Any Good July 4 Stories?

[bergermaister]

We spent the 4th at a park on the river with a nice marina and jetty surrounding it that they do the county fireworks show from. You have the best seat in the house right from the campground and the place is always packed.

On the morning of July 3 we have the boat loaded up and are heading out onto the river about 10am with the temp already pushing 90. Looking up on the jetty we see a puff of smoke, and 2 kids on bikes hauling ass away. Then sure enough - POOF, fire starts up in the brush leading down to the water and quickly spreads to about 20ft wide with 10ft high flames. Temps have been 100+ for days even weeks out here so everything is like a tinder box.

We go ripping over there and I direct my daughter's BF to grab the handheld Tsumani 1200 out of the compartment and get ready to plug it in. Another family in an Enzo followed us over kind of wondering what to do. So I pulled up as close as we could, dropped the pump over board, plugged it in and let it spray. Took a good 10 minutes to get the flames under control and then another 10 minutes or so of just soaking the ground and trying to keep it from flaring back up.

The guy, ok now the moron, in the Enzo kept circling around behind me saying he wanted to do a fly by and try to douse the flames with a wave. The flames which were a good 2-3 ft up the bank higher than the water. I'm sure his boat throws a nice wave as he was making ours bounce all over... It was great fun as his boat had captains call exhaust so he was yelling as loud as he possibly could and we were yelling back as loud as we could until he finally shut the damn thing off.

So the excitement is about over and finally a fire truck shows up. Make that a fire pickup. Some plain clothes old fart gets out and leisurely strolls over to us since there wasn't but a trickle of smoke left. We're expecting some sort of kudos, atta boy, whatever for doing our civil duty.

Instead the guy gets pissy with us and says it was a controlled fire they had started on purpose to keep the fireworks from lighting up the brush. But they got pulled off on another call and had to leave. WTF? Really? So you guys just let this thing take off and burn with no supervision, nobody having a clue that it was on purpose and we're all in panic mode trying to put it out. Nice. Real nice. He argued back that they had notified the park that they were doing it, but yet again, NO ONE was out supervising or keeping the public out of it.

Later that day coming back into our moorage slip I had 3 different guys come over and tell me thank you, and good job, and you guys are brave for doing that, and on and on. Funny as I sat there shaking hands with a couple of them and sharing a beer "Yeah, the fire department was happy too."

[Flee27]

Hard to top that one. Definitely good thinking on your part. Can't say I would have thought about doing that as quickly as you did. The "officials" that weren't happy with you are idiots. With it being as dry as you say that could have gotten out of control in a hurry. I guarantee their supervisors/higher ups didn't advise them to go start a brush fire and leave it un attended. He should be thinking you for potentially saving his butt.

Good work
Foster

[kaneboats]

Thanks for leading off with that one. Now we won't get any more stories. :cool:

[trayson]

Launched at 10:30 at Cathedral Park. played on the Willamette River and had a great time with friends. By afternoon, we were putting the bimini up and trying to keep from getting sunburnt. dropped the friends off and motored to downtown Portland at around 5pm. We went to scout out the Riverplace Marina where my friend had pulled his boat because he was out of town and was going to let us use his slip. I go in there and all the slips in his row were taken. I call him and find out he told the Harbormaster that they could rent his slip if they wanted.

We got lucky and ninja'd into a spot at the floating restaurant's dock next door where we could tie up for up to 4 hours. We'd brought food on the boat for dinner but said screw it and went into the restaurant and sat down and enjoyed A/C and running water for a nice break while our friends showed up.

We picked up the crew that was in for watching the fireworks and got ourselves a front row spot (as close as the police/fire/USCG would let us) directly in front of the barge that would be launching the fireworks. As amazing as the box anchor is, It just wasn't on point for that evening. while it seemed to set, it wasn't keeping us a consistent distance from the other boats. it was 42 feet deep and the wind and current was erratic so we had to adjust numerous times during the night. The fireworks started and we cranked up the stereo to the radio station who does a simulcast of the music that goes with the fireworks show. Part way into the fireworks show the wind started blowing some of the ash from the fireworks towards us and my son got some in his eye. so we spent a good 1/2 the show dealing with a hurt eye and trying to flush out whatever got in there. Oh, and of course getting little bits of ask here and there on the boat. Grrrr. But the show was good and we didn't hit any boats despite the crazy anchor issues.

