Since everyone is oh so very interested in my weekend, and what went on, I shall share.

It all started the week before. I asked this girl (let's call her Jen for the sake of the story) if she wanted to go to a race with me, and she said yes. She seemed really excited about it, as was I. So all week I was psyched up and loaded with anticipation. Unfortunately I blew the engine in my boat the week before, so I couldn't take that but I had another boat at my disposal. A 28' instead of my 36'. So on Friday I got most of my stuff together for the trip and cleared my schedule for Saturday so I could clean the boat for the trip and get everything ready. Like I said, psyched.

So Saturday came and I got up, went down and got the boat, bringing it to the dock and tying it up. The engine box isn't all that great and it slides back during a trip letting the noise out. So I got some lead lined sound insulation foam and ran it through a table saw making 2" strips to which I applied two sided tape so I could stick it on the bulkhead and smush the engine box up against it to create a seal. To stop the box from moving back I took a piece of PVC and cut it, drilled and countersunk it and screwed it down to the deck while pushing the box ahead as far as I could, so that this cleat would force it against the sound foam making the seal that much better. That turned out really well and I was pleased. In the forward part of the boat I took my handy pump with me and sucked out the water that collected under the floor. The hatches in the front all leak (no I didn't install them) and the water collects and drains under the floor thanks to some holes someone put in there. The water is blocked off from the rest of the boat so all those gallons of water (8 lbs per gallon) pile up and force the nose of the boat down, that takes speed away and is not good in general. So I am down there with this little pump container that holds just over a gallon. Pump pump pump...Why is this water yellow? ...He (the owner of the boat) couldn't have been peeing in here... Surely not... I hope? Yeah, talk about ewwwwwww. 15 gallons later I got the water out. Now I took the rest of the stuff out from the forward section. A cooler, which was covered in hydraulic oil. Some trash. Life jackets. Oh, some more trash. Some junk. More trash...Trash trash trash! Now comes the fun part, washing the front part with super soap and water. So with my 5 gal pail of cleaning solution and a scrub brush I went to work, washing away all the dirt and grime and oil and other stuff that defies description. Washed the floor, the sides of the hull, even the over head. Making sure to get every nook and cranny. Now of course this cleaning added liquid to the forward part of the boat which naturally went down the holes under the floor. For me to pump out! But this liquid wasn't yellow and smelled like citrus! A much better thing. Only ten gallons this time (the 5 gallons of cleaning solution and the water from hosing it down) and I also took the liberty to pump out some standing water in the back of the boat. Not yellow either which was pleasant. Of course I was being silly and wearing a tank top, which is not like me at all. Pale irish boy that I am it just looked strange with my skin contrasting a red tank. Silly really.

With the water sucked out I took a break and checked the fluid levels in the engine, which turned out all okie dokie. So that was fairly easy. There is a hole through the bulkhead where the engine is to the front of the boat. That hole allows engine noise to blast ahead only to bounce off the sides and front of the boat and out the companion-way door to where the people normally are. This really sucks. So my simple solution (since I like this girl and I didn't want her to go deaf on me, plus it bothers me too) was to get some carpet and screw it to the bulk head, cutting it here and there to allow some hoses and wires through, but shutting off the hole to limit the noise transmitted ahead. I couldn't find any regular screws (yeah... I didn't look that hard) so I took some machine screws and wound those in. I took some more carpet and cut it so I could drape that down over the dash/bulkhead to make a companion-way door of sorts. I screwed that on as well. Those little additions really knocked the sound down. So YAY. Earlier in my adventures with this particular boat I "adjusted" another sound. Apparently there was a faulty warning buzzer in the gauge panel. So all the time power was to the panel you would hear EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Talk about annoying. But it wasn't my boat and I didn't use it that much, I didn't let it bother me. Until I had to use it for a while. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE all the time. That's alright, I knew how to deal with that faulty buzzer. I hopped up onto the dash and stuck my hand into the overhead box, where the back of the panel was. Feeling around the various connections and wires I found my prey. I grabbed ahold of the negative wire and yanked it out of the harness. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-* Yay! No more annoying sound! So these things, while small as they may seem really enhance the boating experience.

I had lunch on the washrail, yummy roast beef wrap and a black cherry soda. There in my bitchin tanktop in the hot sun. It was a good wrap, I could go for one right now...

I organized the deck of the boat, taking off two totes of junk and crap and more trash *imagine that* And brought back on only what was needed. The anchor and anchor rode (line), 15 gal of diesel fuel (I filled the tanks Friday) 2 Gal of drinking water, 1 gal of coolant, 1 partial gal of motor oil and an extra quart just incase. All of that sat in a tote quite nicely *except for the diesel fuel, that was in 3 plastic jugs* So some more scrubby scrubby to clean things nicely and I brought my life jacket and one I got for my passenger along with some float coats (life jackets but in the form of a jacket, those are really good for rainy crappy weather) and this was 4 in the afternoon. Wow, my shoulders were really hot. Hm it would appear that I didn't dodge the sun enough, now my shoulders and neck were as red as my tanktop. Not good, even though it matched somewhat. Blasted pale skin that burns easy! Saturday night was spent with really hot shoulders that were quite painful. That didn't matter though, I talked with Jen on the phone while she was coming back from work just to make sure she was still all set to go, which she said she was. Then the phone just died and was silence for a minute. I called back with no answer. Must be out of range I figured. I called a few more times that night with no luck of contact. Didn't matter though, I would see her at 6AM on Sunday. I went to bed content.

