Sometimes I Should Have Just Stayed in Bed!

I spent most of Sunday night getting the boat ready for the big trip on Monday. An old friend Lory Brasel just moved back into the neighborhood from a 8 year hiatus and I decided to see if he wanted to join Tom and I on the Big Pond. The chart on the left is known as a Beaufort Scale. When my friend Dale Stenseth began his around the world Freighter Cruise one of the first things he asked me to look up was the Beaufort Scale. This is developed in 1806 by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, and officer in the British Royal Navy, to standardize wind and wave conditions. The chart uses numbers from 0 - 12 to describe an ever increasing wind/wave combinations using simple observations. Based on what it felt like on Mille Lacs, I would have sworn it was a 9. Ok, so I might be exaggerating but my body says different. With the wind coming from the SE we decided to launch out of Cove, on the SW side of the lake. Rounding the point we headed to Sloppy Joe's with the whitecaps clearly in our sights. Stopping first at Kings Reef, it became clear that drifting at 2 mph and rocks make a poor combination so we continued. Two drifts and not one fish marked on the Genetron, we headed straight into the wind, deciding to stop and see Bill at his new digs located in Izaty's. Gathering our thoughts and assessing the wind, we headed for the Banana Reef, hopefully to offer some relief as well as take advantage of what should have been a great bobber wind. The plan was simple, anchor in 18 feet of water and let enough line out to have the back end of the boat in 12 feet. Throwing out my new "this will hold anything" Richter Anchor with a 4 foot chain and 100 feet of line, it should have been a no brainer. Famous last words. I have fished Halibut in Alaska where the tide is so strong the anchor simply slowed our drift. Deja Vu! Although I thought the anchor held, I became concerned when our bobbers started moving the opposite way. We must have drifted about 100 yards before the anchor finally found something to hang on to. What I find fascinating was the appearance of a pontoon that circled us a couple of times, not realizing we were at the mercy of the wind, his reference was based on our "anchor position". He decided to anchor right next to us, dab in the middle of the reef where no one in there right mind would be. Of course by the time they got settled, we had already left him heading down wind! I see this all the time, he sees 3 guys in a Ranger, conditions only paying customers would endure, and the only ones there, must be where the guides are catching fish. We decided to give him the whole reef and pulled anchor, wondering if he ever did figure out our secret technique.

This is when the fun really started. For whatever reason my 115 Suzuki (Suzy) decided to try and commit suicide. The minute I started the motor to leave for some reason it decided to begin trimming up all on its own and I could not get it to stop. The next emotion was panic thinking one of my guest had inadvertently stepped on one of my trim buttons (or worse, it was me) however it was not the case. Trying everything known to me I failed to stop the upward movement until 10 seconds later it had literally snapped the tiller handle off the engine, punched a hole in my cowling and it proceed to snap off the shift lever. Uffda!!! I am not sure what I did but it finally quit. Too late, we were 8 miles from the landing and 2 miles off shore, the motor was completely out of the water, and the wind was pushing us into the abyss. This is when I practice the fine art of CUSS (Calm Under Severe Stress). My first order was to try and get the motor trimmed back down into the water. It took about a minute but finally got it to start moving. Now the damage could be assessed. The tiller handle was parallel to my transom and completely worthless. I had shut the engine off and figured we had better get it going or face arriving in Garrison soon. A turn of the key produced nothing. My shift lever is located on the tiller handle and it fell off the second I touched it. Knowing I had to get the motor in neutral to start it, I took the hood off but the shift area was inaccessible. This forced me to tear apart the tiller handle and my Leatherman provided the means. Getting it out of gear, a turn of the key, and the Suzy came back to life. I got it in gear however it became obvious that if I wanted to go anywhere I'd have to put the handle minimally back together again. After a few attempts, we were on our way. The strategy was to head directly into the wind until we got to calmer water before we would try anything fancy. I called Bill Lundeen who suggested we motor to a closer resort and he would meet us there. About half way I was getting daring and accidentally shut the motor off which meant taking the handle apart again, another 10 minutes wasted. Our top speed was a whooping 6 mph and simply staying on course was challenging. It was incredibly difficult to turn the motor and I am glad we were not any further out. I have brought the boat to my dealer, called the insurance agency, and hope to be back in business next weekend. As state before, 10 years ago this would have tied me in knots. I have learned that most things are beyond my control so just accept it and plan your revenge on the fish!