Thursday, February 09, 2017

My Bonehead Move of the Year!

One of the editorial caveats I have is I never mention my own bonehead moves.  We all have them once in a while.  And if we learn from our mistakes, we are ahead of the game.  Here is what happened:  My sailing buddy Tex and I were up in the Delta for a 3 day trip.  We had left the boat up there for a month so we could have easy access to the river in the summer.  We were having a great day until we got stuck in the mud (it's easy to do up there). We were trying to back off with the engine but that was not enough to pull us back to the deep water.  I pulled out the kayak and grabbed the anchor to begin the kedge.  I had dropped the anchor about 75 feet behind the boat so we could then attach the line to the winch and pull the boat back to deep water.  As I was coming back to the boat, I noticed the painter was in front of the kayak as the current was faster than the kayak.  As I approached the boat, the propeller grabbed the line and starts to pull me towards the boat.  It gets tight enough that I start spinning 360's in the kayak!  As I come around, I have just enough time to grab a breath of air.  Tex has his back to me and does not see what is transpiring. I need to tell him to turn the engine off.  I have just enough time to yell one word per 360: Turn...It...Off!  My mate gets the message and hits the kill switch.  That was too funny and I was never in any danger as the kayak would protect me from the prop.  These are the kind of bonehead moves that happen so quick you just have to ride them out and have some laughs after.  Hope you enjoyed my bonehead move.

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