc.).
- a fire extinguisher.
- a few extra tools on top of the basic kit, especially a ratchet to easily remove spark plugs.

Am I forgetting anything?

Since I was stranded on the lake and even if I was not in the middle of nowhere (but I would have paddled for more than one hour in the dark, that is certain), I am afraid of riding solo anymore on days where no one else is around. I know I am running on a full rebuild ski but you never know...

Benji.

 

[LawnDart]

From the title of the thread I thought you meant trouble with the law.......no that's never happened.........OK maybe just once or twice.:Angel:

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I did as well. A not very clearly marked no-wake zone.

 

[benjilafouine]

We also have that now, a no wake zone, but it is more a suggestion than regulation so almost no one respects it and law enforcement is rarely on the lake except for two or three big weekends here.

No this thread is about trouble, like adventures!!!

Benji.

 

[LawnDart]

Lots of equipment failures over the years but a few memorable ones.....

Had a boat prop fall off in the middle of the lake.
On lake Powell when a 60mph storm hit. Rental boat was jumping out of the water for miles just navigating the tall waves.
On a jet ski that wouldn't start and got blown into a tall grass/reeds, finally got it started and sucked the pump full of crap. Took me an hour to get out by myself.
Sunk a kawi 550 stand up.
Ran into a sandbar at full speed and had everyone in the boat doing a nosedive.
The scariest was fishing on a little aluminum boat when a storm hit. Got battered by waves and wind and the little motor barely had enough power to get back to shore. The boat was 1/3 full of water....kids and I were lucky to make it back.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

When I read comments, I realize how important it is to have emergency equipment. I have:

- a small anchor with 16 feet of rope.
- another 16 feet of additional rope.
- a retractable paddle.
- my cell phone (when it works). Note: since my episode, I always tell my wife where I am going.
- usually some bottled water.
- a jacket (and shoes/sandals).
- spare spark plugs.
- an emergency kit, the fluo container one (including another rope, flashlight, etc.).
- a fire extinguisher.
- a few extra tools on top of the basic kit, especially a ratchet to easily remove spark plugs.

Am I forgetting anything?

Since I was stranded on the lake and even if I was not in the middle of nowhere (but I would have paddled for more than one hour in the dark, that is certain), I am afraid of riding solo anymore on days where no one else is around. I know I am running on a full rebuild ski but you never know...

Benji.

you have the basic's covered, the only modification I really made after my episode (and a similar one where two of us got mudbogged together) was a long long rope, like 100 ft...

my bro in law was big into sailing and he had quite a bit of sailing rope (very thin but strong, no stretch, 100 feet almost fits into a ziplock)

When the two of us got totally stuck in the mud on the Peace river maybe 2 months ago we were on plane going 60 not realizing that we were in 6-8 inches of water with 3 feet of mud underneath. when we stopped, we both immediately lost power, intakes were sucking up mud, mud and more mud.

my ski (R12x) was lighter & smaller than his Massive F15x so I was able to mud-paddle it out over about 10 minutes of time to deeper water and I was dragging 100 feet of rope behind me connected to both of our 15 foot dock lines and a spare line, total of maybe 155 feet, I needed every inch of that to get into deeper water, cleared the intake and was able to idle out and tow him out with me.

Without a spare 100 extra feet of rope, I really don't know how we would have gotten his ski off except to just wait for more boats to come by and take all their rope, tie a bunch of knots and hope for the best.

obviously we have a lot of shallow waters and deep muck around my area, sandbars aren't that big of a deal, you can get solid footing and push yourself off, but the mud-bogs are not so simple, you literally sink to your waist in that stuff, its like quicksand.

maybe one other item is a handheld GPS, they can be a huge help if you get lost. We did a group ride with maybe 20 ski's a couple years back and on the return trip at least 5 of us had the low fuel alarms buzzing and 5 miles to go. We came to a fork in the river and none of us had a clue if we had to go left or right, I pulled out my gps and the breadcrumb trail clearly indicated which direction we had to go, Phew....

I was the only one with a gps, and w/o it, the yami's all would have been towing in our thirsty seadoo's, and that just can't happen !!!

Smart phones are very helpful with mapping but if there's no service, they are useless, a little $40 etrex doesn't care about cell towers, it just works.

 

[benjilafouine]

The issue here is quite opposite: we have rocky shores with water deep 25+ feet right from the rocks. An engine failure on a windy day (3-foot waves) could definitely throw you on the rocks so a 100 feet rope could be useful in these conditions. And also, always wear a life jacket, it is a necessity on a ski. As for a GPS, unless you are a newbie on our lake, you cannot get lost. It is large but it has lots of landmarks. Happy we have to gators... this is scary...

