Man today sucked.

[tuned]

Man, I love a good disaster story. Sorry to hear of your trials, BigWalleye.
Badmoon, my heart bleeds for you, now quit yer cryin'.

Got another one for ya. Happened about 4 hours ago.
Birthday party for a friend at one of the campsites in the National Park. Beautiful spot but only enough beach for 2 boats. Otherwise rocks all around. We tied tight together and belayed the rear corners with line to trees on the sides.
Another guy stops by with a 25' cuddy and about six people intending to sleep on board. He ends up side tying to a flat, steep rock using a bunch of fenders, 3 anchors etc....
He is very proud of his dockage, the rest of us are a bit skeptical.
Several hours and 400 beers later, I am sleeping blissfully on the toon. Most others are in tents on shore. And the big cuddy is doing well....until the Mother Of All Boomers rolls in. And the fun begins.
Wind is howling straight line about 45 and the rain is more like a waterfall. Something does not feel right to me, so I get up to check it out. Aaaagh! My neighbor's stern line had either broken or come loose somehow. Pontoon is moving towards rocks with an extra boat trying to help squish her. I dive for my pike pole and use it to fend both boats off the rocks. But I cannot leave this pose or Al the Mirthmaker will be crushed like a beer can. So I stand there in the rain like a statue, in my underwear no less. Friggin' cold.
And my problems were nothing compared to my buddy in the cuddy. He is not very far away, but I cannot see him except for the occasional lightning flash. Nor can I help in any way as I am a bit occupied. I can hear the screaming tho, and the gut wrenching sounds of his boat grinding on the rocks. I think somebody fell in while they were scrambling around. It probably only lasted 30 minutes but seemed like hours. Somehow he got his boat out of there.
Aaaand still I stand there shivering in the rain.
I just talked to him and he racked his lower unit on rocks powering out of there. Plus he had to cut 2 anchors away.
Ain't boatin' fun??? I wouldn't have it any other way.

[badmoonrising]

But my sunburn really is bad.

[tuned]

But my sunburn really is bad.

Poor lil feller!
From what I just saw in NHB, you are probably burned in the shadow of a giant &*^%

[badmoonrising]

Come to think of it ... maybe

[Drago]

Bigwalleye,

Your day really sucked bad but I think ours 2 weeks ago scarred me more than I've ever been. We were parked at the Island with a few other boats when big storms formed miles south of the lake. No problem. They appeared to be moving east. Well, they grew and got closer. Some folks folded and blew the coup. It was us and a bow rider. All of a sudden the lake turned white with a big rainbow which kept getting bigger. By the time I figured out it was a sheet of rain, it was on us with hot stroke lightening popping all around the shoreline. The folks in the other boat yelled that they just saw a flare pop from the other side of the island. I was already in the process of pulling anchor and decided to lend a hand. I pulled around and discovered a full boat of non-English speaking folks with a dead engine. They needed to get to the "bay" on the far west side of the lake. We towed them 10 miles across the angry lake with lightning firing off all around. I have never been so scarred in my life - really a helpless feeling. I felt like we were the only ones out there but as we towed them, a few other boats slid in behind them - I can only guess to offer assistance if we needed it. We made it safe and are still here to tell the story. Sometimes the lake can really suck!

[curtiscapk]

Good story!!! Just goes to show that boaters rule