Tom,
Thanks for the account- brought back memories. We did the Lake Powell
house-boat thing once, and it was a blast. I brough my Cruisers and my
friends brought their ski-boat. That lake is so big and has so many remote
arms, it was awesome. Didn't catch many fish, but had a lot of fun.
While we were parked at the entrance of an arm, but stil in the main
channel, a jet fighter buzzed the canyon at such speed that we couldn't hear
it coming. If flew over the water at 50 feet just a hundred feet from us.
The first one surprised us and shocked the beejabbers out of us. We hooted
and hollered at each other becasue of the sheer horsepower and noise and
when he hit the afterburners to climb out of the canyon a half-mile away.
Than another one! Wow! didn't hear that one coming either! Boom! Gone-
just disappeared! Look! Here's another one coming way up over there...nope-
he's here! Woah! Canyon rattling roar that we could feel in our chests,
like a top fueler (nitro) dragster. Boom! After-burners and he dissapeared
as a spec and was gone. Seven BIG jets buzzed the canyon, and we were 100'
away from all of them. Don't know if they were flying supersonic, and they
didn't throw up a rooster tail, so I think they weren't. But when they hit
the after-burners as they climbed out, they had to be SS as fast as they
disappeared. So we had our own little mini air-show. I'd hate to be the
enemy with those things coming after me. Wouldn't know what killed me.
Back to you. New engine was a 2-stroke?
Did you need to mix oil with your gas? Oops...
just kidding...
DonO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Davenport" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 9:14 PM
Subject: [VFB] Lake Powell fishing trip
Took a look at all of the emails today, I've been a monthly rather than
daily email checker! Plus I have been doing as much fishing as I could
before the weather turned, spurred on partly by the purchase of a newer used
motor for my boat, which turned my boating experience from a nightmare to a
dream, from a smoking, noisy motor that would sometimes run into a lovely,
quiet, purring thing that responded instantly to every command.
I had a friend call me to invite me to spend a few days on his house boat at
Lake Powell, and now that I had a motor that was reliable and worked, I was
excited to do it. All went well until the second day. I was positioning my
boat to be filled with gasoline pumped from a tank on the boat; it was a
little windy and I had put the motor in reverse to reposition it, and then
put it into neutral (or so I thought). In reality the motor was engaged and
started moving forward. I was trying to figure out how the wind could move
the boat so steadily when it hit the metal railing of the houseboat and
snapped the boats windshield off, also pushing the throttle back into
reverse! (Being stupid can be such a drag at times.)
Well, we took off anyway, me with a half of windshield, and fished a canyon
after going 10 miles or so up the main channel. We were fishing for
stripers holding deep, and fishing was slow; but the weather was nice and it
was just good to be in such a beautiful place. (I only had one fish on which
got away when the knot came unraveled.)
Around two in the afternoon we turned to go back to the houseboat for lunch,
and I was having the time of my life motoring along the main channel of Lake
Powell at 45 mph on glassy smooth water. Suddenly I heard and ominous
clanking sound coming from my motor and immediately turned it off. It was
obvious that something was terribly wrong. I couldn't believe it! I have
been lucky in love, but very unlucky with boats!
My friend came up from behind in his boat, and towed me directly to the
ramp. I loaded up and came home a day early, pretty bummed.
Well, the story has a happier ending. I took it up to the dealer, and he
quickly established that the boat had thrown a piston, probably due to the
failure of an oil injector. Even though it was bought used, and without any
kind of warranty, the dealer said he would fix it, since I had had it less
that 30 days. He was willing to pay for it all, but I offered to at least
pay for the parts, since he really didn't have any obligation to make the
repair. I told him he could take his time, since I had planned this to be
the last trip of the year, so he offered to shrink wrap and store it for
free so he could do the repair when things slowed down in the winter months.
Pretty nice guy.
Now I know that some of you are curious to know what kind of motor it was,
but I don't want to get into the "which brand is best" conversation, since I
have already made the purchase. I will say this much: It was a 2004 two-
stroke with only 68 hours of use on it, and it ran like a dream: quiet,
smooth, and reliably. I think the malfunction was a fluke, or a "snakebite"
as my brother calls it.
So now I'm going back to fly fishing my local river, with maybe a trip or
two in my kick boat if the weather allows. In some ways it is a kind of
relief to get back to a simpler world of fishing.
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