Thread: Old School
Results 41 to 60 of 90
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02-16-2012 02:19 PM"Keep the bottle on the bar Ira, I won't be long".
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02-16-2012 04:06 PM
Thanks guys!
Since I am all about maximizing my experiences and packing as much crap into each day as I possibly can, I had done the research as to what was happening in the land of LOTO for our inaugural weekend. I found the Frankie and Louie's Poker Run. What a great way to break in a new boat! So, whilst all of our docklines, towels, and carpets hung drip-drying on the railing of the condo at night, I lay away in fitful anticipation of the awesomeness that was to come on the morrow.
Here I am at like 4:30 am saying "When can we go boating? Can we take the boat out now? I want to go boating. Do you think its too early to take the boat out?" etc. etc. The view from our condo was such that I was able to watch the other poker runners head over to F & Ls. And here we are...amongst the masses in an unfamiliar land! Fortunately, thanks to the power of the Interwebz...I had the foresight to make contact with some others that would be at the Run that were more familiar with the lake. Mike Alford (Von Bongo on OSO and the voice of the Shootout) ended up recognizing us in our state of confusion, and volunteered to lead us around the lake in his Top Gun. Way cool.Last edited by redhotsommer; 02-16-2012 at 04:18 PM.
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02-16-2012 04:17 PM
Remember how I said nothing was easy in my life? Well...even if you don't, my stories may serve to remind you!
We departed F and L's on the way out to the first card stop at Big Dick's Halfway Inn. I jumped in behind Mike and about 16 Black Thunders...and since I started towards the back, it looked like the Perfect Storm on the main channel. I tabbed down and tucked the drives and prepared for the worst....and it didn't come! WOW! This boat actually runs well in rough water! Michelle, who was white-knuckled in the back seat, relaxed and said "This is nice!" I said "Do you know where we'd be right now if we still had the Powerquest?" and she responded "Back on the DOCK." Life was quite good at that moment.
Then, we went around the corner. And the Black Wall of Death had returned.
Mike gestured for us to follow, so we did, right back to his house. He slipped into his dock as we tied off and barely got the cover on before all hell broke loose. We spent an hour inside getting to know our new hosts and had a great time...boat people are always good people. When the rain let up, we got back on the lake and took off on our original course. The sun was shining. The water was flat. Life was quite good.
Then Mike broke. He had a motor problem and had to go back. We continued on our own, however...and life was still good.
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02-16-2012 04:29 PM
We went to Big Dick's. Ate lunch. Did the requisite Minnow Shot. And started back up lake. We were 11 miles from our condo...and I lost the starboard motor. Just quit. At 50 mph or so. I came to a stop and tried to restart it. With futility. As we idled the 11 miles back, I called Raymonds and told them the problem and fumed to the point where Michelle wanted to jump out and just swim back rather than be near me. There are no pictures of this time.
We got back, put the boat back on the trailer Saturday night, and took it to Raymonds, clinging to the promise that the mechanics would look at it as soon as they got in on Sunday (which meant...after church).
For the record, being boatless at LOTO SUCKS A$$. Don't do it. We killed the day by going over to Ha Ha Tonka, the burned out mansion on the lake, and then, while we were eating lunch at Shooters, we got the call that the boat was done. An ignition module had burned out. Come and get it.
We picked up our baby and took it over to Shady Gators for a cocktail or seven, then, as the sun was starting to set, I dropped Michelle back at Raymond's to drive the truck and trailer back to the condo while I took the boat. It was a PERFECT evening, and I was in my own private heaven as I was driving back. I had purchased a map of the Lake, and because everything looks the same down there, I had it out on the dash for consulting purposes. A blast up to 70mph blew the map to the floor, I slowed up, and bent down to get it...just as the boat hit a wave. The throttles hit me right in the eye. I had been punched in the face by my boat. When I returned to the dock, Michelle was waiting for me and I had to explain why my eye was swollen. She named the boat The Big Red Meanie.
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02-16-2012 04:51 PM
Geez, I can't remember what I did last weekend!
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02-16-2012 05:58 PMOne question?
The 20 minutes of pumps running and boat almost sinking was because it was raining that hard?
Or did you leave the plug out and neglect to tell us?????Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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02-16-2012 08:10 PM
I'm hooked, great story!
Parabellum FJ²B
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02-17-2012 08:40 AM
The rest of that first trip was relatively uneventful. I took an additional day off due to the missed boating day on Sunday, so Monday we bopped around the lake seeing the sights. Went down to the Briday Cave, hit Dog Days (ended up having some drinks with a guy who's uncle owned Black Thunder), and then Dock Knockers.
