20th Century Tales Forum

Rescue On The Ouachita (Wa-shi-tah)

It all started out innocent enough. It was a typically lazy Friday morning with a pretty nice break in the weather forecast and that means fishing in my book.

Gigi, my beautiful city girl wife was off that day (she has three-day week-ends, to my delight) so she was anxious to get on Gigis Fancy (our [retirement special] 21 fishin/party barge) and go for a pleasant fishing trip.

Now, Fancy stays at the ready with me in my retirement mode and all, so it didnt take long for us to be on our way to the bait shop for some minnows and last minute fish food for us. I had hurriedly packed a few things to eat. One can never tell how long a boat ride may last when youre fishin with meespecially if the fish are bitin.

On the way, with Fancy trailing behind, Gigi got out her new TomTom to show me how good it was. Before I know it I have this bossy-soundin woman tellin me to Turn RIGHT or Turn LEFT etc. Well, it/she didnt know beans about how to get to Ouachita through the country. Oh honey, just give it a try. You might learn a new way to the lake Gigi said. Against my better judgment, but wanting to please, I finally took the machines advice and turned to a road that I was almost sure thought would wind up on Sunshine Road.

So here we go, windin through hill and dale Turn LEFT; Turn RIGHT 300 yards, she barked. I obeyed and we got to goin just fine. It was new country and quite pleasantuntil I rounded a corner to see an 80 pine tree across the entire road!! It had been there for MONTHS, but TomTom didnt KNOW it. No, No.

Here we are on a two-lane blacktop about 18 wide and us with a barge behind us and nowhere to turn around. We backed and backed, straight back until we finally came to a residence with a long winding drive. We took off down that private drive just like we knew them! The problem was his circle drive way was way too sharp for Fancy to follow us around. SO we did the next best thing. We backed (again) half way out to the road and then I put the ole Jimmie in forward and we made us a wide circle into his side field and we disappeared into the woods as fast as we could. It was an omen.

We finally got the bait and goodies and lauched Fancy all in good time, at Twin Creeks ramp. Gigi parked the truck and trailer and we were on our way down the lake to Denby Point (Ouachita Shores Marina).

I had decided to fish the marina itself to see if we could pick up a few crappie in the shadows of the docks. It was a chillish 52 degrees, but as long as we stayed out of the medium wind and in the sunlight, it was tolerable. We fished all morning without a single fish. I had had enough. We pulled up and headed across the lake to the north bank to escape the increasing SW wind.

We fished a few brush piles I know of there, hoping to catch a few but it was just slow. I began to bass fish and was lucky enough, to Gigis angst, to catch three bass in a row, the biggest being 15. Not bad for a tight-lipped bunch o fish. We decided to fish until 5:30 pm and then head back to the house and clean up sos we could take in a movie that evening with daughter Ashlea.

As the sun got lower in the sky it got cooler and cooler. Gigi had a headache watching me catch those fish donchaknow and asked if there was any coffee left in the thermos. I said, No, but I will make you a fresh pot. She looked surprised. In WHat? In the coffee pot Tom and Carol gave us for Christmas. Thats WHat. It was a 12v, 2-cup pot, complete with its own filter and coffee. I was cool can you tell.

I proceeded to fill the pot with water and fresh grounds and plugged it into the cirarette lighter-like receptacle. Well, it started bumpin and fumin but it took forever for it to get the two cupsand it seemed just luke warm at best. Hmmmm, something was not right here. It was 5:45 pm when I noticed the depth finder was deadand the gauges were all dead. The horn was (you guessed it) d e a d. DEAD. I turned the ignition switch.
D E A D to the max.

Here we were, with fifteen minutes of daylight left. The cranking battery dead and the three 12v batteries, wired in series, for the trolling motor on its last leg; the wind a steady 10 mph coming out of the South and we were in a cove on the NORTH shore with three miles of big water between us and the comfort of the heater of the GMC. Murphys Law is alive and well on this 20th day of February 2009.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2009 06:14AM by Wayne in BC.