I awoke 5 hours later and it was Sunday. Took a shower at 430AM and got dressed. I had an hour to get some ice, the rest of my stuff and bring the boat in. Not a big deal. I checked the weather online and it said it was clear where we were going and that it was clear here too. Only it was thick of fog where I was. Traveling in the fog sucks, not only because you can't see but because YOU CAN'T SEE! Everything looks the same, you have no idea how fast you are going or anything. Without your instruments you don't know if you are going in a big circle or what. That's ok though, I've traveled in the fog before and there was a radar and plotter onboard. I went to the only place open and bought some ice and a few drinks for the trip. Tossed those in the cooler. Got my chart book and some other stuff, to make the trip as nice as possible since I didn't have the creature comforts of my boat I was trying to make up for that. I brought the boat in and I still had a half hour until she came. I took that time to plan my course with the charts and the plotter on the boat. I got my course set in and confirmed at 555AM. Good in five minutes we can get underway!

600AM - No Jen
615AM - No Jen
620AM - Call Jen
630AM - Call Jen
645AM - Look for Jen at my place
650AM - No Jen
700AM - No Jen
715AM - Call Jen

All the time that I was waiting and calling I was thinking in the back of my mind "oh shit, what if when I called her last night and she was on the road, what if she went off the road and is lying dead somewhere in the ditch. no that can't be, don't think of that, i'm sure she is on her way. of course she is, she wouldn't stand you up like this. no way would she do that. she is fine. she's on her way now."

After my insides got eaten up for over an hour of waiting I called her and said that I guess she wasn't going. But I had to be there so I left. Striking out all alone into the fog. With a long lonely trip ahead of me. The whole plan was to leave with her, take my time traveling and spend time with her. Getting there with more than enough time to go take a walk or something before the race. You know something corny like that. But apparently it wasn't meant to be. There I was all alone, an hour late and in the fog. Boy my day was going great. Zipping through the fog for about five minutes I came to the conclusion that I was making a big left turn and straightened out and got my bearing. Ahead in the distance there was a solid wall of white. Sun must be coming out. A few more minutes and I slid through the edge of the fog. Crystal clear on the other side. What a beautiful day. You would have never known it from shore. With the sudden clarity I decided to make up some time and kicked the boat ahead, throttling up past 25 mph. Zipping down the bay. Boy this is taking a long time.... *pushes throttle up some more* Alright, 30 mph. This should be good. ....Damn this is taking forever, in my boat I cruise at 33....*nudges throttle ahead to 33 mph* Now we're talking. I didn't see any traffic to speak of on the water, only a few boats way off in the distance until I was about 30 minutes away from where I was going. I didn't have to use the radar which was good. I didn't even have to use the plotter or the chart book. It was really nice, even with the reported thunderstorms for the afternoon and that big dark gray cloud following me in the distance. I kept checking my phone to see if Jen had called me back. But there was nothing. Not that I could talk with her anyways, even with the sound limited like it was, it's still a loud boat. I got to where I was going in two hours, pretty good time. 915 AM and I was tied up to another boat and onshore. I called Jen again, to see if maybe I could get her now but no response. I was getting worried now. Not much I could do where I was but I would like to have known if she was alright. Very much unlike her to not have any contact with me. Or so I thought.

There was a woman there that I knew and she needed a boat to qualify for her race and since her husband-to-be's boat wasn't there she was more than welcome to use the one I had. Once the races started it didn't take long to progress up to the class the boat was in. There were four people onboard including myself. Never before had the boat had that many people on it when it raced, it was always just me (driving) and the owner (on the other side) but since the point standings were already sewn up I decided it was all good if there were more people onboard, I wasn't even worried about competition where I was the boat was so fast. I slid the engine box back to give the engine as much air as possible, and now I couldn't hear much of anything because it's so loud (mainly due to some poorly adjusted valves, but hey it's not my job to fix that) We got up to the start line and there was only one other boat to race against. Since the original race had been postponed two weeks before, not everyone who had signed up that day had come back, which was alright by me. The wind had kicked up some since I had come in and was blowing straight up the harbor at about 15 knots or so. Some wave action had followed too. So with two heavy guys in back and the engine box we lined up and started down the course. When the flag dropped we were off. ZOOOOOOOM. The head wind and the waves had a very interesting effect on the boat, one that had never happened before. That added weight in the stern *back* and the wind lifting the bow *front* actually made the boat leap out of the water. Quite a few times the propeller caught air, making for a funny sound and presumably quite the show *I should be getting pictures fairly soon* So the boat would come out of the water, only to come down and hit a wave, sending it back into the air, then back to the waves and into the air. All the way down the course. The strange part was that it didn't lose its handling, it didn't get squirly or anything.