I forgot to mention a few beers for beaching but this is not survival stuff...

And [MENTION=78215]LawnDart[/MENTION], I think I will not ride with you!!! You'll bring me bad luck!!!

Benji.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

My 1990 Chris Craft wouldn't start on the water.

After a brisk 4 hour tow back to land, we managed to get a ride to our ramp, to go get the truck. a brisk hour later, it was on land.

Starter motor... stopped on a 'flat spot' on the commutator. Only issue in 25 years of Chris Craft ownership.

 

[Luv2Camp]

Last year on Lake Erie. A mile from the shore and late in the day with 4 foot chop and blew the motor. Thankfully I keep a marine vhf radio with me and we hailed the coastguard to advise. About 20 min into it and another boater saw our distress flag and towed us in.

 

[benjilafouine]

VHF radio??? How big is that? Like a walkie-talkie?

Benji.

 

[Seadoobuddy]

you have the basic's covered, the only modification I really made after my episode (and a similar one where two of us got mudbogged together) was a long long rope, like 100 ft...


Smart phones are very helpful with mapping but if there's no service, they are useless, a little $40 etrex doesn't care about cell towers, it just works.

What is an Etrex?

 

[Spimothy Leary]

VHF radio??? How big is that? Like a walkie-talkie?

Benji.

for pwc.

for boaters.

What is an Etrex?

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.

 

[kevinz]

About the worst that happened to me was running out of gas in my GTi on lake truman...the gas gauge didn't work and I thought I had enough gas. I seriously underestimated how much gas even a 717 can drink while riding. Anyway, the real bad part here is we had JUST left a marina when the ski started to act like it was running out of gas, but my dumb butt was too worried about a carb issue that would kill a piston so like the dummy I am, was trying to limp back to the ramp we used. Had I just turned around and put $10 of gas in the tank we would have made it back with gas to spare. We finally ended up getting towed back by another boater who got pulled over while towing us for some unrelated issues...but in the end we made it back and the ski is fine.

I went out again the next week, this time to lake of the ozarks...a $12 float is all I needed to fix it. Works great now. I picked up a 2000 Polaris Virage as a winter project and its not seeing the lake until I know the gas gauge works and is somewhat accurate enough to let me know when I'm close to empty!

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I was under the impression that a VHF radio was required by law on Erie...?

 

[Luv2Camp]

I was under the impression that a VHF radio was required by law on Erie...?

Don't think it is required for PWC but I could be wrong... Required or not I carry it. Waterproof and floating handheld VHF

I do know if you have one, you are required to have it on and be monitoring it. I doubt that would be enforced for a PWC with a handheld in the storage compartment. Would think that applies to boaters.

 

[crundell73]

I had rebuilt a ski and didn't rebuild the crank that locked up on me on the river , some one was close , my brothers ski died on him and couldn't get it started and he floated down the river and hit a booee , I also bought a 97 sea-doo boat to fix any engine trouble it had and when I got it home it was electrical had no idea how to fix , now three years latter and almost a expert on mpems and lots of $ I think I have it fixed ???

But the few times I have had it out It has NOT left me stranded ! got it out of the water and started it quick and it blew out my mpem on the trailer and at home so some luck with that ! hope to have some good ridding in 2016.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

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)

 

[boardmandan]

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.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Mine was my 27 foot Searay. Left Fairport Harbor, (40 miles east of Cleveland) and was headed to the the islands and the far west end of the lake. About a three-hour cruise at 21 knots (I had twin 292's). So I am about 3/4 of an hour from reaching Sandusky Yacht club and I hit a submerged log. This log was placed there by God it seems as it was the perfect size. It went between my two props and the blades hit each end like a hatchet. I had SS Props, it didn't hurt then at all. The slip hubs did their job and slipped. BUT,,, it also screwed up both of my lower drives and somehow stretched bith my shift cables and steering hydrolic lines.

Well,,, Since I was still in the US Coast Guard, I called station Marble Head and asked if I could pull in and get picked up by their slings so I cold look at the damage. I daring some of the drive fluid and there was water in it. So I drained it all and put in 90 weight gear lube hoping it would last a bit. Put it back in the water and continued to Ceder Point Marina and enjoyed our vacation. Last day before we left, I went back to the station, lifted the boat, replaced the gear lube with new gear lube and cruised on home back to Fairport. I had contacted my insurance company while on vacation. They told me to do what I wanted based on the damage is already done, which is why I did the gear lube and enjoyed the vacation.

In the end, two drives, new slip hubs, shift cables and steering lines was just under 12 grand,,,, Cost me my $500 deductible. It could have easily been worse..