Misadventure Adventure

The day started today when my bladder demanded that it start, which was a quarter past six. Not having an ensuite is less fun. I also had to pee off the deck at 3:42am in a light rain. I didn’t want to use the bathroom and risk waking the dogs. They’re so dumb they’d just stay awake. I didn’t get out of bed right away, instead I listened to a podcast and then watched some YouTube content. Eventually I rose and showered. Breakfast was a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, something I haven’t had in years. It was as remembered.

The next portion of the day was filled with promise for fun and enjoyment. The plan was for me to help the Mayor put his boat (pictured below) in the lake. I helped him do this last year. We put it in, took a rip around to run the engine and test everything out. This year the plan was to do some fishing while we were testing everything out. He likes to have help to tie it to the dock while he pulls the trailer out of the water. He gets a little anxious about backing the trailer down the ramp with every fool in the area watching him. I don’t blame him, it’s like teeing off on the first tee with everyone around watching you, higher pressure.

The backing aspect went flawlessly. He poured the trailer down the ramp in short order, perfectly straight. That was the last thing that went well for a spell. We got on the boat and started getting pushed by the wind as he attempted to start the motor. He has had issues repeatedly with this motor, it’s a special edition that seems to be a nightmare. He has put a lot of time and money into it and it still struggles. Today was no different. It started a few times but spurtered out shortly after. We were nearly out into the lake proper and I was trying to keep us off the rocks. Things weren’t looking great. He decided to try and get the little kicker motor going to guide us back into the marina. It was having issues starting also. We suspected that it wasn’t drawing fuel like it should, we may have been correct. We opened the breather valve after he’d about played himself out reefing the cord and it tried to run but it was struggling. We had to turn to the paddles at that point. We were out in the lake proper, about 120’ from the nearest dock by then. The paddling was fairly unpleasant. It was a good way for him to take out his simmering rage and for me to get a free workout in.

We got the boat tied up at an auxillary dock within the bounds of the marina and the Mayor went to work on the kicker motor. With the breather valve open we were able to get things running somewhat consistly but he still babied it, it wasn’t running great. He also tried to get the big beast going but it was doing about the same thing as before. The decision was made to use the kicker to drive it around back to the launching dock at the ramp and load it up to take it home again. The Mayor was pretty cheesed off at this point, mainly exasperated with the main motor. This has been an on-going issue for some time now. Lots of people slowed to gawk as they passed, including his daughter, KJMH who was running with her baby. She wasn’t shocked it didn’t work and felt bad but had to carry on with the run to get the baby home. The day wasn’t going great anymore.

The little kicker chugged us slowly around to the original dock and he tied the back of the boat to the dock. I wrapped the rope around the front once and held it while he went to get the truck and trailer to load it on. As he was perfectly descending the ramp for a second time, it started to rain a bit. I looked into the boat and saw my crocs and figured I should get them now so I have them to walk back up the hill to the parking lot. I had the rope in my hand when I stepped on the boat with my left foot. The boat jerked away from the dock, I pulled the rope but it did nothing. The boat kept slowly sliding outward away from the dock where my right foot still resided. I started doing the splits. This was quickly becoming problematic and I rotated to do the splits JCVD style. I desperately groped for the reaching stick on the front seat that we’d been using to keep us off the rocks. I hooked it on the cleat and pulled madly to try and bring the boat back. I wasn’t able to do it, and that extra pulling got me off balance and I tumbled into the lake. Luckily it was a clean entry outside of my foot banging the dock as I fell. I had my life jacket on so was able to get to the surface easily. I started swimming to shore but soon realized I could use the dock to pull myself along. I got to the shallow area and stood. I quickly pulled out my phone, FitBit and keys. I reached for my wallet only to find it missing from the pocket it was in. The other devices worked but my heart was sinking quickly. I pulled off the life jacket and hoody I had on and the Mayor looked at me, soaking wet, in surprise. I told him why I was soaking wet and he laughed until I mentioned my wallet and sunglasses were missing (I’d noticed that also). He took the boat back to his place and grabbed his pool skimmer. While he was gone I started carefully walking the concrete pad of the launch, feeling with my feet. In a few minutes I’d found my sunglasses, unscratched! That gave me some confidence that I’d find my wallet. I had pretty much search the entire pad about six feet from the dock to the end of the pad. After that it was over my head and I couldn’t reach bottom. We used the skimmer until it broke but only pulled up stones. Mother happened to be walking by with a friend and then came to chat with us. A couple of hours passed and things were feeling bleak. There was no telling where it could have floated or even where it fell out. It could be anywhere along the dock or under it, or further out on the pad. The wind was blowing in at the time but changed later in the day to go out, it’s hard to say where it might be. I am offering a $150 reward for it’s return.

I spent a couple hours in the cold water before we gave up and I was feeling it. My core temp was definitely down. We went back to the Mayor’s place as a pair of dejected dudes. We got the boat cleaned back out and closed up. My aunt insisted that I put a blanket around my shoulders to keep me warm. It had some fringe on it, I tied it around my neck to keep it in place while we emptied the boat. As it happened, the high school was having their graduation ceremony or ceremonies more specifically. Each graduate got their name and future plans announced while the parents filmed from their car. Then they moved down the street before loading and leaving. On the other side of the street was a soaking wet, grown man in a makeshift cape, snapping the cover on a boat. That had to be a great memory for the three or four who walked by. We brought the boat back to the farm and I started working on figuring out what I needed to do to get my life back together. First step was a temporary driver’s licence. This would give me some ID for the other aspects and let me drive around to do them myself. Mother came home from her pickleball matches and brought me to the DMV equivalent. Ten minutes before they closed my number was called and it was a very painless process. I told the guy I fell in the lake and lost my wallet and within five minutes I was walking out. We went down to the boat ramp and Mother had threatened to snorkel and look. But she’d never snorkeled before, just brought the Big T’s snorkel. The Mayor brought a leaf rake and another device he uses to clean snow off the roof. We tried for a short time with those tools to find it but couldn’t do much. The water was much colder at this point, further impeding things. We called it after only thirty minutes or searching and basically gave up completely. I can only recount the various decisions that led to me being in that position, so many opportunities to not be there, only one way for it to happen. We drove home, I was feeling dejected. But luckily, as if she knew, Mother had made one of my absolute favourite meals, tuna casserole. It took about a half hour to heat up but it was very welcome.

I was a very tough day but in the end I’m glad no one was hurt. I’m going to be very incovenienced to try and get everything back. I have a pretty good idea every card that was in the wallet and there was no cash, so no loss there. It’s just upsetting. And the motor for the Mayor is a disappointment. So much so that he bought a used motor of the same size, but with a normal configuration that afternoon and he’s driving seven hours to go get it tomorrow. He was definitely sick of dealing with that other one. He asked if I wanted to go on the road trip with him but I’ve got a full schedule for tomorrow and I need to get my life back in order. That would have been a fun voyage too though. I hope he gets a working motor and gets to enjoy the boat. The evening was spent watching crappy TV, mostly Chopped, with my parents. Bed was around ten.