Share your "DOH!" boating moments

[coachlaw]

I'll start.

It's been a while since I pulled something like this out of my rear. Saturday we had VJER's dad and his buddy Dean out at the camp. When they were done fishing, VJER's wife Lynne came down to pick them up at the ramp. We got the boat loaded up and ready to roll, but when I went to turn the key, nothing. No problem. Just need to tighten up the battery connections. Nope. Dang, I just used the boat, what's the problem. Vic went to grab another battery out of the camp and we switched them. Nothing. This battery must be bad too. Got another one and nothing again. Well at this point I'm pretty worried.

I've got Lynne at the dock, Vic's dad and Dean are tired and ready to get gone and I have no kicker motor to save my butt. I'm fixing to get under the console to inspect things. I'm contemplating hailing the guys down the bayou fishing and offering them some dough to get the guys to the dock. I'm relatively certain that whatever it is I won't be able to fix it. Regardless, I'm up the creek with nothing but a paddle.

Then Dean says, "Hey Sandy, did you make sure it's not still in gear?"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I check it and sure enough, it was just barely in gear, not enough to see that it was in gear, but in gear nonetheless. Nothing but a good old Homer Simpson, "DOH!" for a moment like that. My sheepish feeling was assuaged greatly by my relief that it was not something terribly wrong with the boat.


So, share you most "DOH!" boating moments. No raggin' on other people here, you only get to taddle on yourself.

[imhammer]

I got too many to even try to type on here. Here is the best one.

My 4yo son and I were out last winter. It was 50 degrees and the water temp was just over that. I pulled up on a little island next to a channel and pulled the boat so it would stay. I had planned on staying for just a few minutes, but looked at my watch and we had been there for an hour with a hard incoming tide. I said "Camo...it's time to go." to which he replies "We can't leave dad, the boat is floating away." I stripped down to my underwear and swam out about 50 yds and got the boat. When I got back he had my phone out and was punching buttons. I asked him what he was doing and he replied "I gotta call mom and tell her you we swimming to get the boat!".........It took me a long time to stop laughing at that one!

Jeremy has a few he can tell of trips with me!

[vjer]

Ok...It's my turn...

Tres had asked to have his boat used for a weekend since it would be 3 weeks or so before he could use it. I said I would be glad to run it for him. I get to the camp with my little brother (I use that term loosely...he is not quite as big as I am, but he is a big'un) and we set out some rods and started doing some work. My buddy Dean was supposed to come out the next day to do some fishing. He called and said he was at the launch and I told him that I would be there to pic him up. I jumped in the boat and pumped the fuel bulb and cranked the engine. Nothing. We tried repeatedly and all it would do is turn over but not run. I called Sandy and he said change the battery. Same results. I called Dean back and said sorry, but the boat would not start and fishing was out of the question that day. We had a kicker motor to get us back to the launch but ran out of gas 3/4 of the way across and had to paddle and pole the rest of the way.

Sandy took the boat to the shop and the fix was simple. Hook up the danged kill switch! Apparently when I sat down, my big arse pulled the switch...LOLVic

[2112]

I forgot to remove the Tie Down Straps on the transome to the trailer and wonderd why I couldn't get the boat to back off the trailer...DOH!
At least I had the drain plugs in.

[TTU Wader]

I forgot to remove the Tie Down Straps on the transome to the trailer and wonderd why I couldn't get the boat to back off the trailer...DOH!
At least I had the drain plugs in.

Been there lol.. what else,

No drain plug in 48 degree water

No kill switch, trouble shooted for 2 hours like a mad man

I know there is more, these are just the ones of the top of my head.

[aqua pimp]

No kill switch, trouble shooted for 2 hours like a mad man

.

JT and myself pulled that one too. But I think we would have noticed sooner if it wasn't for all the d@mn Coors Lights LOL

AQUA PIMP

[coachlaw]

My moments seem to come when I haven't been drinking at all. Hmmmmm.

[Ibtsoom]

I've run mine out of gas -- twice!! Luckily I've been close to the dock both times.

Almost threw myself overboard running wide open in 8" of water in the middle of the winter. I was looking down at the water saying to myself -- "oh crap I hope this doesn't get any shallower" --- Boat caught a chop and if I wouldn't have had a death grip on the wheel I would have been bouncing across oysters. Learned my lesson -- now I run sitting down and wear the kill switch when I'm alone.

[Milkjug]

I tried to go under the Bayou Vista RR bridge with my rods up. There were people watching too.

I dropped overboard and lost an anchor I thought was tied on. It wasn't.

Sorry, nothing too special.

[Primer]

Hit more reefs in one day than I have in 2 years..

I don't always run west bay, but when I do.. I stay close to the ramp. Stay off the reefs my friends.

[JT]

man ive got a number of em including the one AP mentioned.

1. taking off w/ the power pole down. jerked the entire mount off and its a marker out there somehwere at slp.

2. my pre-bote days: I had rigged up a mount on my kayak for a trolling motor. i used it for years and it worked great to get me over the guts in a hurry so i could wade fish. became so confident that i quit taking a paddle w/ me. One chilly Novemeber i went out over the gut(s) at SLP. fished all evening and was the only one out there.

It was great! Started back in around dark and the battery was completely dead. I got to swim in chest waders, in cold water over those guts, pulling the Kayak by its leash; and then pull it w/ waders full of water the long walk back to shore.

Shortly after that I bought a bote and the stories get better.

[Robalo]

Fell out of boat at 2 am in canal while imbibed and trying to reset underwater light after poker game so we could fish rest of night-was in February and was cold during a thunderstorm-thanks to Claude the Chicken farmer I got back into the boat-we did get the light set!

Was out 40 miles on 9-9-99 and gummint repositioned gps satellites so gps wouldn't acquire but I thought it was just one of those days where the satellites were not in place but soon would be, after about 2 hours I tried a hard reset-nope, had gone out SLP-came in at Freeport on 1/8th tank left-was only off course by about 15 miles!

[Funk Shoal Brutha]

Hit more reefs in one day than I have in 2 years..

I don't always run west bay, but when I do.. I stay close to the ramp. Stay off the reefs my friends.

LOL... I have done that several places. The worst was in Matagorda back in Crab Lake about 5 years back. I had the wife with me and I knew about the big reef at the mouth of the lake coming in from the bayou because I had been there several times before. Well I decided that I didn't need to slow down much to go thru there this time and cut to the right on plane at the mouth. About that time I see a huge pecan tree log that had floated back in there somehow so instead of shutting down, I cut back in towards the reef like an idgit. After about 1 hour of pushing, pulling and spinning the hull around like a top, I finally got off the top of it. Both of my legs were solid red from blood from the knee down. Nothing bad, just a hundred or so knicks... thought the wife was going to pass out.

[FP10]

LOL, so far luckily my only one is the first time I backed up the trailer!! I am sure I will have some soon. Haven't had the boat long enough!

[PasadenaMan]

Some one stole the anchor from by friends 16 foot jon boat. My buddy decided to just use a cinder block and some rope. There was 4 of us in the boat and I was instructed to "Drop the block" Well Long story short there was not enough rope and we nearly capsized.