I had written another rather long post, using my iPhone 4, but I got a phone call and POOF! It was all gone. Ummm Apple? Ever hear of saving a draft? Is that too much to ask? iPhone - stupid like a rock.
Ok, let's try to write it again, this time NOT on my iPhone.
Joe already gave a quick description of the drama yesterday, but I wanted to give a few more details. First is what the weather was like, as that is not apparent on the blog. The forecast was saying the winds on Oneida Lake were between 35 and 40 mph. I don't know how fast the wind was, but it was fierce. The wind made turning the boats into the wind quite a bit of work. Once nosed into the wind, they cut through nicely with the windshields up.
This would have been great fun, as the boats are really good at waves and such. The problem was that there was copious amounts of weeds, some visible on the surface, but much lurking under that could not be seen. I think the proper description is "Weed Farm." We were heading in to the River Rat Marina, Joe was ahead. He got his prop wrapped in weeds first. Being in fierce wind, the boat began to get blown away from the Marina, so Joe pulled off the windshield and laid it on the back of his boat, then pulled out the paddle. Standing in the front of the boat, he was able to paddle upwind and inch into the Marina. He made it, but the windshield didn't. Fierce wind plus light sail like windshield set on top of the back of the boat, yup, it blew away. A brief lapse in common sense and the windshield is gone. Pity, as it was custom made for that boat. Joe was focusing on the immediate issue at hand, which was not getting blown somewhere else and making it into the Marina. Oh well, it happens.
Now for me. I was farther out, and much farther away from the Marina. I had my prop partially covered, but still had some propulsion. I limped back to the open channel, which had even higher winds. Just before the channel however, I hit a big blob of weed stuff under the surface. The blobs under the surface remind me of jelly fish. That did my prop in, it still spun freely, but both blades were covered and I had no more propulsion. I tried backspinning the prop to push weeds off, but that didn't work this time. The wind was now pushing me at a rapid pace (2.7mph) toward the lake. That was one place I didn't want to go today as it was very kicked up with the wind. No propulsion, so only one option, go over the edge and pull it off the prop. Usually easy to do, but not when the backseat was holding gear. No time to rearrange things, so up and over the gear was how to do it. I was hanging upside down with my head and shoulders under the water to I could reach the prop and shaft. At this point, I remember wondering if my life vest was manual or auto deploy when it hits water. Since it didn't inflate itself, I guess it's manual ("Pull on the tab to inflate"). I pulled one blade clear, and was able to limp to a dock upwind, with as much speed as I could get out of the pedal drive and one clear blade. Once I was safely tied up, I flagged down a pair of guys fishing who agreed to tow me in. At the same time, Joe had arranged a tow from a guy at the Marina so I let the fishermen go. After a brief tow through the weed field to the Marina, we're done.
These boats are amazing, and I'd happily head into a rough lake with them. Wind and waves are no problem, but they've been stranded by simple weeds more than once. I need to figure out a way to handle that problem, as it's a major problem. Anyway, we're done with the trip for now. A few more pictures to post later today, but right now, its' time to play with my daughter.
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