Oh yeah...one more thing...the brakes on the trailer went out on the way home.
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02-25-2012 10:00 PM
Wow Mike, quite a memory and a great story! I only remember moments in time of my long boating history, not the detail you have here. Sooooo, time to write another chapeter right? Time for another boat soon?
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02-26-2012 09:12 PM
I'll be writing more...I was slammed at work this week and that's where all my pictures are. They are like triggers for my memory...it's easy to write once you figure out where and when they were taken.
I don't need a new boat...the one I've got is LIKE new now!
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02-27-2012 06:50 PMSo was the one before this one......
Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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03-08-2012 12:16 PM
Back to the stories....
As earlier mentioned, I often have difficulty with even the simplest of things...my paranoid and controlling nature is largely the result of many misfortunes and my constant watchfulness as to what bad thing is about to happen next. This is the tale of one of those times.
I was SO proud to bring the red boat home, and after an extremely thorough cleaning, she was looking GOOD, and we took her out to her berth in Hammond Marina. The T-dock crew quickly took notice of our new toy, and everybody dug it...I was a proud man. The project for the day, however, was to set up the Hydrohoist to accomodate the new and bigger hull. This meant adjusting the bunks to the ascribed places, not dropping the hardware OR the tools in the lake, and even moving the hoist back with regard to its position on the dock to keep the beak from sticking out over the main walkway...it was a 35 foot slip and a 35 foot boat, so I had to be right on.
A couple of hours in the hot sun, and the hoist was positioned correctly, the bunks aligned, and we were ready to test it. I pulled the boat around the dock and into my slip, and raised it out of the water. SUCCESS! I congratulated myself on a job well done, for everything looked great...with the exception of the fact that the bow was still pointed at the sky a bit, something that would be rectified by moving the boat forward and balancing out the weight on the pontoons. At that moment, my mother-in-law showed up and asked if we'd like to come by their boat for some lunch, so we dropped our tools and went a couple docks over to their Sea Ray.
About an hour later, my phone rings, and its the Candyman...Dan Vasta...saying "Hey...that thing looks great...let's take it for a ride!" So, we roll back over to our dock, I drop the boat back down in the water, and raise the hatches to give it the pre-run check. What do I see, but a bunch of water in the bilge. Crap. Granted...it's not a TON of water, but there's definately water in there that wasn't there before. So, I climb in the bilge to see if I've got a split hose or something. I then notice the water has a rainbow sheen to it...dip my finger in...and give it a sniff....
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03-08-2012 12:30 PM
Well...what I thought was water was much, much worse. It was gas. Fresh gas. Probably 5 gallons worth. Yikes. I shut the batteries off and started throwing buckets of water in the bilge to dilute it...and this is where my story has a lucky moment...the automatic bilge pumps kicked on and I did not blow up. Whew. I called Dan and told him I had a HUGE problem, and after I explained, he rallied the troops from T-dock and they came to the rescue. We towed the boat with a dinghy over to the launch ramp (a tail-between-the-legs moment if I've ever had one!), and I ran to get my truck and trailer. In order to keep the bow high and prevent the gas from moving forward, I inverted the 6-inch drop on my trailer hitch, GENTLY put the boat on the trailer, and pulled it out...all the way to the back of the huge parking lot in Hammond. At this point, the hero of the day stepped in. Mike Lucina took charge and almost instantly found the problem...someone had removed/replaced the sending units on top of the gas tanks and stripped out one of the threaded holes on top of the port tank...replacing the machine screw with a tin screw, which didn't provide enough torque to seal the gasket on top of the tank. Add to that the fact that I had just filled the boat to the brim before putting it in the water AND the fact that it had just spent an hour sitting at a protracted angle to the stern...it was puking gas all over. We "discreetly" pulled the drain plug and let the gas pour into the lot...SHHHHHH!!!!....then Mike rigged up a new setup involving an inverted screw and washer...and it was done. I left the boat on the trailer that night with the hatches up and cleaned the HELL out of it the next day to get rid of any gas smell.
I had owned the boat for two weeks and had almost sunk it and almost blown it up. Awesome.
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03-08-2012 02:19 PM
So I made you read a bunch...now for some pictures. 2005 had the Chicago Powerboat Club in full swingin' action. A couple weeks after I brought my boat home and managed not to blow it up, there was a photo run. I forget if it was like $50 or $60 per boat...two helicopters taking pics as each boat ran individually across Chicago's skyline. Definately cool, definately something we should do again... Here's some good ones: Our high school bud Jeff came out with us for the day. Fun Michelle was in effect (more on that in a bit). We met up at Jackson Harbor and ran down to McCormack Place to meet the choppers.