Well I thought that was great fun. So since I got first I decided to enter the free-for-all. The first and second place boats in each class get to go head to head with each other regardless of horsepower or boat size just for fun. And I didn't think that many would enter.

Well I was wrong. A total of 15 boats entered, and they all tried to go down at the same time. The course was wide enough... and they would seperate soon enough *some pretty slow boats in there* So we were going down, the flag boat trying to get everyone lined up. But it just wasn't going to happen, and they called a false start. Where I like to be on the course there is on the far left away from everyone and the course markers. There is a big navigational aid on that side and most people don't want to be next to that. So I figured since I was way far over I could just slow down and cut around. So I throttled back some, and just on a whim I looked behind me. THERE WAS A BOAT ABOUT TO RUN OVER ME! Well, I didn't have much time since that boat, which was bigger than me and going just about full bore, was only 12 feet away. I jammed the throttle forward and cut the wheel hard to the left to get the hell out of the way *eventhough he shouldn't have been directly behind me to start with!* After my narrow escape they decided to split the boats up and run heats. The flag boat came over and asked if I wanted to be put in with the big boats that go the fastest, which I thought was really cool of them. An honor if you will. I knew that I couldn't match that kind of speed (seeing as how I only had 300hp and only do 37mph while they have 1100-2000 hp and do over 50mph!) but I said sure. That should be nice, since it was broken with us 4 and the rest of the boats went down without a problem. When my heat lined up I was on the far left again, the 2000 hp boat was on my right, then the flag boat, then another 28 foot boat with about 1000 hp and a 36 with about 1300hp. The flag dropped and us two 28's leapt ahead. Then all of a sudden that 2000hp boat flew past us. Also for some odd reason *although I know* that particular boat steered left and went infront of me, even though there was more than enough room for him to go straight. Well with that wake and I couldn't go to the left since the spectators were there I had to go right. Right into that wake. The boat fed into the water and listed hard to the right, just about flipping us over. I could have reached out and touched the water we were over so far, but not panicing I didn't slack off on the throttle, because if I did then that water would have rushed into the boat and swamped us. Turning the wheel over to follow the wave the boat righted itself on the crest and listed to the left, but not as bad, now with things under control I slacked off a bit to right the boat the rest of the way and throttled up again to the finish line. Now I thought that was great fun and I was laughing. Looking back I saw the guys in the back, on their asses with one of them in the tote and the other under the washrail. The owner of the boat had been making a sandwich just before we rocketed down the course this last time and he was still holding it, I found that very funny. Making my way down to the start line again, so that woman could do her race, she was quite aprehensive about the boat, seeing as how it flew into the air earlier in the day and almost rolled just minutes before. I tried to calm her down but she said she wasn't going to push the boat that fast. All she needed to do was finish the course. And that is just what she did. Last place. Had she given all the throttle she could have won, but it was a new boat to her and she wasn't comfortable with it. So that was fine. No incidents there, which was a good thing. We headed in before most of everyone else and docked up and went ashore. I called Jen again after checking for any messages of which there were none. I left her a message expressing my concern and asked that she please call me, just to let me know she was ok if nothing else. Once again through my head bad thoughts flew around wildly. I stuck around for the awards. Picked up the trophy. Stayed for the big prize drawing which was a trip for two to COSTA RICA! But I didn't win that. *sobs* Then since I was early to get into dock that meant I was one of the last to leave. The wind had picked up even more and that made more waves. I finally got to leave at 245PM and I decided that I was going home. I went down the bay, said my good-byes and see-you-laters and throttled up to my cruising speed of 33mph. Well what a ride that was, the waves were about 3.5 feet and the result was a very jarring ride, since I wanted to get home in one not quite bruised piece I throttled back until the ride wasn't like a mosh pit which was 23. It wasn't bad really, every now and then a wave would catch hold and drive you into the wheel, but all in all it was ok. I got behind some islands and was partially shielded from the wind and waves, that gave me the chance to throttle up. Once I was past the next bay I opened it up even more and when I got to the reach, which was about an hour away I really dumped the fuel to it, speeding across the water at 36 mph which was almost full throttle. It doesn't sound like much, but on the water it is quite fast and when you are in something that weighs 10,000 lbs you are really doing something. I made it back home five minutes shy of two hours. I unloaded the boat and took the stuff to the truck. No note or anything on the truck and I was about to call Jen when my phone rang. It was Jen! She was alive! Yay.

So, you are probably wondering why she didn't go.
Well it turns out that she got drunk the night before and passed out.
She didn't wake up until after 8AM and promptly went back to sleep.
Got up at noon.
And just now called me at 5PM.
But she was alright, and very sorry that she put me through that whole ordeal and her not going with me. She said she would give me a call one night after work.


I haven't talked with her since.



How was your weekend?
posted by Suicide at 9:47 PM