After the show we dropped off the guests, we had about a 20 minute motor in the dark back to the launch. it wasn't too rough, but boat wakes made me happy that I had tracking fins and that the XLV handled as well as it did. We powered past a number of boats because the water was smoother in front of them all than it was behind them all. I can tell that most of them didn't have a lot of time behind the wheel after dark.

Got back to the dock and there was as swarm of circling boats. I was dreading what was ahead with a potentially long wait. I had the wife nose me up to the dock and I rallied to get the truck. I was very pleasantly surprised that there really wasn't a line to speak of for backing down the trailer. trailers were using all the ramp, going 4 across. I almost backed into the far right spot, but some jackweed had their boat tied up to the dock so close to the ramp that if I backed my trailer down there boat would have been on it before I dunked my fenders! luckily the next spot over freed up quickly and I just backed in there. As good of a driver as my wife is on the boat, I wasn't going to put her through that sh** show and make her drive it onto the trailer. so I went back to the dock and she nosed in to pick me up. Darkness, poor night vision, and the waves from other boats were really challenging her. she was coming in a little hot and I braced the nose of the boat as she came in to keep it from bumping the dock. she got a little spooked and gunned reverse and I made a flying leap onto the nose of the boat, LOL. I drug a leg in the water but made it on the boat. Dropped her back onto the dock (so she could get to the truck quicker to pull us out), then after having a few choice words with a party barge nearby, I pulled the boat onto the trailer straight as an arrow and two cranks of the winch while leaning over the bow later, we were secured and one click off of the ignition and the wife was pulling us out like a boss.

We stopped long enough to throw some wet towels in the lockers and secure the rear straps. I said screw the wipedown and we rallied home.


over 12 hours on the water with temps in the 90's and Definitely a HOT night as I was shirtless even close to midnight when back at the boat launch. After all that we drive home w/o issue to find that our house was 85 degrees and the A/C had taken a dump while we were out that day. I got my son in bed and tried to troubleshoot the A/C but the best I could do was get the fan running. No compressor. Doh!!!

Opened windows and crashed sometime before 2am. Talked to my HVAC friend and found out that it was likely just the capacitor and was able to get one by noon the next day. it took through Sunday night before the A/C could finally catch up, but we knew that the house would eventually cool down. My son flew out at 3:30pm yesterday and we Decided that above 80 degrees in the house last night meant that I wasn't going to do "dinner and a movie" at home with the wife, so I took her out to our local movie theater where they have adults only skybox seating and full waitservice in the theater. Good times.

[zabooda]

I helped on recovering a truck that was either stolen or insurance fraud. I helped with water support for a triathlon on the 4th.

[deerfield]

This was our first 4th of July watching fireworks from the bed of the pickup truck. No mosquitoes or flies. Nice crowd enjoying the county show. Next year we will take food and drink, making for an even nicer evening! Took a pass on the lake as we did not want to be on the water after dark with crazies and a long ramp line.

[jzelt]

22431

First time I was able to ride double with my boy was this weekend. (3 1/2 yr old). He wants to wakeboard in the worst way, but I tell him he needed to go faster. We always took him up to 8 - 10 mph. My buddy took him on his boat and took off. Not sure how fast, but he loved it and now he loves that I can wakeboard beside him. He ducks and sits down when I am crossing behind him, but otherwise, it is awesome to see him imitate every move. Wife got to do the same after I went with him. Awesomely proud dad.

[brad460]

Finished "summerizing" our LSV on the 4th..ugh..installed a new impeller (way easy) and then spent the rest of the day installing the drain plug into the backside of the vdrive. After it kicked my azz for a few hours I finally ran to town for a 1/4" NPT tap to chase the threads and whola!! the plug screwed right in. Total brain fade not buying that tap sooner!!

