Wife Learning to Drive the Boat
Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:07 pmSo I'm trying to get my wife more comfortable driving the boat. It's a 16' deep V with a 50 hp outboard. Top speed is maybe 25 mph.
We went out Sunday afternoon on a fairly busy river. She backed away from the dock and navigated through a windy stretch of river about 4 miles long with quite a bit of boat and jetski traffic. She went a lot slower than necessary, but did good.
After that it dumps into another river with a shipping channel that is a little more wide open. There is about a 1.5 mile stretch between a no wake zone and a dam that doesn't get a lot of recreational traffic, but enough that there are waves and there was a little wind. Some bigger boats, some smaller, with different wakes to deal with and a lot of open water to run. Pretty much the right conditions for getting comfortable driving the boat.
So my wife made a couple laps in this area and building her confidence. Still running slower than necessary when encountering wakes, but definitely getting more comfortable. So she tells me she is going to go faster and get more comfortable bouncing on the wakes.
She makes one run up the river at full speed. Pretty much no boat traffic around. Turns around and is running full speed back down the river when there is a huge thud, the boat comes to essentially a dead stop, water floods in over the back
A freak sunk log floating down the channel. I thought my boat was fucked.
She wants to put the life jacket on. I jump in the driver's seat. The motor is still running, I give it some gas and it is going. I get the front end up and hit the bilge pump. OK, the boats moving and we are not seeming to fill with water
Still not running right, but we are running. I start limping back to the dock. About a 4 mile run. Things just don't feel right. Once comfortably out of the shipping channel and I'm sure we were not filling with water. I stopped, lifted the motor and watched a sizable chunk of a log float away.
Then the boat ran just fine. But taking no chances, we ran back to the dock, put it on the trailer. Everything looks fine. No damage. Well no new damage. But we'd had enough excitement and headed home.
I'll be curious next time we get out if my wife will be gun shy. Just one of those freak things. We were running in the channel, no debris around, just that damn random sunken log under the water and out of sight.
We went out Sunday afternoon on a fairly busy river. She backed away from the dock and navigated through a windy stretch of river about 4 miles long with quite a bit of boat and jetski traffic. She went a lot slower than necessary, but did good.
After that it dumps into another river with a shipping channel that is a little more wide open. There is about a 1.5 mile stretch between a no wake zone and a dam that doesn't get a lot of recreational traffic, but enough that there are waves and there was a little wind. Some bigger boats, some smaller, with different wakes to deal with and a lot of open water to run. Pretty much the right conditions for getting comfortable driving the boat.
So my wife made a couple laps in this area and building her confidence. Still running slower than necessary when encountering wakes, but definitely getting more comfortable. So she tells me she is going to go faster and get more comfortable bouncing on the wakes.
She makes one run up the river at full speed. Pretty much no boat traffic around. Turns around and is running full speed back down the river when there is a huge thud, the boat comes to essentially a dead stop, water floods in over the back
A freak sunk log floating down the channel. I thought my boat was fucked.
She wants to put the life jacket on. I jump in the driver's seat. The motor is still running, I give it some gas and it is going. I get the front end up and hit the bilge pump. OK, the boats moving and we are not seeming to fill with water
Still not running right, but we are running. I start limping back to the dock. About a 4 mile run. Things just don't feel right. Once comfortably out of the shipping channel and I'm sure we were not filling with water. I stopped, lifted the motor and watched a sizable chunk of a log float away.Then the boat ran just fine. But taking no chances, we ran back to the dock, put it on the trailer. Everything looks fine. No damage. Well no new damage. But we'd had enough excitement and headed home.
I'll be curious next time we get out if my wife will be gun shy. Just one of those freak things. We were running in the channel, no debris around, just that damn random sunken log under the water and out of sight.