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A liar will assume you are lying

I live on a lake in Texas and have a pontoon boat also . It took a while but learned to take everything extra you can because if it can break it will break .sometimes theres just room for me and 1 pole

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wait to hear the rest of it! ILY, Sis

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...to achieve 36 volts. The trolling motor I bought from Scott and Linda is a mammoth and requires 36 volts! It's just what the doctor ordered for that pontoon boat--especially in medium to medium heavy winds. That motor, when set to 100% output will JERK that boat around all day long and then some.

I'm attempting to get Gigi to download certain photos sos I can resize them and include them in the upcoming parts.

Thanks for the post!

aj

The boat is four months old. Gigi and I bought it for each other when I retired. As a result, I outfitted it with a small fortune of 'stuff' thinking, 'well, now I've not all I need.' Maybe not yet.

I'm waitin' on my photos before I post again.



aj

Part II

Now with the three trolling marine batteries, I thought we were safe. After all, I did have a new set of heavy-duty jumper cables. Alls I had to do was hook em up to the dead battery and all would be well, right? Not exactly.

I isloated one of the marine batteries, hooked up the cables with light fading fast and turned the ignition. Just a grunt and nothin else. This was NOT cool. Actually the night air was almost upon us, like the ever-present chill of a February wind. No matter. I had the situation under control. I grabbed the emergency rope from the front storage locker and headed back to the rear. I popped the Yahama 90 engine cover off, and then the flywheel guard came off with the last bit of natural light we had. With Gigi holding the flashlight, I wound the rope carefully around the flywheel, with the motor in neutral, with T handle in my hand, I gave it a mighty yank. The damned thang nearly threw my shoulder out of socket. I looked for a decompression valve but there was none to be found in the night. I tried it a couple more times and quickly abandoned the idea of a mechanical start. There had to be another way.

The suns final pink-crimson glow had abandoned us and star-struck canopy now over us, we were far from the nearest source of civilization. Ouachita has wild, undeveloped shoresit was designed that way by the Corps of Engineers--and most of the time it is a real blessing. But right at the time, well, I wished I was on one of those commercial lakes with condos every fifteen feet down the bank.

With the little juice I had leftthe MinKota 101 on 100% thrust--I headed the boat out of the North cove, toward Striper Point, as far as I could go. The closer I got to Striper Point, the more the South wind worked against us and finally, we stood still, making no headway in the dark, so, with little power, I turned Fancy into the westerly bank in a sheltered cove and beached, tying her off securely to some buck brush. Ahhhh. No windwhat a relief.

My little city wife was well frazzled by now and not too amused with the whole thing. Long ago she had called Ashea and told her we would make the movie another time. Geesh! So now, we turned our efforts to the rescue. We had done all WE could do and there was not another swingin soul on the lake. So who do you call? It was a simple question with but one answer.

I picked up my cell--the only thing on the bless-ed boat with good batteries-- and dialed Lil-brother Tom. Hallo. Whadayadoin? Oh, jus sittin around watchin a little tv. WhadaYAdoin? Im out here on OuachitaSTILL????? You dumazzz! (He didnt know half the story but he was about to). I told him the sad tale about the coffee pot that THEY gave us making MY battery go dead etc. etc etc and he said, Whadaya want me to do? Come and GET me!!!!

I hear this laughin in the background and then I sense he is once again puttin the phone to his ear, You hungry? No, I got candy bars, cokes, chicken and a 15 bass and a grill on board if I get hungry. Okay, let me get my burger and Ill head to your house (thats where HIS boat is) and Ill be out there in an hour or so. Okay, brother, well damn-sure be here, thats fer sur. With that, he hung up and I turned my attention to other thingslike my wide-eyed little wife.

We called Ashlea and gave her an update and then made another to sister Linda. With no one else left to call, we put the phone away and my thoughts soon drifted back to the matters at hand.