We are a bit behind schedule due to my wife giving birth to our twins a few weeks ago..

[zabooda]

Brad, congrats on the twins. There will always be time for boating.

[beat taco]

Brad, plugs should go back in immediately after you drain during winterization.

[rdlangston13]

We didn't really take a lot of pictures and didn't really have anything too crazy happen to us. Unfortunately someone across the lake from us did not fair as well. Here is a picture of the LSV in my father in laws boat house
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/rdlangston13/4457CF54-D7CE-4E32-8CA9-15F030D764E8_zpspdym51v7.jpg (http://s1130.photobucket.com/user/rdlangston13/media/4457CF54-D7CE-4E32-8CA9-15F030D764E8_zpspdym51v7.jpg.html)

And here's a picture of the boat house across the lake that didn't fair too well during a fireworks show
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/rdlangston13/316BFA34-3726-4271-A88D-7F1334D83162_zpssjvvu8dq.jpg (http://s1130.photobucket.com/user/rdlangston13/media/316BFA34-3726-4271-A88D-7F1334D83162_zpssjvvu8dq.jpg.html)

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m523/rdlangston13/FEFFB5CD-E5C1-4D66-823B-5FB35E7B334C_zpsj8uqbtl9.jpg (http://s1130.photobucket.com/user/rdlangston13/media/FEFFB5CD-E5C1-4D66-823B-5FB35E7B334C_zpsj8uqbtl9.jpg.html)


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[kaneboats]

Water, water everywhere . . . but on the fire. That's a shame.

[gregski]

One of the hoses to the water pump ruptured. Not wanting to lose the whole day, we relied on our friends who ferried me to another friends hose so that I could borrow his truck to go to the parts store. (The lake was at capacity, one-on-one-off, so if we used our truck, I wouldn't have been able to park again). The guy at the parts store thought I was a little bit nuts trying to buy a boat-specific hose that wasn't "in the system" but once I convinced him to let me go behind the counter and shop by simply comparing ours to those in stock, I found something close enough that could be cut to fit. I got back to the lake and within 15 minutes had a repair completed and we were back in business.

[kaneboats]

once I convinced him to let me go behind the counter and shop by simply comparing ours to those in stock, I found something close enough that could be cut to fit.

I tried this once at the liquor store and they called the cops.

[brad460]

Brad, plugs should go back in immediately after you drain during winterization.

Yes- I know..the rest of the story..haha...last fall while winterizing the boat I dropped the plug into the bilge and couldn't find in. In my hurry I told myself I would deal with it in the spring..haha..that's what I get!

[bergermaister]

Damn David... Hope they didn't lose a boat with that one.

[rdlangston13]

Damn David... Hope they didn't lose a boat with that one.

You know we drove by this house the day before and I cannot for the life of me remember what the boat house looked like or if there was a boat in it or not.


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[wolfeman131]

You know we drove by this house the day before and I cannot for the life of me remember what the boat house looked like or if there was a boat in it or not.


probably drunk

[kaneboats]

He better have fun while he can. Life's about to catch up to him. ;)

[rdlangston13]

probably drunk

No not drunk on Friday. Saturday however I may have gotten a little inebriated and may have stepped on a floaty on the swim platform that may have caused me to slip and bust my ass


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[kaneboats]

Never happened if nobody saw it.

[rdlangston13]

Nobody on here anyway


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[Woody929]

No not drunk on Friday. Saturday however I may have gotten a little inebriated and may have stepped on a floaty on the swim platform that may have caused me to slip and bust my ass


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At least you didn't break anything like someone else I know

[rdlangston13]

At least you didn't break anything like someone else I know

Oooooo I'm gonna tell Heidi you said that!

The way I fell in lucky I didn't break my elbow or arm! It was a real awkward position but I guess I'm still pretty limber, or it was the alcohol


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[moombadaze]

once fell stepping from my boat onto dock, landed on my chest and ended up with a bruise that looked like a girls swim suite top, beer may have been a issue

[newty]

Almost always is...

[blackcup]

2012 ... but still crazy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVhgq1yHdA