So having had this new (1971) boat for all of 3 weeks...I naturally wanted to
take it down the Cape...and chase fish in the open ocean...instead of my usual
wader-bound flailing behind the hotel on Great Pond. So I talked my trusted
fly-fishing mentor Pat into getting up at 3:00 AM here in NH, to play hooky for
the morning and head down.
The least of my worries was my relatively new 2500 Suburban (1995)...assuming
the weak link in a possible fiasco might be the new/old boats engine
(1969 -rebuilt)...and the fact that at least the trailer for the boat is
relatively new (1996)...all the while hoping that I would not give my wife the
pleasure of giving me grief for my new toy...which by the way was still cheaper
than her new Kirby vacuum cleaner...
Well at 3:30 AM, when the "Service Engine Light...Real Soon" light came on,
and the lights on the truck started to dim...figured it was time to pull over
and look under the hood...unfortunately for me, we found the problem in the
charging system, and decided to push on to the Cape.
Arriving at the Green Pond boat ramp at 5:45, we were thrilled to find the lot
empty and make haste to Launch. Being somewhat rational...we walked over to
the ramp to check it out before backing down. And yes, we clearly read the
Warning Notice of the 2 foot drop...at the end of the ramp...and Pat watched
judiciously as I backed down. With boat launched and me at the helm of my 7.4
liter Tank engine, I proceeded to slowly pull the trailer up...This is the point
where the space-time continuim seemed to fail me...with a some slippage in the
wheels of the truck...and assuming we had carefuly avoided the 2 foot Abyss,
I proceeded to rip not only the axle but bend the trailer frame as well.
Not to be deterred, Pat lifted the trailer frame side which once held a wheel,
and we towed/dragged it into a resting place in the lot. Not to put a damping
on fishing, we forgot our troubles and headed out.
We headed to Waquoit where we proceeded to latch up with several decent size
stripers in the channel...and finally realized that these random pop-ups of
fish just outside the channel...appearing tuna-like in profile were in fact
these allusive albies which we have heard about but never witnessed. And on
my first encounter, with a chartruese and white clouser, I hooked up with one
which in fact did scream me into the backing for the first time in my short
salt-water fishing career. Having retrieved back most of my line, and thinking
that I might just get this fish to the boat, I warned a near-by boat that he was
crossing his prop right over my line...and shortly thereafter felt slack. Now
it would be easy to blame my mis-fortune with this fish on that boat...when
in fact it was probably my in-experience which lost me the fish...
Shortly after this loss, we headed back in at 10:00 AM, suddenly realizing
that I had a boat in the water with no trailer and a 2 hour drive back home.
I proceeded to blow $700 for a new trailer, loaded the boat,loaded the mangled
old trailer on top of the boat...and headed home...and yes, needless to say
my wife was not happy, I felt like a total idiot for what I knew was an
avoidable bonehead manuever, but the sick thing is ...I would do it all over
again...
For those of you who have suffered through this mostly-non-fishing dribble,
I apologize for wasting valuable memory for mostly non-fishing info...but now
I can get on with more fishing, having cleansed my soul, with those of you
whom I thought might understand...