Two Boating Mishaps
I've attempted to go boating twice in the past month, and both times it has resulted in the boat being towed back to shore after the motor died.
First, I went to Del Valle Regional Park with Sei, Christine and Nicholas. After a pleasant picnic in the park, we decided to rent a boat. For some reason, the Livermore teens staffing the boat rental had huge black discs in their earlobes, which should have been our first sign of trouble. When we got into our boat and took off, Sei kept complaining that the throttle wasn't responding. In fact, when he moved the throttle forward, the engine died. After sqeezing the ball in the fuel line quite a bit, we got the engine started again, but it died immediately. All this time, Nicholas was crying because he didn't like the life jacket and his new Junior A's cap had flown into the water. We flagged down another boat and asked them if they could let the Livermore teens know that our boat was dead.
There was a strong breeze that day, and our boat started floating toward the swimming beach. As we were about to come ashore, we waved and yelled to a large family playing on the beach that they should get out of the way. But they just stood there and stared at us. When our boat came ashore, I thought they were going to shake our hands and ask us what happened. But they started yelling at us. The wife said in a very loud voice, "I can't believe they didn't say excuse me." I kept telling the husband we didn't have any power, but he didn't seem to understand. Even a little girl was yelling at us, saying that we destroyed the hole she was digging.
This all made for great amusement once we were safely out of the park and tasting wine at a local vineyard.
The second mishap happened this week at Springsteel Resort on Lake of the Woods in Minnesota. I'm visiting my parents, and we went to Springsteel to dock their fishing boat. When we put the boat in the water, it wouldn't start, so my dad asked the guy who rented the dock if he could get the motor started. He did get it started after a lot of fiddling around, so my dad and I took off out onto Lake of the Woods. When I pushed the throttle down, however, I noticed that it didn't respond. We took a short tour and then began to return home. We were almost back to Springsteel when the motor died completely. My dad and I tried rowing in, but the wind was too strong. Then we tried the trolling motor, but that didn't work either. Finally we had to flag down a boat just leaving the harbor, who kindly towed us back to the dock.
First, I went to Del Valle Regional Park with Sei, Christine and Nicholas. After a pleasant picnic in the park, we decided to rent a boat. For some reason, the Livermore teens staffing the boat rental had huge black discs in their earlobes, which should have been our first sign of trouble. When we got into our boat and took off, Sei kept complaining that the throttle wasn't responding. In fact, when he moved the throttle forward, the engine died. After sqeezing the ball in the fuel line quite a bit, we got the engine started again, but it died immediately. All this time, Nicholas was crying because he didn't like the life jacket and his new Junior A's cap had flown into the water. We flagged down another boat and asked them if they could let the Livermore teens know that our boat was dead.
There was a strong breeze that day, and our boat started floating toward the swimming beach. As we were about to come ashore, we waved and yelled to a large family playing on the beach that they should get out of the way. But they just stood there and stared at us. When our boat came ashore, I thought they were going to shake our hands and ask us what happened. But they started yelling at us. The wife said in a very loud voice, "I can't believe they didn't say excuse me." I kept telling the husband we didn't have any power, but he didn't seem to understand. Even a little girl was yelling at us, saying that we destroyed the hole she was digging.
This all made for great amusement once we were safely out of the park and tasting wine at a local vineyard.
The second mishap happened this week at Springsteel Resort on Lake of the Woods in Minnesota. I'm visiting my parents, and we went to Springsteel to dock their fishing boat. When we put the boat in the water, it wouldn't start, so my dad asked the guy who rented the dock if he could get the motor started. He did get it started after a lot of fiddling around, so my dad and I took off out onto Lake of the Woods. When I pushed the throttle down, however, I noticed that it didn't respond. We took a short tour and then began to return home. We were almost back to Springsteel when the motor died completely. My dad and I tried rowing in, but the wind was too strong. Then we tried the trolling motor, but that didn't work either. Finally we had to flag down a boat just leaving the harbor, who kindly towed us back to the dock.
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