Now, folks, a man needs to make his wife as comfortable as possible at ALL times right? But esPECicially on the boatwhen the wind is whippin and the temperature is dipping, a guys just gotta make her comfortableespecially at a time like that. She IS my fishin buddy and I DO want her to enjoy herself. She doesnt need to imagine the lions, tigers and bears in the deep dark woods so I figured I must keep her busy. Hmmmm.

I got the Little Buddy heater out and put a propane tank in and proceeded to light it up. No go. It was contankerous in the windy conditions and I soon tired of its finikiness and all but made a trotline weight of it. What will we do now, honey, Gigi asked. I have another plan. I pulled out my Swiss-made denatured ancohol heater that I happened to leave on board from a turkey hunt that never happened, a few weeks ago. I was glad to see it. Its the size of a metal minow bucket. I loaded the resevoir with a quart of denatured alcohol and lit it in fine fashion. It gave a welcome warmth and a flickering, comforting glow as I put it all back together and turned it to the maximum (5000 btu) setting. Gigi was warm nowand I was happy (er).

We had eaten our ham sandwiches many hours ago and Gigi had found some snacks in one of the storage bins on the boat and I could tell she was thinking about dinner. You got any of that KFC handy, she asked? To both our delights, she had jogged my memory and I produced two huge fried chicken breasts that had been cooked by the Colonel two days ago and we chowed down. Okay; we were warm and now we were full. Whats next.

I had to keep her mind busy so I tapped into some of my leftover knowledge from an astronomy class I had nearly three decades ago. Within thirty minutes of scanning the stunning beauty of the starlit heavens, she knew how to find the Big Dipper, the North Star, the Little Dipper Orion, Venus, Mars (or Jupiter I dunno which) and things were going well. The heater was ablazin and the wind was shielded from us. We just made the best of the situation. I loved on her and we took a couple of photos. I look awful, she said. You look beautiful! She just grinned and put her head on my shoulder. These are good times donchaknow.

Folks, this is my element as you know (those of you that know me). But for everything the great outdoors IS to me it is NOT to Gigi. She tolerates it because she loves me. But she is a real trooper and did quite well the whole night. But, to further distract, we got out her new camera and took plenty more photos of this epic adventure.

Stay tuned.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2009 11:20PM by Wayne in BC.

calls me ,and asks "whatcha doin?", I quickly reply, I"am busy! Why?. Cause usually he is stuck, or needs a ride to pick up a car or boat he just purchased. Most of the time its an hour ride each way!! I have a best friend also, who does the same thing! So i am very careful in any response to a call, when i am finally relaxing...which isn't to often. Of course i end up helping either of them, can't leave them stranded... Oh Well... It is nice having some one to one time with the Honey, but NOT when you are stuck somewhere....Keep it coming!!

There is a final segment that may get posted tonight if I can get the photos lined up.

Thanks for postin'.

aj

No matter how well you prepare, there are days when anything that can go wrong does. :

calm seas

Mikie

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"A dog is better than me, for she has love and does not judge"

"Surfing is not a matter of life and death...... it is much more important than that"

motor batteries separated, aintcha???

That sucks real big time. Too bad sis was not there to paddle!! Or give you the finger like last time

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http://royalottmar.blogspot.com/

INCREDIMAIL TECH SUPPORT SUCKS. IT IS TERRIBLE AND DO NOT SIGN UP FOR INCREDIMAIL!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2009 03:40PM by Royal.

I will tell you one thing, not all of my adventures have turned out perfect for sure. I have slept in a dang ice shanty with no heat, slept in a dang boat bottom on more than one occasion and I told you guys the Lorenz lake thingie.

Where are the Pichers buddy !!

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http://royalottmar.blogspot.com/

INCREDIMAIL TECH SUPPORT SUCKS. IT IS TERRIBLE AND DO NOT SIGN UP FOR INCREDIMAIL!!